Made for Eternity

I was born in November of 1980, 3 weeks after the Phillies won their only World Series. Due to my dad and extended family, I’ve been a die-hard Phillies fan all my life, on both sides of the world. I bleed white and blue with red pinstripes.

I became a Brewers fan in April 2007 on the first day of the season. I sat down by my radio and turned it on as the Brew Crew kicked off their year. I missed baseball and the Phillies were far away and Milwaukee was convenient, so I literally decided on Opening Day to root for the Brewers, come what may.  And I’ve kept up the cheering over the past 2 seasons, with one small caveat. I’d be a Brewers backer unless they interfere with Philadelphia. The arrangement has worked out well on both sides. I got a new team, they suddenly got good (not that I’m claiming any credit). This year, they made the playoffs for the 1st time since ’82.

And who do the Brewers play in the first postseason series? Yup. The Fightin’ Phils.

I didn’t even blink. Let’s go Phillies!

One of the nice things I’ve discovered about getting up at 5:17 is that at 5:29, the radio station I wake up to plays the national anthem – a different version every day. I love The Star Spangled Banner. It never fails to give me goosebumps, even before I can see anything “by the dawn’s early light”.

Wow, what I have missed by sleeping in ’til 7 all those years in grad school!

That’s my mom. It’s her birthday today . . . or it was. She lives in Africa where it’s already the 20th. But for the sake of my time zone, we’ll call it today.

Slight issue: I’m 27, too. But that’s ok, ’cause every year since I was little Mom turned 27 again (amazingly enough).

I’m thinking of carrying on that particular family traditon.

Happy Birthday Mom – I love you!

That’s what’s written on a post-it note by my desk at work to remind me that before I can have right relationships and interactions with those around me (x = the horizontal axis), I need to be in right relationship with my heavenly Father (y = the vertical axis).

It’s a good thing to have brought back to mind as a sinner dealing with sinner – first things first!

When I was last home, my sister Emily and I were listening (in the presence of our brother Daniel) to Ingrid Michaelson’s song “Far Away” which starts out like this:

I will live my life as a lobsterman’s wife on an island in the blue bay.
He will take care of me, he will smell like the sea,
And close to my heart he’ll always stay.

Being a girl, my first thought was “that’s really sweet”.

Daniel’s first thought (or at least what popped out of his mouth): “Yeah, he’ll smell like dead fish.”

Oh, brother.

If you haven’t noticed, I generally stay away from the political arena on this blog. I have my opinions and I do enjoy politics to an extent, but I know they are devisive, and there are far more important things that I’d like to use my confrontative/persuasve blog post quota for (i.e. the Gospel).

But a new development in the political world has caught my eye . . . or ear. As a wannabe linguist and someone who does speech/language stuff (I’m having word-finding issues) for a living, I have a certain fascination with accents. I can’t “do” accents like some, but I enjoy a little analysis and/or playful mockery (at least when it comes to my mid-Western friends).

That’s why, when I first heard Governor Sarah Palin speak, I could hardly listen to what she was saying – I was focused on how she was saying it. Her accent isn’t typical in that it’s not exactly Standard American English or Southern English or anything that’s easy to place (there apparently is not a true, identifiable Alaskan dialect).

On the Mr. Verb blog, there’s been a discussion going on about the Mrs. Palin’s accent – it appears to be a benign non-poiltical conversation, which I appreciate. I particularly liked the following analysis by poster “Wishydig” (warning: you are entering the land of linguist-speak – reader beware):

. . . some of the features I’ve noticed are the chicago onglide of æ: a slight tensing and perhaps raising of the ‘bit’ vowel. I thought I heard some pen/pin merging too so maybe just a general raising of front vowels. slightly simplified /o/ but not quite as simplified as the Minne-Kota /o/. Also what sounds like (occasional) Canadian raising on the /aI/ diphthong even before a 0-coda or before voiced consonants in a word like “supplies”. And the easiest feature for SNL to mock: dark rhoticity and shorter pre-R vowels in words like “here”. . . not that SNL should mock it of course . . .

Next on Political Accents with Katie: The Influence of  the Mid-Atlantic dialect on Senator Biden’s Production of Plosives (um, kidding)

See how fun politics can be?

Job 23:8-10 “Behold, I go forward, but he is not there, and backward, but I do not perceive him; on the left hand when he is working, I do not behold him; he turns to the right hand, but I do not see him. But he knows the way that I take; when he has tried me, I shall come out as gold.”

I’ve started carrying around Bible verses in my pocket on an index card as I have found that in new (read: scary) situations, it helps to have the Word at the ready to get my focus back on the Lord. The above passage was one of my verses from last week, and was particularly encouraging as I recognized that it’s not important for me to know all the ins-and-outs of God’s workings. He doesn’t have to answer to me, after all. What is crucial (and oh, so comforting), is that he knows my path . . . and he controls it.

Yesterday, Kenya earned its FIRST ever Olympic gold medal in the marathon, courtesy of Samuel Kamau Wanjiru.

Hongera, Bwana!

I must say, it was very cool to hear the Kenyan National Anthem during the closing ceremonies.

I used to think of educators in the typical way kids do. Teachers acted mature, they were proper, responsible, and polite, they weren’t awkward in the way I always was (am).

This week, I became one of “them”. And as I did so, I realized that these math and 1st grade and special ed and English teachers and my fellow SLPs weren’t all that different from our students. In the classrooms during orientation and training sessions, there were the chatty girls, the back seat slouchers, the clowning guys, the know-it-all devil’s advocate types, and people who left their time cards at home. It felt . . . well, like high school.

I think it’d be an eye-opener for our students to see us like this. I guess in some ways, we really don’t change. We are who we are. We just get more responsibilities, more education, more experience, and then someone hires us, and we start getting paid to be on the other side of the desk.

And that just feels really weird right now.

So, life is moving through it’s phases. My brother Pete is now married to Melissa. The fam (4/9 of it, anyway) returned to Kenya last Tuesday. The rest of us are scattered across North America, and we have resumed using email & Skype as our international communication tools. I keep starting to call Mom’s cell phone, then remember that our normal has changed again, and that she and Dad and the boys are 8000 miles away. Sigh.

Speaking of new normals, I started work today. Real work. As in I’m not a student worker anymore. These first days are orientation, of course, but I am getting paid and that is a definite improvement over the last couple months.

I’m terrified about the day after Labor Day when school starts while at the same time chomping at the bit to meet my kids. I guess most first days feel that way.

Ain’t this life a wonderful adventure?

The Very Symmetrical Day of this year – I love it.

Also, Happy Olympics . . . Go Kenya! Go USA!

I’m currently in PA, getting ready for my brother’s wedding after being in a wedding last weekend in MN. My oh my – ’tis the season for babies & weddings galore.

On an entirely different note, a quote from Dennis Rokser, found in the current issue of the Grace Family Journal:

It is important, and interesting to note that there is not even one passage in the entire Word of God that specifically states that a sinner must “repent from his sins” to be saved or redeemed. Why is this? It is because Jesus Christ has already “died for our sins” (an integral part of the Gospel). His propitiatory sacrifice has forever satisfied the righteous demands of a thrice, holy God.

Thus, the real issue today is not the SIN issue, but the SON issue, namely, “what do you think and believe about Jesus Christ?”

He who believes in Him is not condemned but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. (John 3:18 )

Oh, I do love the clarity and simplicity of the gospel!

“Freedom is living within God’s guidelines.” – Chet McCalley (from a message on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood – http://www.wordoftruth.net/subject.htm ) Wow, does that fly in the face of the world’s definition of freedom!

Romans 6:18 “and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.”

In essence, we believers are free slaves.

I’m at the stage in life where my friends seem to be having babies in bunches, and so the topic of baby names is quite in vogue. Today I checked a book out of the library called Bad Baby Names by Michael Sherrod and Matthew Rayback which details the highs and (mostly) lows of names found in the U.S. Census records. I’ve chosen some of my favorites as a sample. The following are all actual names of American citizens, dating back to the late 19th century.

Warren Peace

Ima Bumm (Is that better or worse than her fellow Ima, Ima Butt? I’m(a) not sure.)

Hades Fryher (surely a darling little girl)

Jump Jump

Doctor Love

Ura Scholar

God Brown (not a lot to live up to there)

Mahershalahashbaz Sturgeon

Good Dog

Hell Hess (who’s name is bad enough, but get this – her hubby’s first name was Christian. As the authors stated, “That’s marital irony for you”).

Parents, I implore you. Think twice before naming your child a cutsie name. They’ll thank you for it. Post Office, Cholera Peace, and White Bread would all agree with me. Really.

“Don’t let what you want steal the enjoyment of what you have.”

I recently came across this quote my mom sent me, and it was the kind of statement that is convicting and encouraging at the same time. Discontentment can indeed steal my joy, while contentment in the Lord and his abundant blessings (both now and for all eternity!) is the most joyous life there is.

Today I held a week old baby in my arms. She was beautiful – from her the top of her downy head to her miniature fingernails to her little feet that fit comfortably in the palm of my hand. I could have stared at this handiwork of God all day.

I love the fact that something as big as a star in the sky and something as small as a newborn point us to the same loving Creator. We need not look far to find God; atheists sure have a problem.

 

The following is an item I found in my stash of old letters. It was written several years ago from my three youngest siblings to our mother (who photocopied it and sent it to me), asking for permission to buy a fancy toy from a neighbor who was moving back to the States. I have done as little editing as possible.

Dear Mom,

These are the reasons we would like to buy the Lego ship:

1. It has a lot of gear – like a compass, a wheel that moves the rudder, sailors in uniform – etc.

2. The money we would like to spend on it is ours, so we feel we should be able to because it is our money after all.

3. J. is going to college and is trying to sell the ship. if we buy it, it might give him some money sort of like Pete was selling stuff for money.

4. If we do get it we will not argue over it, or at least we will try not to argue over it.

5. The ship would provide lots of fun for us, especially with how big and realistic, and good it is.

6. Because it is a complete set, it would be nice to have because it is whole and the parts are not missing. This would make it more fun because we don’t have to replace parts.

7. It would also be a nice replacement for our homemade, [illegible], multicolored, ships that do not have real equipment and are litterally [sic] shagalabagala [Swahili term for messy, chaotic, etc.]. We say this because our “ships” are not complete our men are mismatched, our things are different colors, and we don’t have all the supplies

8. The ship could also be fun to share with other kids who visit and love Legos like the Ks.

9. Lastly if we decided not to keep the ship any more when we grow older, we could sell it or give it away to somebody who could enjoy it.

Love,

Emily J. Morrison

Noah Morrison

Daniel

P.S. We are sure this is how we want to spend our money. We would really enjoy the ship even if it is 1000 shillings.

 

They got it.

9 years ago, my life plans were pretty set. I was going to be a doctor. I was going to pay off my loans somewhere in the rural U.S., far far away from any city. Then I was going to move back to Africa to live and die.

9 years ago today, I received my high school diploma.

Now, 9 years later, I am not a doctor; I’m a speech-language pathologist (which, by the by, is a profession I did not know existed 9 years ago). I don’t live in the boonies; I reside near downtown in the largest city in Wisconsin (which, by the by, is a state I probably couldn’t have even found on a map 9 years ago). And though I hope to visit on occasion, I very well may never live in Africa again (which, by the by, is not an easy thing for me to contemplate).

“The heart of man plans his way,
but the Lord establishes his steps.”

Wow – I’m living proof of Proverbs 16:9!

15 innings, four hours and fifty minutes of baseball. And I watched it all, into the wee hours of this morning, a luxury afforded to few others than the unemployed-until-next-month, I suppose.

It showed me again why I love the game, which started out slow and scoreless in last evening, but built up to an nail-biting, error-plagued, close-outs-at-the-plate, sleeplessness-inducing affair that stretched out til today.

I’m a National League girl, so the end result wasn’t what I could’ve wished for, especially with the Phillies‘ Brad Lidge giving up the go-ahead run when the Brewers‘ Corey Hart’s throw home was a tad late, but it was an epic as far as I’m concerned. It’s a good thing they’ve made the Game count, otherwise, it probably wouldn’t have gotten that far, and  would most certainly have been less exciting. The American League will once again have World Series home field advantage. But don’t worry, NL fans. Say it with me now . . .

There’s always next year.

I told my friend, Emily, this weekend that sometimes I feel as if I live in the quotes of other people because their words say what I’m thinking so much better than I ever could. The following is an exception, however. It is thoroughly my quote. 

You see, we were fooling around on Saturday night with those magnetic words (and random prefixes and suffixes) that you put on refrigerators. Basically, we turned them upside down and chose several without knowing what they were, then tried to make grammatical sentences out of them. My first effort was:

“As an entertainer, chapterly sit between each device.”

Profound, no? So profound, indeed, that I don’t even know what it means . . . but it is grammatical. This illustrates an interesting linguistic point – that a sentence can be absolutely correct in its grammar, while at the same time, it is absolutely meaningless. Ah, the joy and mystery of language.

On the original note, I think we can now agree that I should stick to other people’s quotes rather than creating my own, right?