Graced with Grace

Joining in with Five Minute Friday and the word today is Reflect.   It seems life has moved on without you Yet somehow you are still there, A flash of you comes drifting through the air. From day to day I smile as I remember Once again your jokes, smile, and laughter. I flip through the pictures on my phone, Ten years ago, oh, how time has flown. My hero, my brother, my friend, Reflecting –allowing the heart to mend. I don’t cry too much anymore, But I always remember those days before. But life moved on and I have grown, And while I live in a world unknown, You live in the past where life is a memory And your story becomes a part of history. But I do smile when I remember. Its been ten years on the seventeenth of December

Sometimes it’s the shy girl Who stands out in the crowd. Sometimes it’s the quiet one Who makes the biggest difference. So it was with this girl Although she did not know. She was quiet, reserved, And alone, but smiled. She was kind and gentle, A friend to every soul she’d meet. Yet little did she know Just how much they noticed. They would hang on every word She ever spoke. They would remember her smile From years long ago. They thought she was an angel, While she thought they did not care. So while she cried alone at night, Her smile was bringing comfort to another. She saw her life as a mess, But others saw the beauty. She thought they wouldn’t notice, But they did. Just because you’re quiet Doesn’t mean that people don’t care. Just because you’re shy Doesn’t mean they won’t notice. You don’t need to be loud For others to see beauty. You don’t need to shout For others to hear truth. It only takes a smil...

A restless mind and a worried heart, Time is an enemy, life is pain. Worries, and fears – it’s useless but still I persist. Two weeks to crumble, two weeks to break. Will I make it or break it, the question still stands. With fiery eyes and stubborn chin, besides all that Life persists. So tenaciously I cling. Cling to Life, to living Water, Daily Grace, Christ my Savior. Finals upon us, fears of failure, but   Grace persists. Curl up in bed, pretend to sleep off the dread. Nothin’ can stop what lies ahead. Frantically finishing last assignments because They persist. To laugh or to cry, not sure of which to do. Laugh because I can’t, or cry because I can’t, Or DO what I must because I must because Finals persist. I can’t or I can is not the question. I fail or I pass, but God’s grace still lasts Miracles still happen when finals week comes. Miracles exist.

Once upon a time in  a far away land, dreary and cold, there  lived a girl named Hannah. Now Hannah was not the average girl that one would meet on the street, but rather unique and a bit too odd, but then sometimes the oddest are the ones that the best of stories can be written of and so I shall tell of one of her many oddities. This oddity has to do with her passion for tea. When it comes to drinking tea, she is quite particular. Tea should, if possible, always be poured from a tea pot and into a darling little tea cup. Tea cups and tea pots, after all, were created for this purpose, so why not put it to good use. Not only this, but being the southern girl that she is, she must have sugar or honey to sweeten her tea. Nothing within her being can make her truly enjoy unsweetened tea, so sweet tea it must be or as I over heard a southerner once say if tea is unsweetened it is like drinking a cup of grass or dirt flavored hot water. But to go on with the o...

With panic in my heart I hurried through another chapter Another lesson, another book, Reading with numb heart and mind. I strove to get my homework done on time Too busy to hear life happening all around Too busy to hear the birds or feel the breeze, Another busy week ahead, I cannot get behind. I scrambled through another lesson, Checking it off my never ending list of to-dos. I closed my eyes to the lives around, Stopped my ears to laughter and life's chime. I marched on, trying to accomplish all my duties Before the break of dawn. If I stop all, I will crumble and fall, I'll cry my eyes dry from the daily grind. So I pull through another day. I will survive, I say. I can get my homework done If I just try. But alas, I was not fine. One day someone reminded me of laughter, And oh, how good it felt. Laughter? I have time for laughter? I had tried so hard to do it all, but I had forgotten all. In the business of life, I had forgotten To la...

And it seems that today's word is.......                                                             Dance And so I write. "Let them Praise his name with dancing..." Psalm 149:3   This is the picture that use to be on the wall of my parents home and it always made me smile. There is nothing to special about it, but it brings back memories, memories of joy and laughter and dance. And now it hangs on my own wall above my bed, so when I wake up I remember to praise his name with dancing.   I don't dance that much any more, but let me tell you a secret. As a little girl, I loved to dance.   I used to dance around and around in our family living room, the music ...

Sometimes Winnie The Pooh just speaks truth.    

First to introduce you to one of my new favorite musicians. I recently stumbled upon David Hicken's music the other day and have fallen in love with it. Here is one of my favorites of his, Canon in D and Ode to Joy. If you like this one than go check out more of his music. I love listening to music like this. I am like one of the worst musicians there are, but I think that gives me all the more love for those who can play music so beautifully. I love listening to beautiful melodious sounds because I know I will never create it myself. Canon in D is one of my favorite music pieces even though it almost makes me cry every time. I can listen to Canon in D over and over again and never grow tired of it. I think I am coming to the conclusion that David's are amazing musicians. Ok, so probably not all of them are, but several of my favorite musicians are Davids (David Mclintock, David Hicken, and a friend named David who probably doesn't know that I think his music is so ...

Five Minute Friday I really don't remember what was so funny, but apparently something was quite funny. A paper stands glooming in the forefront of my mind. I need to write an abstract for another paper assignment. I need to write a response to a church meeting from last Sunday. I have loads of reading to do. Not to mention Greek lessons and diagraming and Greek vocabulary. All of these things are due for Monday morning and I wonder how it is ever going to get done. I have plans for the weekend and I am struggling to come up with thoughts fro my paper, not to mention the hours of research that I have to do for it and I have only just begun, yet In all the hectic chaos of college life, I contemplate the word "Joy". Can there be joy in researching and writing papers? can there be joy in working on grueling Greek? Can there be joy in this crazy chaotic time of my life? Yes! Yes, there can be joy. There can be joy in all of the craziness, in all the pain, in all th...

The other day, I was working at my deli job and needed to take a couple bags of trash and some boxes out to the dumpster. Now these bags did not hold light garbage. I don't know what my deli is throwing away throughout the day, but one of those bags in particular was heavy, like really heavy (and I promise I am not a wimp) (you're also probably wondering why in the world Hannah is talking about trash and garbage. Haha! Keep wondering! ). So as I am carting this garbage to the dumpster, I am thinking "I sure hope I can actually lift this bag higher than my head and into the dumpster" (I am like short, so things always are more complicated than they should be) and secretly hoping that a fine young prince riding on a white horse will come along just in time to save the poor damsel from breaking her arms and back. Well, he wasn't riding a horse, but..... So I get to the dumpster and along comes this dude who was going to the dumpster as we...

Today is National Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day, so here is a poem I wrote for all the women who have lost a child through miscarriage. I have several friends who have had a miscarriage along with my mom as well who has had two, so I wrote this with them in mind, but I pray this would bless all who have lost a child too soon.   Tiny little toes, tiny little fingers, Tiny little ears, Tiny little mouth. Little child, little baby, I’ll never watch you grow any more. You’ll never see the light of day. Never see the moon at night. Never hear the lullabies I wanted to sing you, Never fall asleep in my arms, Never cue, never laugh, never smile, Not on this earth anyway. You went to the father’s home to soon, Or so it feels that way. There were stories I was going to tell you, Memories we were going to make. There were adventures we were going to have And lessons I was going to teach you. You were supposed to grow into an adu...

Working at a Lebanese owned market and deli has provided me with some interesting experiences, given me the chance to try some unique salads and foods, and made me laugh more than once or stand in complete confusion, as one of the stories I am about to narrate will reveal. But first unique foods... Stuffed Grape Leaves. How many of you know what that is? Ok, so maybe some of you actually know, but I personally had never heard or seen it until I began this job over the summer. And being the sort of girl who is timid in trying new things if it looks at all unusual, I hesitated to try this curious delicacy. Well, a co-worker convinced me to give it a try in my first month or so at the job, but I have refrained from tasting it since, not that it was completely awful, but you get what I mean. Well, today I have been won. The chef had just made a fresh batch yesterday and we pulled them out of the refrigerator today to set out, but she first had to try one because, of cour...

Trust I think about the word for a few minutes, considering how this word "Trust" affects me. When I think about Trust, I think about all those people, friends or family, who I thought I could trust but have broken my trust, have failed me in some way or the other and, yes, I have done the same for them. People break promises time and time again. But I look up on my wall and read these words, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding." Proverbs 3:5. I have that verse there for a reason. To remind me to trust in God because so often I don't. When life is hard, when people fail me, when school isn't going well, when I can't see my future; I look up on my wall and see that verse and I am reminded that there is one that I can trust wholly in, that is Jesus Christ. He has never failed me, has never left me, has never broken a single promise to me, yet how often I fail to trust him completely. I get caught up in ...

With sleek fingers, chilling October reached out in the still cold night – Night with its darkness over shadowing the busily bustling city – City full of flurry, busses and taxies driving, frantically grasping for time – Time not waiting for anyone or anything, always steadily moving on – Onward the seasons have marched, through spring and summer – Summer slams schedules straight into the season of fall –  Fall arriving stealthily in the cold blue night of a flustering October.     Fall reaches out and touches me – frail yet tenacious Meticulous and unique, always free, Merrily laughing or dancing in the breeze – Fall gently touches me with a feverish chill.     There I had been implanted amidst a family of many, Filling the largest of a steel oak family tree. There I had hidden all summer long, not a care of the bustling world. Yet I saw the hurry scurry, the timeless worry of too much to do. I heard screeching and sc...

Sometimes life is crazy and hard and full of adult stuff. But sometimes its nice to just enjoy life ( not that you can't enjoy life while doing adult stuff, but maybe instead being an adult while using the eyes and heart of a child). Tonight was one of those nights. Today, after getting off from work and turning my paper in on time and taking a shower because work is gross and running to the store to get groceries, after all of that, I decided it was high time I made Sugar Cookies. When it comes to Christmas activities and Christmas music and Christmas baking, things just don't stay in their place for me. For example, I sing Christmas music all year long, I will make Sugar Cookies with Christmas themed Cookie cutters anytime I wish to, if I want eggnog in the middle of summer I will just make it (that hasn't actually ever happened, but it will one day....). December is far too busy a month to squeeze all the best activities and songs and best everything into, so ther...

Just in case you may be in search of some good clean music, I here offer you the beauties of The Gray Havens. Not super well-known, but this is a Christian young couple who writes their own music, often being inspired by the works of C.S. Lewis or J.R.Tolkien. They have a folk-pop style and often their songs are telling a story that have a much deeper message. This song that I am sharing with you is one of my favorites (but all of them are my favorites. :) ), but hopefully as you listen and read the words you will be able to pick up the message in it. I love the last line! So enjoy and make this your new favorite musicians. ;)           The color-coded town, They had one rule no grays allowed, It was a great offense, It brought no compliments,  A stranger to the town he came, And met a girl that very few would say, Is worth thinking of, Still he fell in love,  And he brought her flowers every day, And she loved them...

Hope.   It’s what I cling to on the days when I don’t think I’ll make it. I cling to hope when I think I am going to fail another test or when I do fail that test. Its hope that I cling to when life is full of pain, when life hurts, when life is hard and I don’t think I can finish the day. When my day is filled with tears there is still Hope. When dreams seem so far away, there is Hope. When life becomes empty and dry, I still have hope. Hope. Although I despair, I cannot despair completely because I have Hope. I cling to hope when all else fails. I cling to hope when I have made yet another mistake in a friendship, when I fall into that same sin yet once more. Hope. It’s what keeps me going when life is a blur and I can’t see what lies before me, when I have no idea what my future holds. When I can’t even see the next step in front of me. Hope. I hold fast to the hope of what is unseen. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his gre...

Hold me close When storms surround me. Hold me close When my heart fails. Hold me close When lying voices overwhelm me. Hold me close When I feel all alone. Hold me close When darkness engulfs me. Hold me close.   Hold me close When the light is seen again. Hold me close When I rejoice once more. Hold me close When friends surround me. Hold me close When life gets easy. Hold me close Through joy or through pain. Hold me close.   Let me not be crushed By the weight of sorrow, But let me not drift When life is okay again. Hold me close.   Let me rejoice Through rain or through shine. Let me rejoice When life gets hard or is just fine. Hold me close.