She Thinks She's Witty

Every since Jeremy introduced me to the great Sufi Master, Hafiz , I've been in love with his work. Some of it I can't follow at all and some of it gets right at how I'm feeling. Here's a good one I found today! Tired of Speaking Sweetly Love wants to reach out and manhandle us, Break all our teacup talk of God. If you had the courage and Could give the Beloved His choice, some nights, He would just drag you around the room By your hair, Ripping from your grip all those toys in the world That bring you no joy. Love sometimes gets tired of speaking sweetly And wants to rip to shreds All your erroneous notions of truth That make you fight within yourself, dear one, And with others, Causing the world to weep On too many fine days. God wants to manhandle us, Lock us inside of a tiny room with Himself And practice His dropkick. The Beloved sometimes wants To do us a great favor: Hold us upside down And shake all...

This morning I preached at York Center Church of the Brethren. Here's what I said! Scripture: Matthew 14:22-31 22-23  As soon as the meal was finished, he insisted that the disciples get in the boat and go on ahead to the other side while he dismissed the people. With the crowd dispersed, he climbed the mountain so he could be by himself and pray. He stayed there alone, late into the night. 24-26  Meanwhile, the boat was far out to sea when the wind came up against them and they were battered by the waves. At about four o’clock in the morning, Jesus came toward them walking on the water. They were scared out of their wits. “A ghost!” they said, crying out in terror. 27  But Jesus was quick to comfort them. “Courage, it’s me. Don’t be afraid.” 28  Peter, suddenly bold, said, “Master, if it’s really you, call me to come to you on the water.” 29-30  He said, “Come ahead.” Jumping out of the boat, Peter walked on the water to Jesus. But when he looke...

Dealing with Feelings, PART 2 by Rachel Witkovsky The hatred was sublime and palpable. Almost as if one could feel it from their third row, center seat. The tears poured forth in waves of sorrow. “The audience was afraid it would be flooded with feelings,” she laughs. It was a show that made them feel what the actors felt Because the actors felt what the playwright felt. All due to the feelings of the characters rubbing off on the playwright. “Everyone was feeling the feelings of someone else,” she smirks. The theatre does that. Makes a person delve into the anatomy of someone else’s heart. But who wants to examine their own? “Deal with others’ emotions before yours,” she advises. Life would be a lot harder to deal with. If everyone felt what was being conveyed on stage in their own life. No one can have such raw emotions in their hearts, express it, And go on living a 9 to 5 life. Hope blossoms as a tree in spring. Fear clutches as icy fi...

      Rutabagas come from Sweden, they say, but I know different. Something with that many A's in the name can't be from Sweden, anyway. There are no A's at all in the word Sweden. Enough said on that topic.      I have never eaten a rutabaga and didn't even know  how to  spell it until it appeared in a washer one day. There are three washers in the apartment basement and I picked the one with the rutabaga. I opened the lid to put my clothes in, like any normal person, and found this turnip-looking object staring back at me.      Most normal people would have either taken the plant out of the washer or moved to another one, but I couldn't look away. What was this odd creation I was looking at?  I figured that it was a space plant that got really lonely floating out there all by itself. One day, it was like, "I'm going to go meet that big blue, green, and white ball over there and make friends."   ...

Donna gave a very nice message in chapel last Wednesday about creativity. At the end, she gave us all pieces of paper. On them were writing "prompts" to get our creativity flowing. She challenged us to take them, do the activity, and use it as our benediction for the service. Or at least to take a creative break throughout the day. My prompt and response are here. Complete these sentences: The activity that gives me greatest joy is... I don't know if it would be truly considered an "activity" since you're not very active, but just sitting in a coffee shop, sipping a latte and either writing on my laptop or snuggled up in a corner on a comfy seat reading. The good qualities that best describe my life are... family-oriented, good friends, God's goodness, blessed, loved. The help that people most often solicit from me is... advice, I would like to think. Not that I'm good at the advice part, but I'm good at talking and sounding like I know wh...

Today we had "Second Breakfast" at the office to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the first publication of J.R.R. Tolkein's book, The Hobbit . It was a delightful affair with tea and bisquits, bangers and mash, pancakes, and hard boiled eggs. I feel so lucky to work in a place where we can have fun events like this over lunch time. We all got names of characters in the book or hobbit-esque names. This was mine: The meal reminded me of the movie coming out, though, and the movie that I used to watch when I was little. This is the hobbit that I remember: This is the new hobbit: That's a bit of a change, but I'm excited for the movie! I've still never actually read the book, though. I do feel kind of bad about that. It's one of those books that I feel everyone should read at least once. I'll add it to my list of books to read at some point. Cheerio, Rach

Design By Curly Girl

Right now Elizabeth Gilbert is my inspiration. She gets me and she doesn't even know it, lol. I love the movie Eat, Pray, Love , but I was loving the book even more. I'm reading another book right now for a book talk I'm leading, but after that's done, I'm headed straight back to the writings of Ms. Gilbert. One of my favorite quotes from the book and the movie is the one about her missing her boyfriend, David: “I’m not laughing.” I was actually crying. “And please don’t laugh at me now, but I think the reason it’s so hard for me to get over this guy is because I seriously believed David was my soul mate. ”He probably was. Your problem is you don’t understand what that word means. People think a soul mate is your perfect fit, and that’s what everyone wants. But a true soul mate is a mirror, the person who shows you everything that’s holding you back, the person who brings you to your own attention so you can change your life. A true soul mate is probably the mo...

So I don't plan to just keep posting song lyrics, but this one struck me as well. And I like this song, actually. It just made me think of how I've been thinking about wanting to fall in love. Asking God when he might send the right guy my way or if I already missed him because I wasn't paying attention. I feel like this is kind of him answering me. "What would you do for love? This love your dreaming of?" I don't really think God is snarky or anything but I feel like it's a bit of a challange to me. Kind of a series of questions he's sending my way to contemplate: You want love, but how much do you really want it? Are you willing to work at when the going gets tough? Or are you just dreaming of a fairy tale? What would you do for love? Will it be worth it when you get it if it's not the fantasy you've been hoping for? Careful what you wish for. Are you really ready? Anyway, thinking about all this and I heard this song and it struc...

Not a huge fan of this song, but I really love the quote and the lyrics. They really fit my thinking right now so I thought I'd just post them here to ponder. :-D "A Place In This World" (Taylor Swift) I don't know what I want, so don't ask me Cause I'm still trying to figure it out Don't know what's down this road, I'm just walking Trying to see through the rain coming down Even though I'm not the only one Who feels the way I do I'm alone, on my own, and that's all I know I'll be strong, I'll be wrong, oh but life goes on Oh, I'm just a girl, trying to find a place in this world Got the radio on, my old blue jeans And I'm wearing my heart on my sleeve Feeling lucky today, got the sunshine Could you tell me what more do I need And tomorrow's just a mystery, oh yeah But that's ok Maybe I'm just a girl on a mission But I'm ready to fly I'm alone, on my own, and that's al...

It's Book-My-Flights Day! Getting ready for summer. It won't be long now!

I've recently rediscovered my old fascination with Haiku poetry. I'm excited to start sharing some of my deep thoughts and emotions with you through this lost art form--or just having some fun with words! ;-) Rookie Fan Wrigley Field tonight! I'm wearing "my" Phillies' hat. Alright! Let's play ball!

I'm in Illinois now. It's not as cold as New Hampshire , but it was a rather chilly winter. Now the birds are singing, the sun is shinning, and life is grand! I'm living in a house with 5 other people and I'm working for the Church of the Brethren . I've been here for half a year, but I realized I never updated my blog with where I was. I'm doing this work through BVS (Brethren Volunteer Service) and it's a year long commitment to start. But who knows what will come next. I think I mentioned this all in an earlier post so I won't go into details, but know that I'm doing some great work, meeting some wonderful people, and learning a lot! Lollipops & Rainbows, Rachel

It takes forever but when you're done counting, it feels great to get them all off your hands! It also doesn't really feel like you paid anything at all because no one really counts pennies as a significant monetary unit. But they sure do all add up to something great if you let them! Hearts & Hugs, Rachel

**I recently posted this on the blog I share with my housemates, but I wanted to post it here as well. I thought it would be easier to track my progress on my personal blog.** I found this picture/quote on Pinterest , one of my new-old favorite things to do. It got me thinking, though, about how many times I have indeed felt this way. I've started numerous lists of what I would like to do, what I can do to better myself--physically, mentally, spiritually--but I rarely follow through on all or any of the items on my list. I think it's time to start a fresh list that I will actually keep and work on. A short and long-term to-do list. Doing it publically is a way for me to keep myself motivated and going. Even if no one is actually holding me accountable, I will hopefully feel the need to not let anyone down--whoever that "anyone" may be. So here's my list. Give me your honest opinion and hold me accountable if you feel so called! 1. Read at least one news articl...