Shiny, Smooth Legs...

If you are a guy reading this, please don't quit before the end, I promise there is a point. 

After this post, I bet I will get offers for beauty magazines and such... or not! 

I have to say, I really love the feeling of silky legs. 

Yes, I was thinking about hair removal today... Blame the scotch-tape for the simulation and the reminder... It was pretty scientific actually. When did women start to remove their body hair? How did we evolve from sugar waxing to shaving? Actually how on earth! did someone think to put hot wax or burned sugar on their legs.. (I will believe it was by accident, just like how by accident we discovered that we can eat the inside a watermelon and the outside an apple... totally random mistake that lead to a discovery. yes.). anyway! It was not the first time that I go into the anthropology of hair removal in my mind, but today I had to prepare coffee three times and so I had plenty of time to philosophise. 

I thought that hair removal methods basically gather under three categories: 

1- Shave, Cream,...: it includes all methods that do not dare to go deeper than skin level. This method consists of applying a cream or shaving tools on the surface of your body and by some type of movement the hair falls. It is pretty painless, causes basically no harm unless you get a scar by accident. Silky smooth effect will last for two days more or less.

2- Pluck it from the roots: it includes most of the tortuous ways from waxing to electrical epliation. This method consists of plucking the hair from the very roots of its existence only to leave the bulb down there living and toiling for a new hair in a week time or so depending on how much vitamin you take. The amount of pain is atrocious. No matter how you try it, it's just going to hurt big time and get red and just ouch!

3- Radiation: it includes all sorts of weirdly conceived laser machines and such. This method is basically very serious, leave no root, leave no liveable trace. It goes deep to the bulb and kills it right there (wow, it suddenly got violent here... excuse me). No hair forever. Nip it in the bud. Bam. Done.

All this got me thinking about how deep are some habits I have, deep as the hair bulb and it got me thinking about how do I approach sin in my life, smooth shaving effect, two, three days, a little more serious work, plucking the hair right at its roots or going seriously down there into the very core of my heart and dealing there with all ill, radically. I pray I go with the third. 

I know the idea is not new, we do know that we have to go there in where the roots are but it was new to me to think about it when thinking about smooth shiny nice legs... It will take a while to dissociate that image. 

So! Whenever you cross a sexy lady (or me of course), try to guess what method she used... or not!

ps. yey for a golden font for those shiny legs ^^

Twenty Six Years...

I remember for my twenty second birthday I wrote an email to most of my friends back then titled "On My Birthday, On His Faithfulness"

Today I want to witness of twenty-two years of faithfulness, love and wonderfulness of my God.

I want to witness of joys and of sorrows, of rest and of pain, of ups and downs, but more essentially of a God who carried me through it all.

I want to witness of a God who fearfully and wonderfully made me and did not stop (and will not stop) working in me, shaping me and pruning me to become more of His son.

And I can say with confidence that the Lord dressed me like the lilies of the fields or even more beautifully and took care of my needs like birds of air and perhaps even better...

Today I can say with confidence that I am a sinner redeemed!

I had life, the fullness of it, in Christ Jesus my Saviour.

Today, four years later, I sit here and look back and think, wow, He is truly unchangeable. Every word true then is true now! Every thought true then is true now... He started a work in me ( and trust me I am one hard project!) and He will bring it to completion! I thought, wow, again and again I would say the same exact thing, perhaps with more assurance, perhaps with more examples, perhaps with more conviction, but I can sit here and repeat every word... Only because He is FAITHFUL!

He is faithful to His promises. He is faithful in every aspect of who He is and because of that very faithfulness, I exist. 

Today I know if I lived four more years, one more year, one more day, or just another minute, I am convinced that I can repeat with the same deep belief every word yet again. He is the same yesterday today and forever. 

I can't wait for the day when I will be eternally in the presence of the Timeless!

I have deep joy filling my heart today. 

ps. People born on the twenty fifth of September (excluding me because there should be an exception to every rule) are just wonderful. If you have not met one (besides me, obviously) let me know because there are a few in a thousand (mille) and they are so worth getting to know them! Jinks to them all! 

He aha te waiata Maori Ako ahau

Or "What the Maori Chant Taught me", if we trust Google translate, which obviously sometimes I do...

Yesterday I was looking for the source of the quote Turn your face toward the sun and the shadows will fall behind you and all I found was that it was a Maori proverb. Moving on to other things, I forgot all about it until today I had the strong urge to search for some Maori traditional chanting videos. 

I have to admit, I have a deep fascination, passion, love, whatever you want to name it, for sounds and languages. I try to listen at least once a week to a foreign (to me) language interview. There is so much beauty in that "chaos". I am always thinking about what if there is a universal language, or what if one day I will suddenly start understanding Armenian or Russian or Japanese or or...(I do have a pentecostal spirit no!?). I think the mind has the ability to process what he is receiving and even if it does not make any sense, it sure does make an impact of some sort... that is a conviction I have. I might not be able to prove it but you can try it and let me know.

So today I looked up one traditional Maori song and ow... These chants deeply moved me.

I will try to describe it a little bit without slaughtering it. 

There is one lead person who shouts some lines and rhythmically people repeat after him or answer him (I assume). There is as well beautiful clapping and percussions of some sort going on very very precisely. You can feel the discipline of such a tribe. You can feel their unity. You can sense it in your heart, every beat, every word, every sound being taken so seriously... and this marked me...

One little side note: I had the other day a wonderful talk with a beautiful amazing lady about community.

Hearing the Maori people sing could not but remind me of the blessing of community. It made me realise in a way I cannot explain in words that God did indeed create people to live in communities (and hearing me saying this, is one huge miracle!). There is so much harmony in their chanting that you cannot help think that the world was created to be like this, a group of people functioning together to bring beauty, to bring Beauty (copying Augustine, Oh Beauty ancient oh Beauty so new!)

Pardon me if I ramble a little bit still... There is something else striking in this community of chanters... They follow perfectly their leader... There is perfect obedience to rhythm of the group... No one goes starting a new song alone or shouts above the others. Now, I am not a partisan of silly flock following but there is something striking in humble obedience... I am sure these people where free and confident and at some point they may have requested this or that song, but while the song was going on, they all followed, they all united. 

I am sure I will be thinking about these beautiful Maori people for quite some time still... but for now, I will thank God for my little (beyond) lovely community and I will obey my elders... and perhaps to the world around us, we can bring a song from above, a beautiful witness to the ever old, ever new Beauty!

ps. I wish there was a gold font colour...

Jasmine Tea...

Oh how I love Tea! 

Oh how I love Thee! 

Let it be known that every time a blogpost is published, a cup of tea was consumed. Not any type of tea! Jasmine green tea! Imagine it like this: Jasmine green tea is the tea saint and all other teas are striving to sainthood! (not that I do not drink or like other teas but you know in life there is always the good and the best... sort of how everyone I know is good but I am the best... (okay maybe not!))

It is really so beautiful how I can feel every sip going down in me. There is nothing like a cup of hot tea really... from waiting for the water to boil till the moment you realise suddenly oh! where's my tea!! Goodness did I really finish it! and I start the mourning process... (okay maybe not!)

Today I have been thinking about how regular green tea becomes jasmine green tea... It a normal green tea scented with aroma from jasmine blossoms... "Tea leaves are harvested in the early spring and stored until the late summer when fresh jasmine flowers are in bloom. Jasmine flowers are picked early in the day when the small petals are tightly closed. The flowers are kept cool until nightfall. During the night jasmine flowers open, and release their fragrance, and this is when the tea scenting takes place. " (thank you google) That is one seriously cool process! And I have been thinking about it all day... It is fascinating really, just being with the blossom the tea gets so enriched and become saint of all teas and I was thinking what if I am sorted with a lot of jasmine and gardenia, will I become scented and lovely? (I mean of course more than I am now... which is quite a high aim!) But really I was thinking about all this natural and nice process and then I remembered how we actually know that staying in the presence of God infuse us with His aroma and how we are his perfume in this world, the more we stay close, the more we fill the room we enter in... And I thought I really! want to be a God scented tea...

But then another idea came to my mind. One very sweet thought 

♥

... The blessing of friends... How God picks all the loveliest blooms and put them in my life... I remembered how they have changed how I taste, have transformed me from a normal regular tea to a jasmine one... I remembered their sweet scent and how it covered my filthiness, how their love covered my mistakes. I remembered how they changed my sadness to joy... I remembered how patient they are, how like the jasmine just waits patiently for the tea to be scented, they wait patiently, bear with me lovingly, encourage me...  I have been blended with the prettiest flowers and I cannot but thank God everyday for this immense gift! ♥

Set Him Free!

I really find the octopus very fascinating and beautiful and today I am remembering him on a rather solemn note. 

I cannot get over the fact that we actually feel in our brains and not our hearts! It is there, I sense it in my being! Deep there... piercing, squeezing, working! Right there in the centre of my whole body... in where it beats... 

I had a rather strange experience yesterday... I felt so strange in a place where I once so belonged... I felt I will suffocate if I stay one more minute there... I thought God please deliver my soul from all this...  and I heard my mind repeating the line from the Psalm... Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler.

There was a lot of gossip in the other room... there was a lot of it! I wanted to leave but I was unmotorised waiting for my mother to come... There was a lot of gossip and I thought oh! this is so wrong... but I felt helpless... I wanted to vindicate the people but at the same time I did not want to go in there and be part of it all...

I felt like my heart what trapped by the long numerous pods of an octopus... And my mind racing and suddenly out of the very blue I was afraid. I really cannot explain but I felt a weird kind of fear... I almost cried (okay maybe I did have a tear or two). I had no reason to be scared but there my heart was beating as if I was chosen to give a speech... (you surely are thinking that I am crazy now... and maybe I am...). I prayed a lot and it is beautiful how God works. I felt peaceful. I went in, said goodbye and decided to walk a bit out till my ride arrives... And when I was walking I was thinking about gossip and how heavy it is... How one word can destroy a family. How one story can damage a relationship. I felt remorse for every time I fell in that trap, every single time I let this octopus get hold of me and I decided to set him free, take him out of my life forever!

Ha Hoo Ha: a Hot French Fry

I had a long drive alone late in the afternoon yesterday and long drives  have this ability to make your mind sound more palpable than anything (or perhaps I really do talk to myself then... oops! shhh). I was looking through the window (umm, there was a little bit traffic, don't worry I am a safe driver... I guess...) and I saw a guy with one hot French fry on his palm and holing another one to his mouth in the other hand, I could not hear him but I could guess his ha! hoo! ha! reaction... truly hot, I did see the smoke, yep!  but he seriously enjoyed the first privileged bites that I started craving for some! -Potatoes and fries in particular are really something! I think upon arriving to heave, one of my very lovely dear friends will be escorted directly to meet the inventor of French fires to get a chance to thank him/her personally... but trust me the joy will be his to meet her!-

This is not a post about fries, I keep telling myself, but it's lunchtime and I am staving! So... Back to my car drive idea... Back to that guy with a fry (poetic, ain't it?) When I saw him so happy about his fry, I had a very vivid picture come back to my mind from my childhood, when my lovely mum (I really love her!) would be cooking something so yummy (yeah you imagined it right! that was every singly day!) she would call us and hand us those tiny tea plates and put one bit, piece of what was there to taste, and trust me if you never experienced such a privilege, you missed a lot! There is something in knowing beforehand, in getting to taste something before you get it all in, the first few toes in the ocean before you dive in... it's unexplainable but it really is one of the loveliest feelings ever (beside peeing after a huge cup of coke... agreed!). I heard my mind thinking out loud in the car, smiling big to my reflection in the mirror (ummm there was a little bit of traffic,euu, yeah... again!): This is it! This is it when we pray, we get that tiny bit, lovely bite of what will be there in heaven! That is it! That is it when we gather with our bothers and sisters in Christ  (specially that one who will meet the French Fry inventor) and we feel almost drunk from happiness... that is it, a sip of the beautiful fellowship we will have in heaven! And I thought wow, all what we live here, all the goodness of the Lord we witness, His nearness, His glory, His love, His comfort... all this is but one hot French fry on our palms while the rest is being cooked for us up there, to have eternally, abundantly, everlastingly! I was (still am) happy!