Moving right along

 

Hello blog, remember me?

I’ve been a bit absent from bloggerland due to our move and work and everything in between. The past two weeks have been downright chaotic, frustrating and tiresome. I’ve been on the road a lot for shoots and we finally have the old place cleared out thanks to my sweet sweet parents. I came back to Charleston last night as crabby and cranky and completely burnt out since my two hour drive had morphed into a five hour drive thanks to a flaming truckload of computer parts blocking the highway. A recap of the last two weeks would include:

1. a funeral
2. lots of unpacking
3. lots of cleaning
4. lots of traveling
5. car problems/ traffic problems
6. falling, electrocuting, burning and gouging myself all in a fatal swoop
7. cranky people
8. a sad puppy

1. involuntary 11 mile walks
2. 100 dollar parking tickets
3. persistent hobos
4. a general lack of sleep
5. sickness
6. lateness in getting peoples photos back
7. fishing the dog out of a public fountain.
8. doing shoots in 106 degree weather next to a mosquito infested pond.
9. lack of water in the new place.
10. falling in (the neighbors) dog poo (since they don’t clean up after it).
11. general adjustments to tiny apartment life (ie. noise, screaming, drunk people, no parking, lack of personal space, confused animals).

 

BUT, I am reminded in times like this of God’s faithfulness. He has taken care of us in the small things. I am way out of my comfort zone right now, stretched in so many ways, but I was reminded recently to stop and step back. The big picture, that’s what really matters.

And because I am a nerd, here is a nerd’s application,deliberation and devotional….

 

One of the reason’s The Lord of the Rings is my favorite story of all time is because of a little moment with Sam at the foot of Mt. Doom. The situation is grim and they are on the limit of their energy, Frodo is giving in to the ring and all they have in front of them is the climb up. Sometimes it’s so hard to keep going when you know that the only  thing in front of you is doom and gloom (or for Sam,  literally, Mt. Doom). It seems like there is no pleasant end waiting for you at the end of your journey, or even if there is an end or a reassurance that you did what you set out to do. Sam becomes overcome with despair at the situation, but he looks up. In the sky amidst the shroud of darkness and clouds a small hole opens up and he can see the stars. He remembers Hope because of their beauty peeking out of the black. This idea is what allows him to carry on.

There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.

Though here at journey's end I lie
in darkness buried deep,
beyond all towers strong and high,
beyond all mountains steep,
above all shadows rides the Sun
and Stars for ever dwell:
I will not say the Day is done,
nor bid the Stars farewell

……and on that note, I am off to unpack the mess that is our new home.