Brief and Vague: A typical summary of atypical life events.

This is one of those moments when I earnestly wish that I had kept on top of my blog better. A LOT better. Or just kept up with it at all. I haven’t come very far in regards to regularity since first starting this blog and I don’t know if it’s ever going to get much better. I honestly just can’t even think of what to write most of the time when things happen. How could I possibly convey to you the depth of my experiences since leaving Canada nearly eight months ago? I can’t. Maybe if I had the opportunity to sit down with you and discuss every minute detail that God has been pushing and prodding and stretching in me this past while... Or maybe if I could have recorded every moment of my time in the beautiful and foreign nation of Cambodia, then maybe I could truly SHOW you the vast amount of experiences I have been privy to. There is not a single moment that I wouldn’t want to share with you, including the ones where God brought things into the light, which were previously tucked away by shame. Anything that brings Him glory is worth sharing with people that could be encouraged by it. But there’s just no way anyone could understand the transformations my heart has undergone, or the way God has used others to simply bless me. I cannot convey that in words; neither typed nor spoken. Perhaps someday we will have the chance to share stories about our recent experiences... Or possibly not. Just know that God has begun a massive work in my heart that will keep going as He consistently pursues me. 

A drop of serious in the bucket of 'yolo'.

I've been thinking quite a lot lately; a charming feature in ladies of today's society, so I'm told. My thoughts revolve predominantly around the grand blank canvas that is my future. If someone were to begin sketching a piece of art, change their mind partway through and start over without erasing the lines, it would look something like my life-canvas. Muddled lines, endless possibilities; maybe some semblance of art is visible. The result depends entirely on what the artist wants to end up with. When I look back at my choices in five years, what do I want to see that has happened in my life? I have goals I want to accomplish, such as getting an education and working for a time in different countries, as well as commit as much time to full-time missions and ministry as God calls me to. I understand that there are important parts of life, especially as a citizen of a first-world country, that I am privileged to have access to. I have no intention of completely disregarding the blessings I've been born into. I just don't want to let life pass me by, having plans for my grand blank canvas, all the while having the canvas become covered in shades of monotony and the intent to 'get around to it' or, worse yet, yellowed with age and regret. 

Let there be boldness. Let there be every lovely colour. Let there be sheer joy. 

Let there be the excitement of new experiences and every possibility under the sun. 

For those of you frozen with fear of the unknown, I encourage you to walk out of that and never look back. God has so much more in store for you if you're just willing to get your feet moving. You're a brilliant human being with a dazzling life ahead of you.

 "A warm body don't mean I'm alive / I wanna thrive, not just survive." --Thrive by Switchfoot

Room 3 has pets!

When you have nothing nice to say, don't say anything at all. 

Does this apply to writing as well? Nothing good to write, don't write anything?

Probably not. Some smart alec will come up with good reasons to keep writing: "It's beneficial to your... Brain. Duh." Thanks guys. THANKS.

Here's the deal: I don't always have enlightening things to write about. That's a lie, actually. I OFTEN have many enlightening things to write about but I have neither the time nor the inclination to write about them all. Whew. That's better. At least it makes me sound more smarterer. That's what we aim for when blogging, right? Gotta spread all the increasingly difficult-to-find insight and wisdom that can be gleaned from the mind of a wee lady with big dreams. Hah. Sure, Kirsten. That's why we're here.

I definitely want to write more blogs. It's going to take a considerable amount of self-discipline so I'll need all the encouragement you can spare! I also want to take more pictures and post them here. That one's not as easy to do since I forget my camera always therefore I take pictures never. 

But here are some from my webcam!!

Just the cutest ever. I KNOW. I can barely stand it. On a sidenote, I'm tired and I'm going to post this before sleeping and proofread it tomorrow, so if nothing makes sense know now that I don't care. So there. 

I really hope you weren't expecting anything profound this time around. Or informative. This is positively neither of those things. 

OH!! I know what to tell you about! Okay. This is a good one. SO! There are a lot of spiders in our room. But not those nasty huge ones that give you nightmares, just these spindly ones that aren't exactly small but aren't particularly scary either. And one sleeps above my bed near my feet and he's like my little friend but we respect each other and keep our distance because he's a spider and I'm a human and we know good insect-person boundaries. It's a healthy interaction, consisting primarily of me sending the occasional hello to him, as well as blowing on his web when he looks bored. In return he sometimes wiggles his legs at me. It's not animal abuse, I can read spider body language quite well and know exactly when they're bored and when they're just napping. I like to think of it as giving him a spider massage. OH MY WORD what if it's a girl. I hadn't thought of that one before. Ugh. Whatever. He won't mind. He's got a very masculine... Leg..s... Must be a man! So. Mandy wanted to kill all the spiders in the whole room because she's just anti-bug unless it's a cockroach and she can relive her Hawaiian childhood and pull its legs off. Ugh. But Maryam and I know better, that these nice lil' guys kill the flies that find their way into our little habitat so we like 'em! But anyways, the climax of the story is that my spidey disappeared and a couple days later a new, smaller one showed up... So I think he went and found a child to take his place and is now colonizing more spider homes elsewhere, which has begun to worry me slightly. That doesn't worry me as much as the animal noise that come from our ceiling every morning, though. We think there's a possum partying it up overhead. POSSUMS! Our base cook rescued a baby possum the other day and it's ridiculously cute! But the adult ones are kinda big and freaky looking. 

That wasn't as good of a story as I was hoping it would be. Too DARN BAD, guys. I'm not even going to proofread this. I genuinely hope you will read my blog next time I share it. Have faith that they won't all be this chaotic. 

Maybe.