The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe

If you haven't seen the movie, you should give it a viewing. It's several years old, so it shouldn't be too hard to get your hands on. I was just watching this part today and it still gives me chills.

"...the Witch knew the Deep Magic, there is a magic deeper still which she did not know. Her knowledge goes back only to the dawn of time. But if she could have looked further back, into the stillness and darkness before Time dawned, she would have read there a different incantation. She would have known that when a willing victim who had committed no treachery was killed in a traitor's stead, the Table would crack and Death itself would start working backwards" (C.S. Lewis, The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, 1950).

Random Quote I Loved

"I love when a city rains the day I leave. Like it's crying for me. I love you too, Paris."

- Nathan Fillion

CHKD Run/Walk for Kids

Saturday morning was the Children's Hospital of the Kings Daughters 8k race. I ran this race last summer with Missy and was running it this summer with Mom (Missy had to sit out due to my future niece or nephew). Last summer it was a great race- perfect weather, lots of water, smaller crowd. Good times.

This summer was completely different. It started with them losing my registration, so I didn't get a t-shirt. As ridiculous as it sounds- the t-shirts are part of the reason I run the races! And there were 2,000 more people this year than last year- they were not prepared for that either.

Then we started about 20 minutes late- which is alot of waiting around in the heat. And its HOT- much hotter than last year. We finally get going and as we reach the one mile point I am REALLY excited about the upcoming water station. I come around the corner to where it was last year and BOOM- NO WATER STATION! And since the one mile and four mile mark are the same place (the course is a loop) that means there will be no water at the four mile mark either.

Before I hit the 2 mile mark I had seen two people needing assistance from the heat. And at about two miles I start walking- I was not feeling all that great. As I approached our only water station, they are dumping water out of the bottom of the coolers. They are almost out of water, and there are several hundred people behind me! So I grabbed a cup of luke warm water, chugged it down and started running again.

When I finally finished I did not feel well at all. Some people looked great and some people looked awful. I had to leave really soon after I finished to go teach (if we had started on time I wouldn't have had that problem) so I don't think I really cooled down properly. Needless to say I took a LONG nap on Saturday.

The conclusion- No CHKD race for me next year. We are going to have to stick with spring and fall races.

Recital

I left work at 4 to head to the studio for recital. After helping with set up my students start arriving about 5:15. I have 9 students singing in recital- 8 of them are doing great. All have warmed up, are dressed appropriately, seem just the appropriate amount of nervous and are running around the studio like lunatics (which is normal).

Meanwhile in the music room, one of them (my seventeen year old) is sitting on the floor convulsing through tears. I'm not exactly sure what had set her off so much (it wasn't just the singing- there is some personal stuff going on), but she is the same one I have been having a rough time with over the last few weeks. I let her aunt (my boss) and the other adults in the studio take care of her and concentrated on the rest of my students.

We pulled my sobbing student out of the line up for the evening and progressed without her. About half way through recital my boss pulls me aside and tells me that she will sing, but only if I sing with her. So I ended up singing with her. If I got quieter, in an effort to hear her sing, she got quieter too. My boss understands completely- it doesn't reflect poorly on my job performance- but if I had been a parent paying for voice lessons all year and that was what I got I would be angry.

None the less it did not ruin my night. The rest of my girls did fantastic and their parents were very happy! It was a great way to end the year. I will only have three or four students over the summer and then we will see what happens in the fall! Year two of teaching is coming to a close!

recital

Tonight is recital. At 6 o clock. This is the longest day of the year. Waiting for this is like waiting for Santa to come on Christmas Day, except there is a chance there will no presents and instead the tree will be on fire. They are trained and ready to go, but anything could happen.

Quotes of the Week

"You know, I was thinking about becoming a doctor.... I was thinking dermatologist. Normal hours, big bucks, never an emergency. I mean, nobody ever died from a zit." - Tony DiNozzo, NCIS

"Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves." - Confucius

"You have about as much chance of going out with Penny as the Hubble Telescope has of finding that at the center of each black hole there's a little man with a flashlight trying to find the circuit breaker." - Sheldon, The Big Bang Theory

"Nothing is so common as the wish to be remarkable." - William Shakespeare

"A man can no more diminish God's glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word, 'darkness' on the walls of his cell." - C. S. Lewis

One Man (or Woman)

Last night I was reading a book on Esther that happened to be sitting on my nightstand. It's one of my favorite stories from the Bible. A person, thrown into a situation out of her control, who obeys God and saves a nation. It got me thinking about how many times in the Bible one person made a difference.

In the same way that one person saved the nation of Isreal, one man almost caused God to eliminate all of them:
Numbers 16:22 But Moses and Aaron fell facedown and cried out, "O God, God of the spirits of all mankind, will you be angry with the entire assembly when only one man sins?"

In the same way that one man's sin made us a world of sinners, one man's death saved us all:
Romans 5:15 But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God's grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many!

And an entire nation, that still exists, came out of one man:
Hebrews 11:12 And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore.

The next time I think a decision I am going to make only affects me, I need to remember that sometimes one person can make all the difference in the world.