Biology, There may be hope for us yet.

I know. Two posts in two days. It's a bit much, I agree. But I have a superrr quick story that you probably won't care about, but it was a great moment so bear with me!

Biology and I have had a love/hate relationship for pretty much my whole life. As a little girl, biology was my life (no pun intended), though I didn't really know it. I just knew I loved bugs. And animals. And plants. And tadpoles, baby catfish, baby snapping turtles, frogs and anything else I could capture in a net, put in a jar or pin to a styrofoam board. (yes, I was that girl.)

But then I hit high school and took a biology class expecting to be enthralled. I wasn't. What was a beautiful, fascinating subject suddenly was bogged down in names and only experienced in pictures from a text book. It wasn't the same, and I was disappointed.

College seemed to be going the same way. I took biology last semester and was bored the whole way through. I figured that biology and I were done for. Our relationship was unrepairable and I would just stick to my chemistry, thank you very much.

Naturally, I expected this semester to be more of the same. (I'm sure you see where this is going).
I walked out of the dorm this afternoon and Zoe shouted after me "Have fun at class!" To which I scoffed, "It's biology, I hate biology!" and ventured into the cold.

I walked into the classroom and immediately saw some interesting objects on the table in front of the class. A bag of twigs and leaves. A mysterious box. A stack of newspaper articles. I sat down in a second row seat and looked skeptically at the objects in front of me.

"Lord Jesus. Please let me like biology this semester." A little prayer in my head, a skeptical squint on my face.

Then my teacher walked in. He looked like a biologist! You know how you can just tell that someone is a biologist? Kinda disheveled hair, comfy clothes, some sort of hiking boots, outdoorsy, pinecone smell...You get a picture. This one even had a little wooden necklace with a wood burned Queen Anne's lace flower on it.
I was intrigued. This was the first biology teacher that actually looked like he just come from outside on a bird-watching hike or something.

His lecture was really great. He pulled out each of the twigs and talked about the different trees they came from. He talked about the chestnut trees that all died of a disease. He pulled out rocks with fossils he'd found. He loved it. I loved it.

And that is my story for today. I was humbled. And biology....

There my be hope for us yet.

<3

Happy 2014!

Yikes! It's been months since I've posted, and I'm sure that you have all forgotten about me by now. No matter, its a new year and I may (or may not) be able to recover your attention. If not, then I would be sad to not have your friendship, but attention is not really the goal of this blog.

The goal, as usual, is to document my life's findings. I find that journalling (which is, of a certain form, what I do here) is a sort of therapy to me. It gives me something productive to do with my extra time and tends to refocus my mind and soul. A form of worship that always leaves me peaceful, refreshed and with a clarity of heart that I find hardly anywhere else. It's become an addiction of mine. The new year brings a brand new, blank journal, ready for anything, waiting to be filled. And I am eager to fill it. Slowly, I do, and by the end of the year there are only a few blank pages left and that chapter of my life is closed.

I am thankful to have finally closed my journal from 2013 and to find God's mercies new for 2014. The finality and finished-ness of the past is a hopeful thing to me. Those things that have happened to better my life, I choose to take with me to the future, and the things I regret or am ashamed of, I leave behind because that is what mercy allows me to do. Freedom from the physical, taxing work of carrying those things with me is something only Christ can give and I can only receive and be thankful. Every day, be thankful.

My prayer is that those of my friends and family will find that same freedom in 2014.

As for new years resolutions...I am searching (and waiting) for a word to pursue. Prayer? Thanksgiving? I'll let you know when it becomes clear to me.

In the meantime, classes have started and somewhere in between calculus 2, biology 2, organic chemistry and intro to theater, I hope to be a better blogger for my own sake... how else am I going to stay sane with a class load like that?

Blessings and happy 2014!
Paula