1.31.2011

My, my

My, my, that is beautiful rye!

Made it myself. Tasted great.


Need a happy face

Well, I must admit I'm not going to stick around long for this post. I have a crazy urge to make dark rye bread, so I think I'm going to brave the minus 15 degrees outside and go buy me some rye flour so I can bake away the afternoon. If my loaf turns out pretty, I'll snap a photo and share.

Mainly I just wanted to say that I realize my last post was kind of a downer. I'm not apologizing for it because I was actually feeling pretty low, but I just wanted to toss this out to the cyberworld: I know everything's gonna be okay. My head and heart are in a funky place right now as I work through some "stuff," but I am glad to be seeing that proverbial light at the end of the tunnel. In the meantime, wonderful friends and family members are offering encouragement and support. I so appreciate their love. It makes me smile.

1.28.2011

Sorrow cradled in beauty

I wish I could write words as beautiful as the music I've been listening to all day. If I could, you would  feel my breathing nearly cease like the low, sweeping glide of bow across cello string.

And then, just when it seems I'll never breathe again, you would hear my heart lilt to life like a piano: low, slow chords--do-do-do, dee-da-da-da--then a crescendo with the right hand singing higher and higher--trilling, trilling, trilling--slowing, falling, doubting, fading. That would be my heart hoping in God, trying to trust, failing.

Trying again.

And then, the violin. Sorrow cradled in beauty. All strivings cease.

I am just a girl sitting at my desk and crying. Crying because the world is so messed up. Crying because God is bigger than God and the only right response to that knowledge is to fall to pieces in His hands and finally feel whole.    

1.13.2011

Six-word memoir: December 2010

Change is only constant. And God.

Six-word memoir: November 2010

Lives, loves lost. Everything feels broken.

Six-word memoir: October 2010

29 birthday coffees, 29 places. Jittery.

Six-word memoir: September 2010

Bread lady, book lady. That's me.

Six-word memoir: August 2010

Ten year reunion? No way! Old.

Six-word memoir: July 2010

Alaska exceeds expectations. Gotta go back.

Six-word memoir: June 2010

Brother premieres "Wylds." Crowds go wild!

Six-word memoir: May 2010

Far-flung friends found together again!

Six-word memoir: April 2010

Besties meet at ladies retreat. Wahoo!

Six-word memoir: March 2010

Days pass in simple, playful bliss.



Six-word memoir: February 2010

Ranching early. Writing late. Good life.


Six-word memoir: January 2010

Hannah moves to Montana. Jokes begin.

1.11.2011

Six-Word Memoirs

The other day I was leafing through an old edition of the AARP magazine. No pun intended in that sentence. Honest.

Anyway, it's actually a pretty decent publication and, buried near the back cover, I found one of the coolest ideas I've come across in a long time. It was called the "Six-Word Memoir" and essentially involved capturing a grand life moment (in this edition it was near-death experiences) in six words. A few examples from the magazine:

House on fire, pool below, jumped.
~Helen, 80

Heart hurts! Hunky paramedics help. Hurray!
~Susan, 61

You get the idea. I get the idea! It reminds me of a segment the St. Petersburg Times used to run called "300 Words or Less." If you want a good, compact heart-string tug, check 'em out here. I think "Praying on the Fly" is my favorite.

Anyway, I loved the Six-Word Memoir. And I'm going to steal it for my grand recap of 2010. One post for each month of this last year. Six words each. Enjoy, and feel free to comment with a Six-Word Memoir of your own for that month.

This is going to be fun...

1.07.2011

Too much...

brown.

My entire blog was brown.

So I changed that.

And I changed my font, too. Exciting, I know.

This new font is Courier. It's my favorite because it looks like I typed everything on a typewriter, like I'm going all Kerouac and should be smoking a stogie and sipping a scotch as I tappity-tap my sweeping, lyrical prose. Alas, I don't smoke and I drink little, so I'll have to settle for the magic that is Courier and the oft-present cup of coffee by my side.

I hope you enjoy the new look.

Write on!

1.04.2011

Around town

So, the other day it was pretty cold out. Like 1 degree. And on that day I got a hankering to go shoot some photos. What can I say? Inspiration strikes at odd times. I put on about five layers of various warm shirts and coats, topped my head with a hat, wrapped my neck with a scarf, grabbed the camera and took a walk around town.


 This little guy showed up on my porch one day. I liked his hat so I said he could stay.
 A fine newspaper, indeed.
 I worked here. And ate here. A lot.

 Main Street.
 My favorite peeping tom.
 You want old-school charm? Go to Norm's News.
 The Liberty Theater. My church meets here.

 Ice, ice baby.
 Kalispell is a bit nazi-ish about its parking. These little old dudes run around in three-wheeled go-carts snapping parking tickets beneath the windshield wipers of any car parked one second over its time limit. Seriously. I have first-hand experience.
 The Strand Theater. My church also meets here.
 My favorite building in town. Too bad that awesome space is wasted on the business of dry cleaning. Ah well, what can you do?
 Change that word cleaners to coffee and you'd have one rockin' coffee shop.

 Flathead County Library. Yeah, I worked in that awesome building.
 The van I bombed around town in as a delivery driver for Ceres Bakery.
 Water coming out of pipe: "It's cold. I give up."
My favorite coffee shop in town, located about a block away from my apartment. They have unlimited coffee for one dollar. Bliss.

Resolution

Yesterday I wrote the saddest New Year's post that's ever seen the light of day. Saddest for me, anyway. It was all about this deep, dark depression I slipped into a few months ago that derailed my life and left me with no resolutions for 2011.

It was pretty bad.

Today I realized that's not the kind of writer I want to be. It's not the kind of person I want to be, either.

Yeah, stuff happens. My best friend is facing a heart-shattering, life-shattering situation that should never, ever have happened. Another good friend lost her baby recently. The man I was kind of holding out for...well, that chapter closed.

Stuff happens. To everybody.

It's what we do with the stuff that matters. My best friend has amazed me with her grace and hope. She, in the pit of her darkness, has encouraged me to trust in God in all things.

So, I will trust. As I move to a new town, a new church, a new job, a new life, I will trust. As I prepare for moving overseas, I will trust. As I await the birth of my niece, I will trust in God to grow her into a woman after His own heart.

Trust.

That is my resolution for 2011.

Yeah, it's a little vague, a little hard to measure, but that's okay. It's what I need right now. I need it more than doing sit-ups, or getting certified in TESOL, or baking something new once a week (thus the sit-ups), or writing a letter once a month. If those other...things...happen, awesome. I'll consider them icing on the resolution cake.