"I came back from mostly dead for you" // a life update

So college and work has taken my life from me and are holding it for ransom. What their demands are I haven't figured out (or I would have paid it). They haven't said yet.

If you don't know the quote in the title, well. . . I will only suggest that you brush up on your Princess Bride. 

Last month I read the original Beauty and the Beast by Madame de Villeneuve. B&B is one of my favorite fairy tales and now I love it even more! There is so much back story on Beauty and even more on the Beast and how he became the Beast. You would have never guessed from all the retellings/remakes. None of the well-known versions uses the same backstory as the original. It makes you wonder about Disney sometimes. . . 

I love trees. I had to go out for a walk before cabin fever kicked in, so naturally I took photos of trees. I grew up climbing and playing in trees. And I kind of wonder if it's a bad thing that I think, when I leave one day, the trees are going to be the thing I miss the most. Even if I go some place where there are trees, they still won't be the same trees. They won't feel the same. They'll be strangers.

Where I live, it rains through the autumn and winter months. So the grass is mottled with crisp brown and spring green. I love it though. The gray days are perfect for huddling under a blanket with a good book. Also, I love the bleak beauty of our autumns and winters. Maybe that sounds like a paradox. Bleak beauty. But paradoxes do exist. 

I like paradoxes. And sad things, apparently. . .

See? Isn't there just something about an overcast sky? 

I wrote a poem once for a college project and then rewrote it so I could keep it. But then of course I lost it and just spent half an hour looking for it. *rolls eyes* 

It had something to do with how the sunlight is laughing and bright all the time, even when you're hurting. But the clouds show their empathy and cry with you. Or some kind of metaphoric ilk like that. I'll have to find it. 

The woods were calling to me. I wanted to go wander around the trees so badly. But I had to go to work, and if I walked any closer to the trees, I'd be there all day until the moon came out. So I had to decline and answer their call another day. 

"The woods are lovely, dark, and deep

But I have promises to keep

And miles to go before I sleep

And miles to go before I sleep."

 -- Robert Frost

I can't remember what the title of that poem is. Robert Frost is the master of nature in poetry though. And that line is true for me. On so many levels. (Also, I apologize if I quoted it wrong; that was from memory. :P)

"The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still" Exodus 14:14 (NIV). 

I think this is something I need to learn. 

Being still is. . . I don't know. It sounds peaceful. And then I think about all the things I have to do. I guess it's about learning how to be a little more Mary and a little less Martha? Does that make sense? I mean, you need both. But they need to be balanced. 

It doesn't help that all the people in my life, even the well-meaning people, are putting more work on me in one way or other. I really just want to be rid of it. There is so much noise. So much distraction and static. Everyone wants one thing of me or another. They want me to be this for them or that for them. I just want to get away from them all. To be still. Where it is quiet. Away from their influence. So I can just listen to the one who matters, and be who He wants me to be. 

Honestly, I'm sick of everyone else.

Yes, I've been reading Phantom of the Opera. It's for a school project, but of course, I got a choice in the matter so. . . it's for fun too. And I am super excited about it. Between this and B&B, I'm thinking I should try more French literature. 

Well, I'm off now. It's almost 6a, and I still haven't, uh, what do they call it? Oh, yes. Sleep.

What has been going on in your world lately? Any writing? Any good books? Any gray skies? Any random paradoxes? Have you read Phantom of the Opera, or any other French lit?