Hallo.
I wrote about pilgrimage for a while there, but never uploaded the photos.
And, frankly, I’m still not quite going to…mayhaps tomorrow. I’m behind on too many other random photos. Wanna just play catch up? OK.
First of all, (and I can elaborate more later) I usually learn a lot on pilgrimages, too.
No always in fun ways, but usually in good ways. God is good like that. And, while He’s gentle and caring…sometimes I end up with a little bit of stress. I usually repeat a mantra like, “Jesus, I trust you, Jesus, I trust you,” and I honestly don’t feel stressed out most of the time when I’m coordinating a billion of the things. But, usually around large-scale events, I start to feel a tingle in my mouth which develops into a mouth ulcer by the end of the week. TMI? Meh. You deserve to know that not everything is smooth-sailing for me all of ze time. Not everything is perfect.
Matt was like, “Here, this is called the ‘crown of thorns,’ you should take a picture by it since you coordinated this pilgrimage’.” Methinks I’ve over-shared to that one once or twice in the past. Dangit.
But! The mouth ulcer is almost better, so I’m ready to share!
ANYWAYYYYYY. Here are some never-before-seen photos I’ve uploaded. For you. For your viewing pleasure.
I know you’re all really wondering about my car situation. Well. I’ve learned a lot. And screwed up a lot.
My favorite so far was when I walked out of testing a car and the salesman was like, “How did you like it?”
And I was like, “I liked it!” because I was being honest and friendly.
And he was like, “Great, come over here and buy it.”
And I was like, “Whaaaaa?” because I didn’t realize that’s what we were talking about. I thought we were just talking. And shopping. I didn’t realize we were buying.
My man hair came through in the end, though. I was like, “I’m going to need a mechanic to look at this.”
And they were like, “One already has.”
And I was like, “Well, the tire sounds funny. LOOK AGAIN.”
Learn from my mistakes, please. There are a lot.
K.
Here’s one of my sister in the beautiful summer, summer night. Pure Michigan.
Her usual uniform is scrubs and her other usual uniform is soccer clothes, so when she dresses up she does quite well.
How fantastic is summer?
A few weeks ago my cousin, Hanna, hosted an art night at her house. She made (gluten-free! meat-free!) food for us, and had a beautiful spread of art supplies set up, then she walked us through a process for creating our own religious art pieces. She had paper and paint and brushes for us.
Want to know something interesting? Hanna has her own style of art–colors and strokes different than mine. But, with her paint and her brushes, it was fascinating to see how that particular art I created resembled her style more closely. Wow! I’ll post mine later, but, until then, I present:
Hanna made this painting of a man encountering Santiago on his last leg of pilgrimage. Isn’t this lovely? Aren’t the colors bright and beautiful? Isn’t his exhausted prayer of thanksgiving strikingly real? DOESN’T IT MAKE YOU WANT TO GO?
Ha! Maybe not that last point, but still!
I wanted to share this shot of a new friend playing cello for us when I hosted my last dinner party. It was stunningly, stunningly beautiful. I made him encore not once but twice, and I would have pushed for more (the whole book!!) but, he protested. Ah, fine art. So fine.
Shout out to the other art that was shared: personal works, poems in Latin, a sung piece, some Winnie-the-pooh and, a favorite, French poetry to African drumming.
Yes. That happened.
Yes, it was epic.
Lastly, my mom hosted a gathering for all the neighbors to make signs of appreciation for our wonderful, wonderful mailman, Leo. Leo has been our mailman my entire existence. I used to pass him when I had my paper route. I wrote my “inspiration person” college-entrance essay about him. We love this dude, so we all made signs and surprised him! 🙂 Is is retiring? No. You don’t need to retire to hear an atta-boy!
I’ve been reading studies and thinking thoughts and word vom-ing all over my closest girlfriends (sry, ladiez) about singleness, so, remember that post a few months back? A round two may be in order. Brace yourself.
Also, I missed you.
Mwah.