September wrap-up

WHAT! SEPTEMBER'S OVER? That happened fast.  As I've been reading other blogs, I've seen that allot of other bloggers do lists so here is my September list.  Here goes nothing.

• First rehearsals of new show
• IKEA 
• Ladies Brunch
• Open Mic night at coffee shop
• School
• Bible Study
• Shopping
• Nervous knitting while waiting for parts to be announced
• Late nights
• Consignment stores
• Orthodontic visit
• Dancing
• Preliminary casting (getting a super exiting role! that opens a three hour production which will be performed in a professional theatre, however it's not the final cast, but my director has been giving me homework and she hasn't had anyone else read it, so I feel good about it!!! Sorry super super super exited)
• Soup!!!
• Improv dancing 

How do you find God and silence in the crazy?

     In high school literature I have been reading The Chosen by Chaim Potok.  The book deals with the idea of silence.  The book strongly emphasizes the value of silence.  Mother Terresia  once said,"We cannot find God in noise or agitation" but I disagree with that.  God doesn't call us to serene and silent missions.  He calls us to change the world and to dedicate ourselves to His calling.  He calls us to the crazy, not the serene.  Think of the disciples in the boat in the middle of  a storm. (Mark 4)  It is when we find ourselves weak and in the middle of chaos that we find ourselves sustained by God.     

  

     In Psalm 46:10 God commands us to, "Be still and know that I am God."  So how does this work with God's call to crazy missions?  We have to make and seek time with God.  We have to begin our days reading his word.   Although the value of seeking God is incomparable, we have to realize that we can't spend our whole lives sitting around and listening.  Is it possible that being still is a spirit of listening throughout our crazy lives? We have to be in  a spirit of listening, not in a paralyzed stillness.  

     Right now God has called me to high school, drama, dance, and church.  He's called me to pursue becoming an actress with everything in my power.  My life is crazy.  So where is the silence found?  Silence is found in the brief prayer for help, the anguishing cry of an exhausted spirit, or finding myself in complete dependence on God .  It is the craziness of life when we find God and silence.  It's the peace that passes understanding in the middle of the crazy.

                        A word is worth one coin,silence is worth two.

                                                                                         -The Talmud

Purposeful Pages

It's time again for the amazing and fun link up, Purposeful Pages. (A.K.A. I have writers block and I want to write something worth reading.
So here we go!

no. 1 How have you been growing spiritually this month? What has God been teaching you?

I can't honestly say I've grown much, but I'm trying. God has been teaching me about the importance of obeying authority, and the reasons why. You may not always like your authorities, but God has them in your life for a reason. LISTEN TO THEM!

no. 2 When you’re under stress, what actions do you take that help calm you and keep you sane?

It depends on the type of stress. When I'm stressed I get these huge knots in my neck, so there's slapping/punching of my own back in an attempt to break up the stress knot. Sometimes theirs an explosion of words, to my bff or my Dad. And most of the times there is tears and chocolate eating. I need some sugar when I'm stressed, so that happens.

no. 3 Who are some people that inspire you, and in what ways do they do that?
I've always been inspired by Annie Oakley. She stuck to her values, and was very successful in show business.

no. 4 Have you learned any tricks this past month that have helped you in your blogging journey?
If you have no idea what to blog about, you can just blog about your day. I was able to come up with , Back On The Dance Floor, and the Not-So-Restful Day of rest with this method.

no. 5 What is it about a book that makes you keep on reading? If you’re a writer, how can you  incorporate that into your own books?
I think the things about a book that make me keep reading are
1. It's content is clean and uplifting
2. The author's style is captivating and not long and dull
3. I relate to the book

no. 6 What’s a book cover (or album, movie, etc.) that describes your life right now, and why?

That's a hard question...

no. 7 Do you have a song in mind that you’d consider your current theme song? (Or a book, movie, TV show, etc.)
I consider Brit Nichole's, Still That Girl as my life theme song because it literally describes me. It describes a girl with blue eyes and brown hair with big dreams, and it just fit. As for right now, I don't have a current theme song.

no. 8 If you’re a writer, how do you see yourself incorporated (most of the time unknowingly) inside your stories?

no. 9 How have you seen aspects of God’s character through other people recently?
I've seen an aspect of God's character in my friend, Nichole recently. She just automatically has a desire to take care of everyone around her. She always offers to do things for me when we're together. God, takes care of His people, through each other.

no. 10 How long, on average, does it take you to put together a blog post? Are you the morning person working at 5 am, the afternoon blogger, or the night owl up until midnight trying to throw things together?
It usually takes me about 15 minutes (If I don't have writer's block.) I'm not a morning person and I usually put together posts at around 8 or 9 ish.

Back on the dance floor

I haven't blogged since Sunday, I'm sorry life is insanely busy.
My dance classes started again today and it felt so good to stretch and sashay and ugh it was just so good to dance again.
My dance life started in the summer of 2015 when  I participated in an actors workshop, the workshop included ballet and that's when I realized I could dance.  Latter in 2015 I was cast in a large Christmas  production and I understudied a difficult ballet dance, and danced with a partner, Victorian Style.  After that I told my mom that I thought I really needed dance classes if I wanted to be an actress.  Because of my passion for acting, I enrolled in a homeschooler's beginner dance class.  I was in a class where most of the girls were seven or eight, but I was determined to stick it out because it was for the benefit of my passion.  The class taught the beginnings of tap and jazz dance.  As the year went on, I found that I loved it, and not just because it was for my resume.
Today Tap II and Jazz II began again.  It felt so good, and I could feel how I had improved since my first class.  I felt confident.

In Tap,  I was able to do a buffalo step across the floor. I felt very confident and my teacher said I was doing very well.

I love to tap dance, it's probably my favorite style of dance.   It's like making music with your feet and body.

In jazz I felt flexible and experienced.  The stretching felt so good.  I had stretched over the summer, but to have someone calling out stretches and telling you how to do them was something I had missed.

I felt pretty good about how I did, and then I was surprised...

My sister(who has been dancing for years)  ran up to me and told me we were going to try modern dance.  I didn't know what  to expect but I went into to the dance class.  It was Modern II and an advanced class.  I didn't get all the steps or the stretches, but I did my best and had a ton of fun.   I'm going to try Modern for a month and then see if that class is a good fit for me.  

  

All that to say, I'm back on the dance floor and I'm exited.

The Not-So-Restful Day of Rest

   

I don't know if you go to church anywhere, but  if you do you know it can be draining.  Especially if you're at a church plant which meets in a school and requires major setup, and you're on the chore team.  It's not easy to wake up at 6:30 on a Sunday morning (especially if your like me and went to a football game the night before) and get to church by eight, set everything up, breath for a minute and then rush into music practice, breath and then rush into service,afterwards you enjoy a cup of coffee

(or spill a cup of coffee everywhere if you're like me) while looking for someone to talk to and then clean everything up and go home around 1:00.

      After church your family decides to get food, you eat lunch, and then realize you have laundry to do.  You mechanically do your laundry and then finally drop dead on your bed, just to remember you didn't finish your summer reading.

      You pick up a book and feel your eyelids dropping shut.  You force your eyes open and finish your reading.  You finish your allotted reading and fall fast asleep for two blissful hours.

You wake up to hear your family watching a movie and stumble out of your room. You find that sleep makes you hungry and you stumble to the fridge, you sit down to watch the movie and realize that all that's left is the credits.
Normally you would go to youth group, but since it's labor day weekend  youth's been cancelled.  Your family goes to Home Depot to pick out paint for a home project.

(Don't judge you know you've always wanted to do this)

Your family has to get fast food because life's so crazy there's been no time to get groceries. 

  By the time you get home it's 8:30 p.m. and you're whipped, with more work to complete (like bogging).  

This leaves you exhausted for a new week.

So why do it? Why go to church every Sunday?  Because church is a family,and family is worth it because God has called his church to gather together, because sometimes rest isn't only physical.

Going to church each Sunday promises new faces and new experiences. From stacking chairs, to laying down mats for babies to play on, everyone four years and up is working hard.  I’m close friends with people who I never would have guessed I could be friends with.    When you work together closely with fellow believers toward the Gospel of Jesus Christ, theirs a beautiful unity which grows.