LIFE
hidden treasure
underneath
that which is washed away in familiarity
Days are gifts, freedom is, beauty and even seemingly useless art, indellible ink and stain removing laundry tablets, cocktails, and messages in a window pane – they’re gifts in that familiar everyday rhythm we’re in. Freedom is in noticing life’s treasures
After the last post I wrote here, I thought about life in Sudan, and then the life for a West End girl in the West… It looks so different. More than usual, some of my girl friends talked with me lately about the big things -life, love.. la la la, what they long for, their golden, bold dreams, held in incense bowls like prayers. But, for some, sometimes only in a small way, something stands in a girl’s way.
she doesn’t want just to grow and be beautiful and be liberated, she wants that, and more.
-to know all that is good about you, and to steal it
(thunderous music…dramatic lighting.. but, seriously)
Jealous?
Envy is the silent thief that makes a girl want what you have, look like you do, have all that you have, and for you to have the outdated version, for you to no longer have it. she wants to live more like you in this world.
Why does a girl want to be someone-else’s expression of something she is fully equipped for? That thing we are all equipped for, is life. How can we ask for more? But there’s this competitive thread running through the centre of so many relationships, so many conversations, so many gifts and acts of kindness; striving for love and affection and perfection and in some way to be the most outstanding
haha
There was a girl, Juno, and her dad says ‘I thought you’d be the kind of girl who knows when to say when‘ and to him, she replies,
‘I don’t really know what kind of girl I am’
Maybe some girls don’t like who they are, or is it more that they actually don’t know who they are? Maybe they like just who they are but don’t want you in on their treasure…
Juno seems pretty darn cool and full of attitude, not so competitive as just trying to make it in her own style, maybe there’s just a fun example of someone who’s too funny to bother about competing with you…
juno :: ellen page
juno at school
I know it’s hard to love first, bless second, and get recognition for that third- infact though, recognition, as Nike used to say, ‘is nothing’. I guess I would want to be known for the girl that I feel I am though, just because sometimes it seems like folks would rather not get to know who you are, but who they think you are- you know,
boxing someone up so you can UPS them and their competition-worthy-life right outta here… ha, but this ‘who I am’ stuff is just as ugly in some ways as envy, because, that treasure I was talking about can go unnoticed and yet still shine, still shimmer, still be there. It is probably more valuable when you don’t shout from the rooftops about it. I call it treasure, just cos it’s hard to see sometimes.
Let another’s lips praise you- a biblical proverb.. go for it, why don’t you praise your friends for all that they are, other than the reason you’re scared they’re better than you are..
To the world you can be delightful, a muse, a mess… you aren’t here to beat the next person in credentials, but to keep running along with them.
Envy is one thing that eats away at you, it’s visible, but who wants to get skinny that way? Just trying to be happy to be together seems like the biggest task in the world, but the more I hear about it, the more the recommendation is to love others, remember Jesus and how much we need him and his humility will start to take over 
)
