November 2015 (25x25)

This month, thanks to a visit from my mother, I was able to cross off two items on my list.

On the Saturday of her visit, we went up to Silver Springs State Park, home of the famous glass bottom boats. I had gone on them once when I was much younger, but the whole experience is just as wonderful as a 24-year-old. You can see it all: fish, turtles, birds, more turtles, alligators, and even more turtles - and of course, the silver springs.

On Sunday I finally made it to Leu Gardens. That place is 50 acres of wonderfulness right in Orlando. I'm definitely going back. Name any kind of remotely tropical plant that you might want to see and likely it's there. Also, roses. So many roses.

November means my 24th year is halfway through. I still have a lot more to do on my list, but I'm making progress. Here's to many more adventures in the next 6 months!

October 2015 (25x25)

This month involved quite a bit of dressing up, going to Disney, and Bible reading - although not necessarily all of those things together.

Regina, Emma Swan, and Captain Hook

The dressing up and Disney pieces definitely fit together for a visit to Magic Kingdom to attend Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party. 

Don't mess with Emma Swan (from Once Upon a Time).

Also, pumpkins made an appearance in October...featuring an adipose from Doctor Who. I had surprising success in hand-drawing this little guy on here from the template I was viewing on my phone.

Where does the Bible reading come into all of this, you might ask. I have now made it to the depths of 1 Kings, which means I am past day 100 on the plan I am using to read through the Bible in a year, with a daily psalm. Mostly I've learned that God stays quite consistent in his rules and guidelines and humans quite consistently fail to pay very much attention to him at all.

September 2015 (25x25) - Loving Well

Yes, I do realize that it is the middle of October BUT I wrote this in the middle of September...I just didn't post it. I was thinking about what love is and how hard it is to truly love other people well - people who are broken, just like me. So this is a very different post than my usual.

Loving Well

"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres."

- 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 (NIV)

Love is not an easy thing. It is a really hard thing. Loving well and whole-heartedly means being vulnerable and real. It means talking about the hard things and being able to be yourself no matter what. Love looks for what you can give to the other person, rather than seeing what you can get for yourself.

The world's definition of love is entirely different than God's definition.

The world says love is all about me.
It is a transient feeling.
It asks “What I can get from this relationship?”
It says, if I don't feel it anymore or I'm not getting what I need, then it's time to move on.

God says love is action.
It's a choice.
It's sacrificial.
It's focused on giving.
It doesn't give up.
It forgives.

Only God can love perfectly. If you're looking for true love, it looks a lot like Jesus dying on the cross to make it so that we could be in a relationship with God forever. The rest of us just have to keep trying to imitate Jesus and looking for his love to fill us and overflow to others.

At the same time, though, we have to choose wisely who we love. Because loving someone who is just using us or who is totally lost in their own brokenness isn't healthy. At that point, that person needs to experience God's love to be able to love himself or herself and learn how to love others. We can't fix a person by loving them. God has to do that work of healing and restoration in them.

Fall in Maine. I wish I was there. Don't you? Photo credit: my mom

August 2015 (25x25)

And now I'm three months down, nine to go. Although I didn't fully complete any of my 25 before 25 list items in this past month, I've made good progress on several. Here's the report:

For #25 I learned two new things again this month. Please don't laugh at this first one: I have now ordered and picked up take out food from a restaurant. Yes, that's right, somehow I had never done this before. I know this doesn't sound like something that one should have to 'learn' how to do, but come on, I hadn't done it before, I didn't know exactly how it worked, and now I do. Oh, and that Thai food was delicious.

Also, I finally planted my banana plant that my grandfather gave me back in April. It now has a happy, pot-free home. I asked the wide world of the internet how to care for a banana plant so hopefully I will be able to remember its existence in my back yard and continue to help it live a long and illustrious (and potentially fruitful) life.

I have also made significant progress on my visits to Disney (#11). So far in August I have made not 1, not 2, not 3, but 4 trips there with a variety of friends. It still amazes me that I live in that close to the place Where Dreams Come True that I can just visit for an evening after work.

And, finally, in the past month I started making progress on #3. After two months of trying to decide how to go about reading the Bible, a friend recommended a plan on the YouVersion Bible app. The plan takes the reader through the Bible in a year - Genesis through Revelation plus one Psalm each day. That Psalm each day is a life-saver, especially when reading through books like Leviticus, which is what I'm in the middle of currently. (Link to the plan.)

September, here I come!

July 2015 (25x25)

Two months down! And I am quite excited to report that I have now officially crossed two things off of my list.

#10 Waterski twice this summer
#21 Visit Atlanta

And here's proof:

There's nothing like gliding over a still lake.

Atlanta involved seeing two friends and visits to the World of Coca-Cola, the Atlanta Botanical Garden, and the Georgia Aquarium.

So much sugar!

Still friends even though we haven't seen each other in 2.5 years.

Whale sharks! And manta rays!

I also started reading The Silmarillion. Life doesn't get much better than reading about elves in a hammock in the woods of Maine.

Oh, right, and there was that thing about my sister getting married on July 4.

June 2015 (25x25)

Here's my post for June!

So one-ish months in, how am I doing with my list? Great! Here's the low-down:

After all the suggestions that I got for #25, I decided two things. 1. A trip to visit my college friends in the midwest needs to happen sometime, but that probably won't be until next summer (after my 25th bday). 2. I realized that #25 needed to involve me learning how to do new things. So my goal is going to be trying one new thing each month. For example, my June one was going to a spinning class for the first time ever with a friend last Tuesday. Loud music, dark room, very energetic spinners - I was overwhelmed at first but eventually mostly figured out what I was doing. Sooooo, I'll keep you posted each month about what my one new thing is.

Journalling every day has been a really good thing. I don't know about you, but I process my life by writing words (hence also this blog). For years growing up I did a good job of making that happen, but lately I wasn't making it a priority. All the thoughts and words inside my head just kept building up. Writing them down each night helps me process life to keep moving and growing. I haven't been perfect about doing it every single day, but the days I've missed have been few and far between. I'm not going to beat myself up over the missed days - I just want to work on making it a good, consistent habit.

Disney! I have had my pass for less than a month and I've already spent 4 days there - with 4 different people. Sometimes I think I'm crazy to go to Disney that much in the central Florida heat of June, but if I drink enough water and duck in and out of all the air conditioning, it works out fine.

Here's to another month of challenging myself, growing, and spending time with cool people!

25 Before 25

In the spirit of two of my friends who made '30 Before 30' lists, I decided that I was ready to make a '25 Before 25' list. Since Monday was my 24th birthday, I have now started my 25th year of life. And here's my list that I hope to accomplish before I reach my 25th birthday next May.

1. Journal 5 minutes every day 
2. Blog once a month 
3. Read half the Bible 
4. Read 3 long books (The Brothers Karamazov, The Silmarillion, and The Count of Monte Cristo)
5. Be a consistent mentor to a younger girl
6. Record an interview with each of my four grandparents
7. Bike the West Orange Trail 
8. Swim 2 consecutive kilometers in under an hour 
9. Complete a triathalon 
10. Waterski twice this summer 
11. Host a game night 
12. Visit Disney at least once a month 
13. Visit Leu Gardens 
14. Go on a birding day trip 
15. Go to a water park 
16. Go canoeing at Wekiva 
17. Visit De Leon Springs (w/pancakes) 
18. Visit Silver Springs 
19. Visit the Keys 
20. Visit Savannah 
21. Visit Atlanta 
22. Plan and go on a camping trip 
23. Go on a short cruise 
24. Spend a weekend in Dowling Park with friends 
25. Have a suggestion? If you have an idea for #25, suggest it as a comment on the Facebook post of this blog (or as a comment here and I will add that as a comment on FB). The suggestion with the most likes by the end of May will be #25.

To elaborate, here are notes on a few of these:

4. I'm thinking about doing this through Big Brother Big Sister, but if you know of another mentoring program in Orlando that I could participate in, I am open to suggestions.

6. I will be working up to this while swimming Lucky's Lake Swim. I've already swum 1 kilometer on two different Saturdays.

9. I'm getting another Florida resident annual pass for Disney, so if you end up down here in Florida any time in the next year to go to Disney, let me know and I'll meet you there!

11. This has to be a birding trip with 'real' birders. Learning from true birders is half the fun of birding.

So, to close, if anything on this list looks like an adventure you would like to join in on (other than the first six), just let me know! I look forward having a year full of doing fun things, learning more about life, caring for others, and spending time with friends.