hey there... to anyone out there who still reads this....

just saw RENT tonight. amazing. i saw it on broadway over spring break my first year, and i have to say, that in my humble opinion the movie is better than the play. different angles, scenes and the characters are more eleborated in the beginning. PLUS, as with the play, the soundtrack is as good as ever. (AND its with most of the origional cast--can you really top that for a movie adaption?!?!)

break's been good...busy, relaxing, stressful. Being with family (all family really for me) makes me FAR more appreciative of my close friends at MHC, and just life at MHC. I love how at MHC I am free to be and become a bit more of myself: certain life/personality-defining aspects/elements of myself (namely that I am a CHRISTIAN, and a southern baptist at that) aren't swept under the rug. It saddens me that the people who love and care about me (namely the people at the barns in WA and my family) love and care about a person, who really doesn't exist; that is, the person who they think I am is not really who I am. I want to speak boldly, aligning my 'inner' identity with my 'outer' but we never have conversations about how someone thinks/feels or perceives life... conversations always remain in the factual (ie studies, life plans, etc).

i bleed though.

i bleed when my relatives choose the thanksgiving meal to make fun of and dis Christians. i bleed when i realize that they are not aware that someone they are sharing the meal with is among the dissed and nor are they sensative to that possibility.

yet i rejoice.

i rejoice that the LORD of heaven and earth, the Holy One, will come in triumph and in glory. that He has redeemed me and that i am a new creation, an entirely new being. i rejoice that i can be dissed over the thanksgiving meal because i know Him and He calls me one of his own.

in light of what all i just wrote, i leave you with this thought:

No other path, no other way;
No day but today.
--Rent