May 28, 2009

Life


I just got home from Buffalo where I attended my 98 year-old, great great aunts piano recital. Yes you heard me right, her piano recital. I only hope that when I am that old I can be as active as she is. She plays the piano, paints, and reads like its all going out of style. She is 98 years-old and you would think that she is in her 70's. She lives on her own, does not need a walker or a cane to get around, and she is sharp as a whistle. If anyone has ever lived life to the fullest, it is her. I can only hope that I have inherited those genes.

Anyways this piano recital was at this Universalist church in Buffalo, and it was comprised of 25 students ranging in age from 5 to 98. While my aunt was great (she played a wonderful Spanish piece) by far the best performer was this boy named Alexi. He was only 17 years old and he arranged his own piece which was a hodge-podge of Duke Ellington pieces. Here is the best part...be ready for this...he only has one good hand. One. His right arm cuts off right before the elbow, so all he has is a stub there, but that has not stopped him. If you sat on the other side of that piano you would never know that he only had one hand. He was truly an inspiration. The recital was beyond words. So here I sat at this Universalist church listening to a variety of music performed by these students, including the one Rascal Flatts song that stops me dead in my tracks. (No, I'm not kidding...So there's your shout out. You know what song I am talking about.) I was certainly amused.

So I thought that since I was home now that I would be blogging more frequently, but instead it has been quite the opposite. I have not written the past couple of days because I needed a little time to cool off before writing anything because there was a time that I was tempted to just speak my mind completely. Oh brother that would have been a bad life choice. So the past, two days I think, I have kept as busy as possible, and I have been relying on the Lord like it's my job (well it kind of is). Suddenly I have found that I literally have no one else. No one else can fill me up like He does, no one can fill the void that He so perfectly fits into. I have done more praying these last 48 hours than I have done in a long time. Whenever I need to talk to someone, I talk to Jesus, whenever I am sad, I tell Him about it, I pray for others, I beg Him to take all of me, completely, 100%. What in the world do people do without Jesus? I get down on life enough with Him, if He wasn't there, if I did not have Him to turn to, I would be so lost. Just the thought scares me. I stumbled upon these verses in the book of Acts yesterday morning and I can't help but share them. They really come from Psalm 16, but are reiterated here in Acts:

"I saw the Lord always before me.
Because he is at my right hand,
I will not be shaken.
Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices;
my body also will live in hope,
because you will not abandon me to the grave,
nor will you let your Holy One see decay.
You have made known to the the paths of life;
you will fill me with joy in your presence."
-Acts 2: 25-28

I have been filled with a joy lately that I have never felt before. Everything that I do and everything I find happiness in I attribute to the Lord. I have been finding joy in even the smallest of things. I am learning to love life, to love everything about it, everything that I have been so blessed with. One thing I have truly begun to appreciate is this small town that I live in. It reminds me of Stars Hollow except (in the words of Ashley Moran) her aunt owns the diner, not Luke Danes. For those of you not familliar with Stars Hollow, I would highly recommend that you catch up on your Gilmore Girls. I need to find me a Luke, a Luke who loves Jesus though.

I suppose I should get going soon, since it is 1:30 a.m. I hope you like the music that I put up on the blog! For your listening pleasure. I will probably change it often, depending on my mood. These two songs are ones that I have described my mood lately, well my mood tonight at least. I tried putting up the song Found by Josh Gracin, but I could not get a good copy of it. So if you want to hear a good song and you are feeling ambitious, check it out on youtube. I hope that ya'll are having a good night.

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