Close-up

I'm in Chicago for a few days before I head to London, and it's been rain-ish-cloudy-ish-weather the whole time I've been here. I love the rain. Sun is nice and all, but growing up where I did, we were always very grateful for the rain, since we always needed more of it. I associate it with being calm, pondering, and curling up with a cozy blanket on a couch. During the fall and winter months, rain is my favorite kind of weather. It's a good thing I'm going to England. I'll get lots of rain there. :)



And I love this painting of Chicago in the rain. It's called "Chicago Hancock November Rain," by John Houston.

I am waiting to go to London. It's just about all I can think about. I feel like these people, just waiting, waiting, waiting.







Only, this is what I am waiting for:




I think Andy Warhol is right.

I used to think English wasn’t a very pretty language. I think I began changing my mind last fall when I took my first university-level English class. The more poetry, stories, novels, plays, etc. written in English that I read, I find myself appreciating more and more the beauty of it. However, I think it’s a different kind of beautiful than other languages that we think of. The actual sounds of English may not be, to some ears, as melodious and resonant as Spanish, Greek, or Italian, but to me, its variety of sounds, both discordant and tuneful, makes it that much more beautiful. The variety is beauty.

The more I think and get to know myself, the more I wonder why I ever considered not studying English. I love words. (Obviously. I wouldn’t talk so much if I didn’t.) But really—it used to be that music was the one thing that could always move me to tears, inspire me when nothing else could, or make me want to be better more than anything else. But as I’ve studied literature and the craft of writing this past year, I’ve become more and more aware of my love affair with words. I love to read, write, talk, listen, and participate in all communication that involves words. With the use of words, there is such power and potential to do good and to increase understanding between people. And I guess that’s why I love words so much. They provide so much room and opportunity for expression and insight into other people’s lives, thoughts, and hearts. Not to mention the fact that the possibilities words offer are limitless. Each word has many disparate meanings, and like cooking, when you combine different words together in different ways, each combination creates endless flavors and experiences, no two of which are ever identical. As Benedick says of Claudio in Much Ado About Nothing, in the care of a gifted speaker, "his words are a very fantastical banquet."

Even when two people use the same words, it’s still unique because each person has his or her own voice that preserves itself in their sentence and paragraph structure and diction of other things they speak. I am such an English major—here I am rhapsodizing about the power of words…but it’s true—and it’s something that I have come to absolutely love as I’ve studied more. The funny thing is that I even see it in the Book of Mormon—Jacob is one of my favorite prophets as far as writing style goes. I think he is so eloquent and expresses the truths of Christ's grace and unconditional love through His sacrifice for us so beautifully (see Jacob 4). Alma and Mormon are pretty good too.


I think the capacity for communication and understanding between people when words are used well is the best part. When I'm reading a work that moves me, it's because the author has communicated something to me through his or her words that resonates with my soul. I come to a deeper appreciation and understanding for the ideas conveyed via his or her powerful words. That is why we read. That is why we write. To help each other understand experiences, thoughts, ideas, and ways of life. And that's why I study English. I want to understand.

And then when a work of literature does that for me, I feel kind of like like this girl. The words just kind of jump right off the page and enfold me in a great big word-a-licious hug. Yum. :)

(photo courtesy of: http://media.photobucket.com/image/art%20words/jim131314/words-1.jpg)

These are my toes.

I have painted my toes dozens of times in my young life. Yet I have never painted them red. Bright orange, glittery green, electric blue with sparkles, yes. But never bright red. I am a redhead. Someone told me once when I was about six years old that redheads should not wear red. So I've had a complex ever since, and thought that this caveat even extended to my toenails.

It doesn't. Tracy proves it.

They are cute. I especially like how when I wear my black flip flops, they accent the color nicely. I think I shall do this more often.

Isn't it great to try new things? Even if they are as uneventful as painting my toes red? After all, it's he little things that matter, right? I think I'll keep it up. Like, maybe I'll cross the Atlantic in 15 days.

Yeah, that sounds fun.

I'm having a Martin Luther moment.

I'm ridding myself of the old not-writing-very-often-Lisa and beginning anew. (Reminds me of hymn #217.) And I don't just mean writing on my blog--I'm starting afresh and writing more in all of my dozens of notebooks and journals and thought pads and post-its...in hopes that doing so will help me understand more about myself and become a better writer in the bargain.

I guess part of what has helped me re-commit to doing this has to do with many of the blogs I've read lately. They're by people I know and by people I don't, and they have have collectively caused me to have so many thoughts and learn so much about myself and their writers, and now I want to do that better too.

I also think I'll take a leaf out of Tracy's book and start posting more pictures as well. I'm an incredibly visual person (like, can't remember how a piece of music sounds very well unless I've seen it written on a page) and so much inspires me about the things I see in the world around me, that it seems silly not to.

In other words: I'm revamping my blog. Making it worth using. Maybe even worth reading? I guess other people are the judge of that. I just spit out my thoughts--that's all. It'll take a few days before it looks pretty, as I know nothing about HTML and such, but we'll get there.

And meanwhile, I love this photograph at the top. It represents so much of where I am in my life right now--country/Idaho, ready to start down a new road and explore new vistas, and yet the simple things are still all around, ready to calm and soothe the traveler's (me) troubled spirits when things get tough.

Hm. I really do have a lot of thoughts. This is why I need to write/blog more, so I get more in the habit of expressing them better. It's much more interesting when you're able to say what you think.

Thus begins my Reformation. :)