7 Random Things

My sister-in-law Melanie tagged me to post 7 random things about myself. Here we go:

1. I really love to read

2. I've never owned a house although Martin and I are in the process right now of maybe becoming house owners and it's freaking me out. I keep telling myself "it's not that big of a deal, Nikki. People do this everyday...." I'm still freaking out.

3. I've ridden an ostrich before

4. I have 10 nieces and nephews. Any of them are welcome to come live with me whenever they (or their parents who need serenity) want. For as long as they want.

5. My bed is being propped up on one side by a former cat toy. This old rental house slants so much that Martin was literally steam rolling me (unintentionally) at night while sleeping, before we installed said cat toy. Thank you Chloe and Zoe for your sacrifice. It's greatly appreciated.

6. I enjoy cleaning. I could spend ridiculous amounts of time in the cleaning isle, and insist on trying every new cleaning gimmick that is invented. (this enjoyment excludes washing dishes)

7. I'm in love with a dead painter: Van Gogh.

Now, I'm supposed to tag 7 other people.
Brandy
Jess
Martin
Katie
Tanner
Kelli
Bekah...you are all hereby tagged. Here are the rules if you want to play:
1. Link to your tagger and post these rules on your blog.
2. Share seven facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
3. Tag seven people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.
4. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

Show People Christ (and maybe keep your mouth shut while you do it)

You show me your redeemed life and I might be inclined to believe in your redeemer.
--Heine

I love this quote. I think it's so true. How can we expect logic and reason to persuade others to believe in Christ when we aren't showing any of His characteristics?

How can we expect to convince others of Christ's love when we don't love them ourselves? If we claim that Jesus changes us for the better, we had better be able to show evidence of that. It's a joke if we're walking around complaining, having no patience with others, having no compassion for others problems. And it seems to me, that a lot of us don't even care enough about others to talk to them. And this might be radical but what if we have a conversation with someone that isn't about Jesus? What if we let people talk to us so that we can get to know them. So we can learn how to love them.

I'm afraid we're losing opportunities to show Christ's love because we feel the need to give the Romans Road every time we talk to someone. How much would Christ's love show if we allowed ourselves to give of ourselves completely to connect with those who need love?

I'm just beginning to learn this. And it's taking a lot of effort from me to think about others, all of the time. I am realizing how selfish I am. I have a friend who is really hurting. Like, really hurting. Her life is just a mess in about every way it could be. And I couldn't shake the thought that I really needed to do something to show her that I loved her (really, to show her what the love of Christ is like; because I don't have this kind of love in me naturally). I dropped by her house with a large bouquet of flowers and a card. She started crying. I was so caught off guard. And it was a humble, desperate cry. I didn't know what to do, so I hugged her. I told her that I really appreciate our friendship. She really didn't say much and she had to get going to an appointment she had. So, that was it. But I really was glad I did it.

My friend knows about my faith. We've had several conversations where I've been able to tell her what I believe. She's never really had much to say about it. And I honestly think it didn't matter much to her.

But me showing up with flowers and a card just to tell her I love her really broke her. It went beyond the casual conversation. I think it let her know that I could see her broken life and I wasn't going to tell her what she was doing wrong. That's not my position. I wanted her to know that even when she's a wreck, I was there. She knows I try to live my life with "morals". She also knows that I'm not perfect.

I'm not sure what I'm saying. People who call themselves "Christians" can so easily get a "know it all" attitude. A "listen-to-me-and-do-what-I-say-because-I-know-and-you-don't" attitude. I don't like listening to people like that. It's not at all effective for me. And I can't imagine it would be effective for anything. It makes me wonder why we do what we do. Is it to serve? Or is it to make ourselves feel better than others? Why are we trying to strong-arm and intimidate people in the name of Christ?!

This is all just a part of my growing conflict with American Evangelism.

What would you mark your grave with?

Kind of a strange topic I guess. But we were taking Tex for a walk with some friends and their dogs in a very large cemetery and as we were going along, we were trying to figure out what kind of markers we like the best.

The cemetery is beautiful. There's a paved walkway all the way through it and there are trees that you know have been there since the beginning of the cemetery; and then there are younger trees. There are fruit trees (that I am going to go back to in about 3-4 weeks to get pictures of when they bloom), and mossy ground. I'm always hesitant to go in a cemetary until I'm there and then I'm reminded how peaceful they are to me. That is, as long as I don't think about a book I read about a year ago titled "grave matters". It is honest detail of how the whole modern graveyard system works and how unpeaceful the process really is. But once it's done there's not much you can do about it and that's what I was telling myself so I could just concentrate on the nice walk.

We saw some marble spires that were about 15ft high. We saw statues of the dead in very majestic poses. There were white wooden crosses that the local native Americans place to mark their graves. Simple plaques, benches, elaborate metal figures of crosses with engravings on them. So many different ideas of how people want to be remembered and how people want to remember their loved ones.

I think it's a good idea. I understand that people like to reflect about ones they've lost. Especially as I age I see the significance of it. When you have people really involved in your life, there are moments when you want to go somewhere and be reminded of that and only that. Not that it has to be in a cemetery; but it's not a terrible place either. Makes you have a sense that we are all equal in death; it will happen to all of us.

So. I don't really know what I would want to mark my grave. So far, I think I would want something very natural and simple. My name. Dates of life. And maybe a symbol of something that means a lot to me (I'll definitely have to think of what that could be now). All of this would be on something very modest. Maybe just a really pretty stone that is carved.

No great conclusions for this post just something I was thinking about today.

In other {D} news: I'm reading a new novel titled "Like Water for Chocolate". I'll keep from describing until I'm done with it. We are looking for a house to buy, at the same time we're trying to decide if we are staying in P-Town for awhile. Did you expect anything less bizarre from us? And we are looking forward to going to Jessica's graduation in Chi-town in May. It's definitely time for me to go back to Chicago. The picture is an old barn that we explored a few weeks ago. It's not in the cemetery.

Sufjan Stevens is from Petoskey

I kind of knew this but never really thought about it. I just generally thought "it's cool that he's from Michigan and made an album about it". But when we were on a hike with some friends we've met up here (The Dawleys), we were listening to Sufjan and Sarah says "you know I went to school with him, right?" And I turned around and looked at her. She said "yeah, he graduated with my brother" and then she says "his dad works at wal-mart" and proceeds to describe what guy from wal-mart sufjan stevens' dad is. She's going to show me his high school yearbook pictures. --Sufjan. Not his dad.

There's just something about high school yearbook pictures of anyone that are interesting.

Crazy. My next task on my day off is to go into walmart and look for Sufjan Steven's dad. Isn't it funny that he still works at Wal-Mart?

Sleep

I'm always amazed at how well I sleep when Martin isn't in bed next to me. I always think when he's gone away that I'll probably have a difficult time getting to sleep. Nope.

Last night I had some of the best sleep I've had in months. Martin is an extremely active sleeper. He talks, moves, gestures, tosses,(and yes snores on occasion even though he'll tell you he doesn't) all night.

I used to sleep through anything and then after I got married thought that my sleeping patters have just changed with age. I honestly thinks it's testimony to the fact that martin might just be the most active sleeper on the planet. I closed my eyes last night and didn't open them until 8:30 this morning; really, it was like 8.5 hours happened in a blink. Pure heaven.

Here's a cool sleep fact: whales and dolphins can literally fall half asleep. Their brain hemispheres alternate sleeping, so the animals can continue to surface and breathe. I think when martin is sleeping next to me, half of my brain hemisphere is awake at all times.