"It was indeed wondrous that Christ was conceived in a womb, but it is no less striking that he be borne in our hearts."
-St. Peter Damian
Friday, December 25, 2009
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Monday, December 14, 2009
I love my family
What can compare to Christmas? And what can compare to home. Nothing.
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
To Be Alone With You
Tomorrow I move out of my single room into a brand new apartment where I will be living with three other girls starting in January. Then, I am on the plane to come home. God has turned my bitter tears into laughter, and I will miss the quiet moments I had here, alone with Jesus. A new season has begun.
Good-bye to cooking for just one.
"My lover said to me, 'Rise up, my beloved, my fair one, and come away. For the winter is past, and the rain is over and gone. The flowers are springing up, and the time of singing birds has come, even the cooing of turtle doves. The fig trees are budding, and the grapevines are in blossom. How delicious they smell! Yes, spring is here! Arise, my beloved, my fair one, and come away."
Song of Songs 1:10-13
For a song that so perfectly expresses how God gave everything just to be alone with us, listen to the first song after being navigated by this link.
Sunday, December 6, 2009
And then God Speaks.
Who defined the boundaries of the sea as it burst from the womb, and as I clothed it with clouds and thick darkness? For I locked it behind barred gates, limiting its shores. I said, "Thus far and no farther will you come. Here you proud waves must stop!
Have you ever commanded the morning to appear and caused the dawn to rise in the east? Have you ever told the daylight to spread to the ends of the earth, to bring an end to the night's wickedness? For the features of the earth take shape as the light approaches, and the dawn is robed in red. The light disturbs the haunts of the wicked, and it stops the arm that is raised in violence.
Have you explored the springs from which the seas come? Have you walked about and explored their depths? Do you know where the gates of death are located? Have you seen the gates of utter gloom? Do you realize the extent of the earth? Tell me about it if you know!
Where does the light come from, and where does the darkness go? Can you take it to its home? Do you know how to get there? But of course you know all this! For you were born before it was all created, and you are so very experienced!
Have you visited the treasuries of the snow? Have you seen where the hail is made and stored? I have reserved it for the time of trouble, for the day of battle and war. Where is the path to the origin of light? Where is the home of the east wind?
Who created a channel for the torrents of rain? Who laid out the path for the lightning? Who makes the rain fall on barren land, in a desert where no one lives? Who sends the rain that satisfies the parched ground and makes the tender grass spring up?
Does the rain have a father? Where does dew come from?...
Can you hold back the movements of the stars?...
Can you shoult to the clouds and make it rain...?
Can you stalk prey for a lioness and satisfy the young lions' appetites as they lie in their dens or crouch in the thicket?...
Do you know when the mountain goats give birth?...
Who makes the wild donkey wild?...
Will the wild ox consent to being tamed?...
The ostrich flaps her wings grandly, but they are no match for the feathers of the stork...
Have you given the horse its strength or clothed its neck with a flowing mane?...
Are you the one who makes the hawk soar and spread its wings to the south?...
DO YOU STILL WANT TO ARGUE WITH THE ALMIGHTY? YOU ARE GOD'S CRITIC, BUT DO YOU HAVE THE ANSWERS?"
Job 38:4-40:3
Sunday, November 29, 2009
When trifling afairs are lost
I come home in just two weeks. I decided to wait a while to write about last weekend, knowing that it would be just about...now....when I would desperately need to remember it. It was only last Saturday that I, along with two other Americans and two Germans, piled into a small, rented car, and drove 3 1/2 hours to a cabin on the Hardangerfjord. We decided to take an entire weekend to celebrate Thanksgiving. After a morning of of windy mountain roads and the always-appropriate Nickel Creek music blaring over the speakers, we arrived to our red cabin, located just 20 feet from the edge of the water.

After unpacking the car, we made our way to the small shed below the cabin that held dry firewood for our small fireplace.

Before we embarked on the meal preparations, we took the afternoon to dwell in this majesty:

But if you weren't careful, the childish boasting of the mountains would take all of your attention, and you would walk right past the flirtatious drops of rain hanging from each and every leaf and needle. But God knows my weakness for these subtleties that tempt me to daydream and wander from the path, my hand forever gripped tightly around my beloved camera.

That night, as I sat on these rocks and allowed the strength and beauty of God to wash over, around, and through me, I was immediately reminded of a quotation from St. Therese of Lisieux that a friend sent me at the beginning of this fall.
After unpacking the car, we made our way to the small shed below the cabin that held dry firewood for our small fireplace.
Before we embarked on the meal preparations, we took the afternoon to dwell in this majesty:
And if you were overwhelmed by the misty, damp air, the mountains looked just as beautiful out the many windows of the cabin.
But if you weren't careful, the childish boasting of the mountains would take all of your attention, and you would walk right past the flirtatious drops of rain hanging from each and every leaf and needle. But God knows my weakness for these subtleties that tempt me to daydream and wander from the path, my hand forever gripped tightly around my beloved camera.
That night, as I sat on these rocks and allowed the strength and beauty of God to wash over, around, and through me, I was immediately reminded of a quotation from St. Therese of Lisieux that a friend sent me at the beginning of this fall.
"Later, in the hour of trial, when I am imprisoned in Carmel and able to see only a small patch of sky, I shall recall today and it will give me strength. All my trifling affairs will be lost in the power and majesty of God. I shall love only Him and I shall escape the misfortune of attaching myself to trifles, now that I have glimpsed what He has in store for those who love Him."
-St. Therese of Lisieux
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Sheep
All of this made me think about St. Paul, and how he bragged about belonging to the "Great Shepherd." I think it's absolutely hilarious that humans are compared to sheep in the scripture. I can see someone getting extremely offended by this. But I actually think it's stunningly beautiful that humans are so helpless, and whether we admit it or not, are greatly in need of a shepherd. There is so much shame in our culture around this word "need." Ironically, the more we admit our helplessness, the stronger we are. The Kingdom of God is full of so many oxymora, no wonder one must be a child in order to enter.
"God did not tell us to follow him because he needed our help, but because he knew that loving him would make us whole."
-St. Irenaeus
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Good with a capital "G"
Next came a piece of apple cake that my friend graciously bought for us to share at a coffee house near the Grieg Academy. It was a perfect snack to tide me over as I plunged into the history of the flute school at the Paris Conservatoire. All it takes is a little coffee, a little cake, and a little company to make studying a simply delightful experience.
And how should a Good day come to an end? Well, with some bluegrass of course. A girl I met a few days ago, who will be one of my housemates starting in January, came into my practice room and played "Amazing Grace" for me on her fiddle...in "bluegrass" style. I cried and asked her to play it again. Joy. Simple joy radiated from every note she played.
Amazing grace is...finding home in a little, run-down practice room, on the top floor of an old, vine-covered music school, all the way in Bergen, Norway. God is Good.
Monday, October 19, 2009
Sunday, October 11, 2009
I'd take a home in the mountains if I could
After a long night of attempting my Norwegian, I was one of the first to go to bed. Apparently 1:00 am is still too early for these socializing fanatics. I was also the first one to rise out of all the girls sleeping in my room, which meant that I was the first one to romantically push the window curtain aside and gaze upon the first snowfall of the year. My Narnia was here.
Inside the cabin, there were candles burning continuously in every room, a fire in the fireplace, a bottomless pot of coffee...
Saturday, September 26, 2009
When I wear my holey tights...
Little did she know that all day long I had been thinking about my secret. The secret of the hole in my tights. When I wear my holey tights, I am an 8-year-old girl making her way back home after an afternoon of frolicking through the prairie grass. When I wear my holey tights, I am 14 years old, helping mom with the weekend chores while I eat a big juicy red apple from my backyard apple tree. When I wear my holey tights, I am a kindergartner on her first day of school, desperately trying to find another little girl to whisper secrets to about the cute boy sitting across from her. When I wear my holey tights I'm...Rebecca. Because the idea of holey tights fits so well with a name like "Rebecca."
Maybe next week I'll try to describe my holey tights' characters in my music. After all, one can only keep a secret for so long before she must be vulnerable and blurt it out.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
A composer successfully remembered
This excerpt from C.M. v Weber's Op. 28 is drawn in pencil on one of the practice room walls at the Grieg Academy. I sat there staring at it for probably about 10 minutes. I tried to imagine the whole story behind the person who drew it. I bet it was a cellist. Cellists are often the most passionate musicians in an orchestra, and therefore the most likely to get so obsessed with a single line of music to spend hours meticulously drawing it on the wall. And I bet this cellist had stayed in this room until 2 am, studying op. 28, and finally with a sudden outburst cried, "I must write out this beautiful line on the wall so everyone who comes in here can be reminded of von Weber's brilliance!" Well I suppose he succeeded...with me at least.
Sunday, September 6, 2009
"The loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be brought low"
This next smaller train brought us deeper and deeper into the fjords, mysteriously giving us a glimpse here and there of the beauty to come.
The train stopped in the middle of the tracks so we could all gaze on a gigantic waterfall. We all ran to the nearest door in order to get the "best" picture to bring home to our families. The pouring rain didn't seem to stop anyone.
Well, maybe a few...
The next leg of the trip was on a ferry that went through the fjords...the part where the glory of God is Unmistakable. Overwhelming. Fearful. The kind of fear that goes beyond awe. The kind of fear that makes your realize on a deeper level just how small you are, and just how big God is. A conviction that, if forgotten for even a moment, will sooner or later bring you to your knees once again.
-"Pilgrim at Tinker Creek" by Annie Dillard
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Fairy tales really do come true...
I suppose he simply can't help himself.
Later, we decided to rejuvenate ourselves with a snack from the tourist-trap cafe right by Ole Bull's house.
Later, we decided to rejuvenate ourselves with a snack from the tourist-trap cafe right by Ole Bull's house.
My friend Bernadette told me that when I get a heart-shaped waffle in Norway I should run down the street saying "I got the vaffeler! I got the vaffeler!" Well...I didn't exactly do that. (In the olden days in Norway when a man asks the woman's parents for their daughter's hand in marriage, the parents will either serve heart-shaped waffles, meaning "yes," or flat ones meaning "no.") Perhaps next time...
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