In case you hadn't heard:

I'm going to LONDON, beginning September 21st!

I'm still having a bit of trouble believing it myself, but Lord willing, I'll be spending about 4 1/2 months in London, then another 2-3 months in Italy, beginning this fall. Needless to say, I'm excited! I'm hoping to have time to really zero in on my writing, as well as to experience Europe and get to know the people around me. I'd appreciate your prayers, as I will largely be on my own (visitors welcome). Any advice is welcome, as well :) I plan to continue to update this blog with pictures and anecdotes--should anything interesting happen to me over there, or should inspiration strike.

Two more things: 1) I plan to use this book to help me get started creatively--thanks to a couple of friends for the recommendation! 2) My pastor at our church here in California gave me the name of a London church that I might visit! I'm especially excited about it as it is Anglican, and I like the idea attending an Anglican church, at least for a season.

"Just Friends"

This morning I listened to a sermon on friendship by Tim Keller. I was both challenged and encouraged by his portrait of a Christian friend. Encouraged, because I know I am blessed to have many such friends, challenged to be more consistently that kind of friend myself. It's sad but true that Pastor Keller is spot on when he notes how undervalued friendship is in our culture. Give the sermon a listen (thanks to Kara for sharing the link with me) while you're cooking, cleaning, or recouping from the day. I promise it doesn't require too much brain power . . . in case you're like me and think about things like that :)

In which I am unoriginal, and quote someone else.

In La Jolla, wishing I were as classy as this bathing beauty.

Came across this quote by Simone Weil this afternoon:

     We do not obtain the most precious gifts by going in search of them but by waiting for them. Man cannot discover them by his own powers and if he sets out to seek for them he will find in their place counterfeits of which he will be unable to discern the falsity.
     The solution of a geometry problem does not in itself constitute a precious gift, but the same law applies to it because it is the image of something precious. Being a little fragment of particular truth, it is a pure image of the unique, eternal and living Truth, the very Truth which once in a human voice declared, "I am the Truth."
     Every school exercise, thought of in this way, is like a sacrament.
     In every school exercise there is a special way of waiting upon truth, setting our hearts upon it, yet not allowing ourselves to go out in search of it. There is a way of . . . waiting, when we are writing, for the right word to come of itself at the end of our pen, while we merely reject all inadequate words.

Not sure if I agree entirely with her position, but it's well put (to say the least), and well worth contemplating!