Market Square

This post is specifically for Ashley Huffaker - my newest blog reader!

Market Square is a pretty fun place! There's always something interesting going on in Downtown Knoxville.  Market Square is home to a couple of fun shops and a couple of really good restaurants.  I went down there tonight with my friend Ashley and we had a rather interesting experience.  We had just finished dinner and I had a box of leftovers sitting next time while we were enjoying ice cream from Rita's.  This homeless guy with really long dreads and a guitar came over and said he would sing us a good song for my left overs.  Well his song was terrible but I gave him my left overs anyway.  Market Square is generally pretty safe but it's easy to get into a bad part of town quickly.  These guys were harmless.  There were probably 8 or 10 of them and they were all just standing around playing music.  There were a couple of guitars, a couple banjos and even a fiddle.

Other than that excitement - Ashley and I had a pretty fantastic time together!

Vampire Weekend

This weekend I went to The Tennessee Theater to see Vampire Weekend.  The band was part of a music festival that took place in Knoxville this weekend called Big Ears 2010.  It's mostly a bunch of indie bands and musicians.  I had actually only heard of one or two of the 25 or so bands that were in town for the weekend.  Apparently there were a lot of really good people there and I'm going to check them out and probably participate in a few more of the concerts at this festival next year!

Vampire Weekend was great!  I really enjoyed them.

A Few of My Favorite Things

I'm going to copy my friend Lindsey with this post but, this will be a post about some of the favorite things that I've been enjoying lately and I would say might be worth your time!  Actually - turns out that they're ALL food...Haha!  Guess that shows where my priorities are!

Diet Dr. Pepper.

I've been more than slightly addicted to this drink since my junior year in college.

Real Simple Magazine.  

I recently started reading this mag.  It's FAB and has great recipes, fashion tips, decorating tips and other fun things inside.

Food Network Magazine.

This is a pretty new magazine but it has a TON of really good recipes in it.  I've really enjoyed getting it and just renewed my subscription!

Arnold Sandwich Thins.

My mom got me onto these.  They're expensive but they're pretty good.  I think they're better than bread and I've been enjoying eating them!

Earth Fare.

Love this grocery store!  It's expensive but it's nice and fun because it's different and they have fun things like Chipotle Pimento Cheese! Yummy!

It Is Well

You know the song - "It is well, with my soul".  We sang it in church this morning and every time I hear that song I am brought to tears by the events that lead up to it's writing by Horatio G Spafford. 


Horatio Spafford lived with his family - 4 daughters, 1 son, and wife - in Chicago.  His son was only 4 when he died from scarlet fever.  He also lost almost everything he owned in the Great Chicago Fire.  He decided to take his family on a vacation to Europe, just get away from all the terrible things that had happened.  He was about to leave with his remaining children and wife when he was called back to the city for work.  He sent his family ahead on the ship as planned with plans to join them soon.  While the ship was on it's way to Europe with his family, it crashed into another ship and sank.  His children were all lost, only his wife survived.  He left the following day on another ship to join her in Europe.  While he was on the ship, he wrote It Is Well.  


What amazingly horrible circumstances to write such amazing words.  I think about this when I sing the words and am overwhelmed by how much I complain about my circumstances.  I really am so thankful for the way my life has turned out.  Not that things are perfect or even how I thought they would be BUT things are good.  Really good.  And the words in this hymn are such a wonderful reminder that "whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say, It is well, it is well with my soul".

When peace like a river, attendeth my way,

When sorrows like sea billows roll;

Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say,

It is well, it is well, with my soul.

Refrain:

It is well, with my soul,

It is well, with my soul,

It is well, it is well, with my soul.

Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,

Let this blest assurance control,

That Christ has regarded my helpless estate,

And hath shed His own blood for my soul.

My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!

My sin, not in part but the whole,

Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,

Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!

And Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight,

The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;

The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,

Even so, it is well with my soul.

Living in the Present - Part II

At Bible Study this past week, the leader asked us to share what had been going on in our lives.  I felt so scattered.  I wanted to share but I just couldn't voice it and felt like I talked a lot but didn't say anything.

We've been traveling for work for 4 weeks in a row, with plans to be out of town for 1/2 of this week.  That will make 5 weeks. In a row. Eating out. Sleeping in a hotel. Being with co-workers entirely too much. Being away from home.  It's a lot and I think it's got my mind running 1,000 miles an hour, feeling unsettled, uncertain and anxious.

I've got this over bearing weight of "what will happen next???" on my shoulders  Things are going well.  Really well.  I seriously do not have ONE thing to complain about.  But considering the track record of my life, especially over the past year and a half I just know that another hammer is about to drop.  I, however, cannot continue to live my life like this.  I do have a lot going on (I won't write about all of it...yet) but there's so much going on and there have been a lot of changes in my life over the past year.  Mostly good changes.  But...

Change is hard. 

So, not only do I live in the past with re-thinking about all the events of my life, but I worry about the future.  I worry about the next step.  I've been able to take a deep breath for the first time in a long time, so long.  I'm enjoying it but there are a lot of things in the future that I think about: relationships, the condo, the CPA exam, work, living...and on and on and on!  That brings me back to living in the present.  It's where Jesus is. It's where my thoughts should be.  Where my thoughts should be. In the here and now.

Living in the Present

I've had several conversations with friends lately about living in the present.  The here and now.  Until this point in my life, I've been encouraged to look to the future...where are you going to college? Where are you going to grad school? Where are you going to live? Where will you work? What's going to be the next step?  Always focusing on the next step...I think it is vital to live in the here and now.  And it's so easy to get caught up in what's next.

For me, even more than life's "What nexts", I tend to focus on the past.  I daydream about what's already happened, rather than what is going to happen.  I continually reflect over the events of the past few years.  In some ways my life has been pretty uneventful, but in other ways it has been completely ridiculously crazy - especially over the past year and a half.  I can be taken back to that moment in November 2008 so quickly, yet it is March 2010. Even beyond that though - I relive conversations and interactions with friends....See- even now I'm getting distracted from the present!!

I stole this from Jon at SCL. "Learn to live in the present. I think satan is desperate to keep you out of the now, because it’s where Christ lives. I’m convinced that in the moment, in the hours we’re given, Christ is waiting. And satan loves to keep us focused on a past we can’t change or a future we can’t control instead of in a present we can participate in."

• God is good and he works in ways that we will never understand
• His timing and resources are limitless
• His vision for this work exceeds anything that we originally dreamed - Ephesians 3:20

I find great peace, joy and trust in those things.  Knowing that He works in ways I will never understand can help keep me focused on the present.  It helps me know that living in the past and constantly thinking about the future doesn't do much for me.  It keeps me out of the present.  It keeps my heart from a waiting Christ.

Hope

 

Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune--without the words,
And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.

I've heard it in the chillest land,
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.

- Emily Dickinson