Shredder Girl, Episode 4: maybe I should stop writing long titles like this...

There are some things that you just can't describe. The first time you hear birds chirp in the spring. The smell of home after a long journey away. The way it feels to ride a rollercoaster. So many things in life that just seem to be beyond words.

Riding a mountain is one of those things. People keep asking me what makes Colorado different, or why it's so amazing so far. Honestly, I can give them reasons, but I can't actually describe it. The word I keep using is breathless.

I've probably used that word over 20 times since moving here. But I seriously do feel breathless - partially because of the high altitude, which makes even walking downstairs become a breathless moment, and partially because of the fact that this place is so beyond what I could ever imagine.

But God is speaking to me through the awe and the breathlessness. He's showing me that it's good that I realize my own weakness. That I need to be humble.

Have you ever watched Inception? It's an amazing movie that kind of rips apart your idea of dreams, time, and...ideas. One of those movies that you can't zone out while you watch it or you'll miss everything. I kind of adore those types of movies, the ones that make you cock your head and go, "Wait...what?"

Anyway, I did have a point in bringing up that movie. There's a scene in the movie that just keeps coming to me. Every time I look at the mountains and I can't breathe because they're real. Every time I realize that I work and live on this mountain and there's no way I deserve it, and no way I'm a good enough rider to be here. Each time, this line just hits me like a well-placed piece of bacon:

"You mustn't be afraid to dream a little bigger, darling."

And I smile when I think of it because it's like words straight from God. He's the one who put me here. He's saying, "Stop thinking about your weaknesses. I am strong. That is all you need to know. I put you here to play, laugh, enjoy, and work - in My name. Don't be afraid to dream bigger than you ever have before."

I also laugh when these words come to mind, because the scene in the movie is one where Joseph Gordon-Levitt is shooting at bad guys with a little machine gun (or something), and Tom Hardy, broad and masculine, steps up with a rocket launcher and snidely remarks, "You mustn't be afraid to dream a little bigger, darling."

So if you're struggling in the pits or living high off the hog (don't make fun of my usage of cliches), remember that God has plans bigger than even your imagination can see. His plans, thoughts, words, and ways are so much higher and bigger and crazier than ours! Don't trap yourself by your own boundaries; be freed to follow this crazy God of ours.

Isaiah 55:8-9
Psalm 61:2

Don't be afraid to let yourself be breathless...even if that means risking your life. 

Filling the Bucket

A bucket list is a...list...(:P) full of hopes and dreams -- things that you want to fulfil before you proverbially "kick the bucket." Mine is fairly random.

I like to put lots of big things on my list; the small things just stay tucked away in my heart. I'm seriously considering pulling all of them out and stacking them on paper, one by one. We shall see. It's called filling the bucket, doncha know?

I have everything from:

Acquiring a pair of red shoes

to

Going skydiving

to

Starting a whipped cream fight

to

Riding in a hot air balloon


Anyway, my bucket list is here.

Find your own bucket and start filling it. I hope you take some things out now and again and label them as memories. A bucket list is only great fun if you take care to cross things off of it:)

[This post is being entered in a "Bucket List" contest by a fellow blogger.]

Spills and Dreams

So the other day, I *happened* to be walking in front of my mirror while holding a water bottle (yes, I tend to be attracted to mirrors xD soo vain of me). I thought I saw something on my back so I angled myself so I could see my backside in the mirror, simultaneously lifting the water bottle up so I could take a drink. I somehow missed my mouth - and my face - and managed to dump water all over my the left side of my sweatshirt.

I don't know how these things happen to me. Really, I don't.

I've decided to tell you my dream from last night because it's hilarious. And also because...I can actually remember quite a few details from this particular escapade in dreamland:)

I was in a house (a ranch-style house, in case you were wondering) in Alaska. I don't know how I knew I was in Alaska, because there really weren't any windows and I never went outside; it's so great having all this knowledge in dreams! Anyway, we were having a garage sale...INDOORS. Obviously, since in Alaska there's always snow, right? :P

I went in one of the back rooms to get something, or check something, and came back out (without any...pants...on...ah! no one noticed though, luckily *whew* lol). There were these two Japanese girls there and they wanted to know if we had any winter hats. Apparently, they hadn't brought any winter gear with them to Alaska. Also, just as a side note, we were having a garage sale - not starting a business. If we didn't have any hats out there for sale, then go somewhere else! But whatever.

I say, "Sure," and go into another back room and pull out a box that has my hats in it (I love my hats, by the way) and another, larger box that has all of Lydy's hats and gloves and stuff in it (the Lydy family goes to our church and I'm good friends with them). As I open it up, Joel Lydy (who is younger than me) comes up and is like, "You can't take that one, because it's so-and-so's..." and so we go through all of them and make sure to leave all of the hats that belong to someone in the box. I thank him, profusely, and give him a high-five because it would have been a disaster to sell all of their hats AND their cousins (their cousins live in TN, so I'm not sure why they left their hats with us...in Alaska...hm).

I take out the chosen hats and let the Japanese girls sort through them and pick the ones they want. Then I go off and start helping with other areas of the garage sale. My mom, who is taking care of the money, etc., starts bagging up the Japanese girls' stuff, and I'm suddenly filled with the most urgent fear that she is going to give my hats away FOR FREE instead of making them pay for them! So this whole spiel of how I'm only going to charge them fifty cents or a dollar each for the hats gets thrown down the drain and I'm pretty upset.

I don't know if she ever charged them for the hats or not. That's kind of when my dream morphed into a new one, one I can't really remember...

I'm still sick and suddenly very excited about reading Les Mis (which I have not read yet) because a certain friend of mine keeps talking about it on her blog. I'm also getting more and more enthusiastic about photography, playing piano (so I can have something beautiful to play on the amazing grand piano at a certain ball I'm going to in March...), writing, and snowboarding (which I miss dearly since it's been a week from last time I went, and also because I fear the season is ending soon).

Au revoir!
[reminds herself to go, NOW, and practice her French ;)]