Change?

I laughed when this Garfield cartoon arrived in my inbox last week:

My sentiments exactly.

(Though, actually, it turns out that I'm getting much better at accepting change somewhat gracefully, instead of hating it and being forced, kicking and screaming, into it.)

Daily 5 - Year 2, Day 148

Today's Daily 5:

1. Orange butterfly earrings that I made a while ago
2. a cozy hoody
3. getting to sleep in a bit this morning
4. waking up and finally feeling a bit like myself for the first time in quite a few days
5. making lists
6. curly hair and a cozy scarf
7. a lesson in how our worldviews affect the context in which we read things
8. getting a ride home instead of having to take the bus in the freezing cold
9. escapist television
10. finally tackling some nagging tasks on my list (not quite done, but a productive day/start)

Mini Reviews (Part 1)

I've had several books that I read (mostly while doing bus reading) on a pile for about a month now to review here and have finally realized that I'll never make the time to write full reviews of all of them.  So, I'm going to break them into a couple of posts, and do mini reviews/recommendations for you instead.

Muslims, Christians and Jesus (Carl Medearis)

I ordered this one because it came highly recommended from two very divergent sources.  The first source was someone I met who works in the Muslim world.  The second source was a Mid-western American woman from a fairly conservative evangelical tradition.  Because I'd suddenly been exposed to the Islamic world, I was looking for a fairly straightforward introduction to the Muslim faith, without all the "this is evil" rhetoric that seems to be far too commonplace.  This book served that need nicely, providing an introduction to the foundational principles of Islam, and then focusing on how a constructive dialogue can be established, rather than on the things causing polarity.   I particularly appreciated the chapter that talked about what the Qur'an says about Jesus, and walked away from the book very much open for the first time in my life to ordering a copy of the Qur'an to read and explore more thoroughly for myself.  This book definitely whetted my appetite for future reading about Islam and relationships between Muslims and Christians.

Dancing With Max (Emily Colson)

This book was the account of the author's experiences raising her severely autistic son as a single mom, and came to me via a recommendation from a dear friend who knew of my interest in autism and love of memoirs, and had recently read the book.  I read it in one session of bus reading (about three hours) and was fascinated by the story.  I'm a lover of memoir anyway, and have recently been reading a bit about autism and related disorders and this memoir was at turns poignant, funny, challenging and deeply touching.  I definitely worked to hide tears at various moments as I sat on the bus and read.  I was moved by Colson's account of her quest to find ways to communicate with her son, and also by her account of Max's relationship with her father, well known Christian figure, Charles Colson.  My favorite story was her account of Max's baptism, but what moved me was the evident love for her son throughout the narrative, and her determination to acknowledge her son's limitations, but also allow him to succeed in all the ways that were unique to him.  I'd highly recommend taking the time to read this beautiful story.

Daily 5 - Year 2, Day 147

Today's Daily 5:

1. watching an old episode of the Bachelor late last night
2. laughing over a bunch of blog posts from the southern parts of the US where they don't usually get snow.  one showed a bunch of pictures of children playing in the snow and read simply, "It's snowing so we went outside."  Late last night, in weather that also involved falling snow, but temperatures in the -27C range with windchill, the fact that snow could be that much of a novelty was hilariously funny to me.  I clearly need to relocate to a different climate where I can appreciate snow from a distance or as a novelty!
3. an early bedtime (for me anyway) last night
4. my neck pillow
5. wearing cute earrings today
6. banking via iphone
7. smiling at my first lecture (and all the rest, actually)
8. watching a sign language interpreter (there's a deaf student in one of my classes - how fun to get to experience the interpreter all semester.  signing fascinates me - just another language that I'd love to learn)
9. a winter sunset as I waited for the bus - the colors are so different in winter, and pretty in a much more stark way.
10. An effusive professor, guaranteed for some laughs this semester
11. making a Peruvian friend in one of my classes
12. a short line at the bookstore (not cheap prices, but a short line was nice!)
13. feeling like I'm actually interested in the random classes I signed up to take
14. inside walkways - I can get all over campus, from building to building, without ever going outside
15. a good natural health treatment appointment tonight to wrap up a very full day

First Day

As of this morning, I'm officially a full-time university student again.

Monday's are going to be my full days, with lots of back to back classes, so it'll be interesting to see how it goes.

It feels a bit weird to know that I'm going to be taking first year classes, ten years after my first year of university.  I'm curious to see how odd that feels once I walk into a class that ends up being filled with eighteen year olds.

I'd love your prayers today, and through this semester, as I work and study and prepare to hopefully enter a nursing program in September.