Rainbow Hair

I have pink hair

I have laughed and laughed

Life is so full of rain

My yellowed eyes are all full of

Rain and there is nothing

But rain and go away

Because no one wants you

Or your beesting whistle pipe smiling

If you touch the balloons you will

My hands are crackled and we see

Rainbows [in my hair]

Just some thoughts from stormy, hurricane-swept Pennsylvania as we had our devotional this morning. I don't think I've ever written a poem that combines concepts from My Little Pony and The Prodigal God. (Whoa! I actually gave some of the inspiration for my poem for you to know! So weird! I guess this makes it less ambiguous. -C.)

Maps

I drew a map today of seven countries that live only in my mind. It has a beautiful coastline, and it's just as I pictured it to be.

It reminds me of The Little Prince, which is a book I can not recommend highly enough.

Hmm... am I crazy to draw maps? My sister thinks I am. After the whole Mapping the World by Heart adventure of school three years ago, Joss is pretty turned off maps.

"Oceans are endearing.

Roads divide. They cut and separate." someone said to me once.

Let us swim for a while, dear one, and we'll drink the sky until the sun remembers us. Then the morning will gild the butterflies in their royal splendor, and heaven will smile. You and I will smile and the world will be all of snow.

Sigh.

God is good.

PREP... Who Threw Up in the Stove?

KMac walks into kitchen just as Catey spills the zucchini soup that KMac DOES NOT like in the stove while trying to transfer it into a Ziploc to freeze.

KMac: WHOA! Who threw up in the stove?

Potty Plunger Boy: What???

KMac: What? I can't help it that zucchinis look like vomit.

She'll be having canned tomato soup for dinner tonight.

PREP... Joy is Strength

(Written at the Moon's house waiting to go grocery shopping so I can make dinner...)

It's going to be a short post today, but suffice it to say that Camp was awesome! I had opportunity to step into some leadership training and opportunities, and my cabin group was awesome! (They won two simulations!)

Camp was an encouragement to me that I was indeed a speaker worth listening to - not because I'm great or I have any right to demand the respect of my audience, but because when God places you in a situation where you must speak, he will also give you the words to say, and so it's not you they here, but him.

Here at PREP, I'm one of seven team members (our soundoff is in Korean - I'm ilgop.) It's been an awesome two days and I'm excited to see all that God will do. The team (meaning the staff here) is so wonderful. They are sweet to me (except for one... who sprays me while I'm doing the dishes...) It's awesome! I can't wait to get to the store, because I'm making scones for breakfast (I miss you, Auntie Angi! I'll make them for you as soon as I get home!)

So... that's all for now! I promise I'll write more later. But look! I posted! Isn't this rare! Isn't that wonderful! And I didn't even sing about seeing people on plates.

With joy,

Catey

I Guess This Is Goodbye

"I guess this is goodbye, old pal

You've been a perfect friend.

I hate to see us part, old pal

[Soon, I will] be back.

I'll see you soon again

I hope that when I do

It won't be on a plate..."

Maybe that song is not quite as appropriate as I had first thought. Though I hope the next time I see all of you, it won't be on a plate.

Tomorrow at the crack of dawn, Joss and I are heading off to Tennessee, for a few days and a few weeks, respectively. So, to all of you Colorado people, to my family, and to many of you, I guess this is goodbye. But I'll see you soon again, in a few weeks.

I love you. Goodbye.

"And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called to one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your heart to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him."

See you soon! (and not on a plate!)

Birthday Party

Tuesday was J.R.R. Tolkien's birthday. I can't believe I missed it, for now I am sad. Tolkien is one of my favorites.... argh. So, I'll now write a post in honor of Tolkien... but since he was such a brilliant author, I may quote a bit.

"All that is gold does not glitter
Not all who wander are lost
The old that is strong does not wither
Deep roots are not touched by the frost
From the ashes a fire will be woken
A light from the shadows shall spring
Renewed shall be blade that was broken
And the crownless again shall be king."

"Faithless is he who says farewell when the road darkens."

"It's a dangerous business - stepping out your front door. "

"Short cuts make long delays."

"I do not love the bright sword for it's sharpness, nor the arrow for it's swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend.”“It must often be so, Sam, when things are in danger: someone has to give them up, lose them, so that others may keep them.”“I warn you, if you bore me, I shall take my revenge.”

Hehe... I love Tolkien. I promise I'll write a good post sometime before MASTERS... though I've no idea when...

Thought

"There is no use walking somewhere to preach unless our walking is our preaching." Francis of Assisi.

I wish I knew Francis.

What are your thoughts on this quote?

EDIT: The first two people to leave a comment will have a creative ode written to them : )

The Princess

Once upon a time, there was a princess. She lived in a castle far away by the sea, where dragons used to dwell. One day, the princess threw a pebble from her castle window down into the green-blue sea below. "Oh dear!" cried the princess, as ripples deeper than the waves spread in perfect rings from her pebble. "My treasure is lost forever." You see, quite by accident, the princess had cast this pebble which contained the greatest of her treasures into a sea which she knew beyond the shadow of a doubt would tear it apart and leave it empty and hollow. So the princess dove into the sea, and felt in the waters around her the whisper and shout of a thousand hurtful words, all screaming:
"My heart is torn! There is a hole in my heart!"
The princess cried out and held out her hands, and there was darkness in the palm of her hand. She covered her ears, but there was still much screaming rushing in her ears. She shut her eyes, and yet there was still the sight of tears falling from a drooping seaweed. She was afraid, so she rushed up to the surface, screaming:
"My treasure is not worth the pain!"
Just as she reached the sunlight of the world above, she heard the sound of wings on water, of poetry, of an angel's kiss. "Thank you."
Again, "Thank you."
"Thank you.... thank... you....."
"For what?" The princess said. "Who are you?"
"We are the crying ones beneath the water. You left us a gift. We thank you... thank you..."
"What gift? I left you no gift!""The pebble. You gave us a pebble which encased a grain of truth. The truth has melted away the mud which bound us to the sea floor. Do you see what happened to us now?"
The princess looked around. "I do not see you."
"We are no longer the waves of the ocean, tossed by the foul wind. We are creatures of the air now. Your gift is freeing us. We thank you... thank..."
Their voices faded off into the sound of the wind over the water.
The princess looked into the sea. Her treasure meant so much to her... to give it up would spell doom, wouldn't it?
She had let her treasure go, but had it really left her?

That's what I'm thinking about : )

I'm Back

One hen
Two ducks
Three squawking geese
Four limerick oysters
Five corpulent porpoises
Six pairs of Don Alverso's tweezers
Seven thousand Macedonians in full battle array
Eight brass monkeys from the ancient sacred crypse of Egypt
Nine apathetic sympathetic diabetic old men on roller skates with a marked propensity toward procrastination and sloth
Ten lyrical spherical diabolical denizans of the deep who haul stall around the corner of the quo of the quay of the quivery
All at the same time.

(Why? Because I don't have time to write a full post about the amazingness of ICC Camp.
Why that poem? Well, you'll have to stay tuned to read all about it.
Why wait? Because it's too phenomenal to write in short form.
Why so phenomenal? Great people, like the people I love and miss so much I'm referring to them as my Camp Family and who include interns and teens, fantastic memories, like things about cows, flight attendants, and Rick Astley, and lots of fun. Like I said, stay tuned.
-Catey
Who misses her Camp Family)

Pure Brilliance

White snow
Falls into the black
That is my soul
The bloodstained hands
Reaching out toward
The sunset sky of
Despairing seas
Tossed by a windblown
Idea or unknown
Thought
Pure brilliance and
Love
The white of snow
Covers me
Holds me close,
Close submerges me in
Clean water like
The cool of icy white
And the forgiveness
Beginning
Of white snow.

I promise this is the last poem for a while.

Coming up next: Part III of the Purple Mold Trilogy...

The Starlight

Silvery starlight
Dances from a hidden
Moonlit night
With silent hopeful hands
Outstretched toward
Leaping goals
So far from reach
In a deadly world of
Pain and misery
What one thing mirrors
Heartfelt glimmers
That thing which is beyond
All knowledge
All life and
Love
Without the pain,
Without the whimpering torment
Of another's lie
There is something
Beyond and
Perfect beyond
All measure
Hiding in the silver of
The starlight

Something Unusual

I'm going to publish something unusual today. It's a poem.

I am so small
Hidden away from the great eye in the blue
In this wild of nothingness
So alone
I am No One,
Nothing. And no one is here.
Doesn’t anybody care?
Here I am, caught
In this grey, leering fog
Of myself.
I’m caught in this web of deceit and pain.
Where am I?
Who am I?
My heart beats, heat and cold jerk me from reality to illusion,
I’m alive. But what
Does that mean?
Someone is coming to rescue me from this
I hope.
I know someone will come
I pray.
Rescue me
From this empty.