10 days.

10 days until I go back to sunny florida for Christmas break. I can't describe how I feel about it. I'm not just saying that to be artsy, I mean it. I don't know how I feel about it. I love my home here in the mountains. How marvelous it is to be nestled up in my college window seat, chilly air numbing my fingers as they hit the keys of my computer. I feel as if I'm sitting up in the sky. The trees are all bare here and a deep gray has taken over the entire mountain. Today is the first day in a long time that the sun has been out and how marvelous it is, my relationship with this mountain is surely something special. As I typer a hang-glider is soaring adjacent to me over the valley below. How amazing to be here. How blessed I am. Oh how I love it.

Never. Forget.

I arrived home from a long long road-trip to Tennessee just a few hours ago. I have to say, I miss you all very much, but even so, I remembered to take notes to bring back to you all from what I learned on my trip. The following words were written while on my adventure. Enjoy!

        "Here I am. Sitting out on a wooden porch in a rocking chair listening to crickets chirp. The sun has just set and its that beautiful golden hour right before the sky turns velvety black. Its peaceful and wonderful. Its one of the last moments I have before things begin to get complicated. Before summer reading essays and AP art studying. Before driver tests and tight knit social circles. Before college applications and potentially boy trouble. So I'm taking it all in. The calm before the storm.
         God, I need strength. Strength to deal with summer homework and school and friends and college applications and SAT prep and maybe even boys. Please Father help me to balance my work load. I need a huge overdose of diligence, better work ethic, state-of-the-art time planning skills, and especially discipline. Lots of that. All of it, I can't do it without you. Guide me. And hold me in the hard times. Help me to remember all I've learned this summer. That I can't do anything without You and that WE WERE MADE to thirst for You and long for Your love (not mere human attention although that may be desired as well). That nothing satisfies but You. That I am made in your perfect and beautiful image but sin has made me weak. But in that weakness You forever will make me strong. That any demeaning words against myself are lies of the enemy. That things can always get worse than my blessed situation now. That You are God and I am surely not. And in all this I pray I shall always remember that You will shelter me through ANY storm in the pavilion of Your love.
          Still Discouraged? Read Psalm 27. Now."

My Life in Florida...

                So, my life in Florida? I received the idea for this post from Nela at "Beloved Star." What is the great state of Florida like? First of all, I need to specify that there are 3 different parts of Florida. The Southern tip that consists of  Miami and its surrounding areas is the first. Many of us Floridians refer to this as an extension of Cuba considering 99.9% of its inhabitants speak Spanish. "South Florida", the 2nd part of Florida, consists of a few cities, but mainly I think of it as Floridian suburbia and touristy beach shops (I inhabit this section). And then there's Northern Florida, which we choose to call Georgia. I can really only tell about "South Florida" although I have visited each of the other parts.

                Days typically start for me around 10am (during the summers). I wake up, grab a South Beach Diet protein bar, and drink a glass of Floridian orange juice. That's our main product here (other than tourism and sunshine). Idaho has potatoes, Iowa has corn, Georgia has peaches, well, we've got oranges  - tropical delicious oranges. My days typically vary but they're usually busied with shopping with friends, the beach, or going out for lunch with my sister. I live more in Floridian suburbia than the touristy area although I visit there often.

               Its weird always feeling like I'm always on vacation during the summer. The beach is only 30 minutes away from my house and we've got a pool as well, so I'm always prepared at any moment to go swimming. Even in January, we heat up the pool so while you northerners are ice skating we're swimming in the pool, or even sometimes at the beach. I guess this is something I feel like we can boast about here in Florida. Its the beachy atmosphere and I love it. Its amazing how you can walk into a restaurant sandy and in a bathing suit and cover-up and no one treats it as unusual. Its also awesome how you can facebook your friends the day before and meet up at the beach, go to the usual lunch spot, and grab ice cream in your bathing suit when you're hot sitting by the water.

              Many evenings I ride my bike around our neighborhood. The sun is setting the air is cooling. The day begins to wind down. In summer its light out in 8 or 8:30 which is rather nice. Its these days, I somehow manage to stay up til 2 almost every night. This probably isn't very healthy but that's just how the day goes I guess.

               Part of me wishes that I grew up in the "small town" atmosphere where everyone knows each other. I kind of enjoy the natural beauty of old rustic barns, corn fields, and quaint shopping plazas. I mean don't get me wrong there's nothing wrong with Florida's suburbs, planned landscaping, and international shopping malls, in fact that what makes my home what it is.

               O yes, another defining point of Florida is its weather. Wow, our weather here is quite bipolar. It can be a perfectly beautiful day with cloudless skies and yet 30 minutes later a thunderstorm can somehow manage to form. During the summer it rains almost every afternoon or evening. It also unbearably humid all the time here. But the rains and humidity add to its tropical feel. In the end I love my home state. Rainy, tropical, cultural, beachy, whatever you call it, to me its home.

Arkansas.

For the last 4 days, I've been away. In Arkansas. Yes, a small and seemingly forgettable state, but really, when you get the chance to glance around, its also full of natural beauty and rustic grace. I feel like I could go on and talk about it, but instead I'll let you decide. Below are some pictures my sister and I took.

Lightning.

Crackling. Flashing. Brightness collides in clattering booms and then... silence and the sound of tinkling rain. As I sit here and type away in the coziness of my own room lightning clashes away outside. Some complain and cry in fear of a lightning storm, me? Never. I sit near a window and take in the the beauty. It mesmerizes me. It grasps the breath right out me. I love its beauty and sound and heat. Its like the climax of every storm. As the soft rains form a song and the suspense builds, wind blows, a silent flash and CLASH! The pinnacle of the song has been reached. The trumpet has been played. The last note hit. And then the song begins again.

Sounds Like Country.

           Last night I sat with the sky expanding overhead and the soft green grass between my toes. The smell of smoke and beer was wafting through the air. We laid out on the lawn on a patchwork blanket beneath us and sat at the back of the amphitheater near my home and listened to the sweet sounds of country music. Slowly the sun set and air cooled. Stars began to peak through the velvety blanket of sky. I sat among hundreds of country lovers all excited to hear the sweetly sung words of Lady Antebellum.

         With summertime on the verge and the balmy Floridian breeze beginning to pick up I can only pray what  lies ahead this summer is better than the last. That means late nights and evening rains, summer sun and bike rides, long restful days and more time with God. "Oh nothing's sweeter than summer time and American honey..."    

Childhood on a bike.

 

         
        Now. There are many who don't quite understand the meaning of a bike. A apparatus for exercise. A mode of transportation. A item for neighborhood fun. Maybe even a strange tool to get away. But for me, a bicycle is the means I use to dream. It is pen I use to write a fairy-tale, the magic carpet I ride as means to sail through the sky, and the shooting star I harness in order to flit through the galaxy. So much excitement for a simple bike? Yes, and I'll tell you why.
           I'm sure when I'm older, I'll look back on my years as a teenager and mostly remember my time on my bike. That's what will come to mind. My high school years may be a bit blurry, but the time I spent on my bike will be crystal clear. If people asked me to describe my 16th year in three words, "bicycle" would be one of them. Yes, bicycle is a noun, but what would happen if we turned it into an adjective? For me.... bicycle would mean dreamy, free, exhilaration. Me and bicycle dreams. When you ride down the paved sidewalks, past the green manicured lawns, with the wind kissing your face and the breeze billowing through your hair, your cares are left behind. You literally ride away your worries.
           Sometimes as I ride by bike I grab on to the nearest limb of a tree and get a handful of leaves. As I continue to ride I let them slip away from my clasp one....by one....by one.... until they're all gone and blown away into the breeze. Just like the leaves, my worries leave me as I ride on my bike. So this is why I treasure something as simple as a bicycle. It causes me to dream and takes away my worries. What is better than that?

All Smiles

The cold weather and excessively fun weekend ahead of me puts me in all smiles today. Its just one of those days where you ride your bike down the street singing along with your tinny sounding iPod with no care in the world. Of course the cars passing you probably think you're a bit loopy, but in all actuality you're just happy to be where you are with everyone who surrounds you. That's how today is. A day where all I want to do is relax and enjoy the cool autumn breeze while basking in the radiance of the sun. I guess I'm a bit corny... but that's how dreamers are sometimes.

Brighter than the Sun...

This video makes me smile, I honestly wish my house was as full of plants and flowers as the one in the video...

The "Fall"-ing of Leaves

               Fall is beginning. Summer breezy afternoons are soon fading into windy autumn days. And for most of us, leaves are beginning to fall. Shades of orange, red, yellow and warm brown fill the trees. Pumpkin spice is smelled throughout our homes. Well for most... Unfortunately, not I. I live in Florida, yes the state full of retired older citizens and tourists. A land with no seasons. So while most of you have cool and brightly colored falls, white Christmases, and blooming springs... we only have two seasons... Warm summer and cool summer. Sure it sometimes gets into the 40's for a week of the year and into the 70's for a month of it, but mostly it's 80 degrees and above here. Yes, it can be nice swimming in your pool in December, but the fact that I've only made 2 snowmen in my life and never gone sledding or had a real snow-ball fight is really quite depressing. One white Christmas is all I ask for. Every year I pray for a Christmas miracle, that it would snow. Last year it actually frosted for one day and the dew on the grass froze.... IT LOOKED LIKE SNOW... but it wasn't.                                 
            Yes, sadly we have no seasons where I live, but our humid tropical climate is surely one to visit. Please visit us here in sunny Florida, taste our oranges, visit our beach-side shops, and of course, go snorkeling in our sparkling waters, but please, know this when you visit, there's no southern hospitality here, and most drivers on the roads are very grumpy. But still, please visit. Its beautiful and warm all year LONG.