Tag Archives: Love

iHeart Writing Tag

Micaiah tagged me for the iHeart Writing Tag a while ago, and I’m finally getting around to doing it.  I’m so sorry it took me this long, Micaiah.  Also, the blog you linked to that had the rules in it isn’t showing up, so I might not do this right.  I apologize.

Anyway, here’s my short story (which is actually quite long 😉 ):

Cara’s olive green skirt swept across the grass, rustling as she walked. The arrows in the quiver at her side jostled each other with a soft rattling sound. She figured the edge of the bow she held as she took a deep breath of the warm, spring air. Butterflies swirled and danced above the wild flowers straggling from the edge of the woods; as if expressing the joy that filled Cara’s heart. Sir Stephen was holding a banquet that night in honor of the Thane of Silvestar’s visit, and every friend she had in the countryside would be there. The idea of trying to introduce Ayla to everyone nagged at her blissful mind, the only thing tainting her happiness. She hoped with Lord Silvestar there she would be excused from the responsibility.

A soft rustle near the edge of the forest fell upon her ears, and she turned toward the trees. A small hare crouched warily on the verge of the trees, its brown-grey ears twitching. Cara snatched an arrow from her quiver as silently as she could and put it to her bow. She aimed quickly and let the arrow slide through her fingers, the red feathers brushing her cheek. The small animal darted away into the underbrush and her arrow struck the ground, nearly six inches off her mark. She sighed and started forward to retrieve her shaft.

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Love… Because It’s Valentine’s Day

Love.

What comes to mind when you hear that word?  Red roses and sparkly diamonds?  Silvery moonlight?  Hearts and glitter and flowers and hugs and kisses?

The thing that we picture when we talk about love is often something nice and pretty.  We like to imagine love as safe and canny, and enjoyable.  But it’s not.  Love isn’t safe.  What comes to mind when we picture “love” should not be touchy-feely.  We like to think that if love was visible it would be pink and lovely and comfortable.

But the reality of love is the cross.  Tears–pain–darkness–blood–sweat–grime–wood splinters in your skin.

God is love, and He loved us even when it meant abandoning His son to torture and death.  To love someone is not to be made happy by them.  It means choosing to hang on and never let go, and let them drag you through things you never wanted to experience and don’t know how to handle.  Loving people is painful.

But it’s worth it–so, so worth it.  It’s so, so beautiful.

Love is the ultimate clash of beautiful and ugly.  It is healing and life running to death and pain.  Loving is impossible on our own.  We could never be brave enough.  You can only truly love someone when you pray for God’s help, and fight to bring them closer to Him.

??? {Mystery Quote #13} ???

Okay, who remembered I was doing “Mystery Quote” today?  No pressure, ’cause I almost forgot! 🙂  We’ll see how Monday works!

Anyway,

Last week’s quote was from The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis.  Chapter 13: “Deep Magic from the Dawn of Time”.  TOTALLY recommend this one! 🙂

Juliana, Spencer, and Micaiah all guessed the right book, and Micaiah guessed the chapter.  And Skylar gets creativity points for her guess: “The Story of the Walking Talking Stump”. 🙂  Now, this week’s quote:

“I’ve been watching you.  You’ve been alone for a long time,” said the chipmunk, stuffing another acorn into his fat cheeks.  “I hear you’re lost.”  “Mama said to wait, to wait right here,” whispered the fawn.  “She will come back.”

I think this one is really obvious if you’ve read the book, but I decided to go with it anyway.  Happy guessing!

P.S. You seriously need to listen to this.  Crazy good!  (Check with your parents, there might be unfortunate adds that come up before the video.  Sorry about that.)

Blessings and Stories: Love

Happy March, y’all!  Lucy figured out about St. Patrick’s Day, and was just sure that we needed shamrocks now that it was March. 🙂

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She saw them at someone else’s house–they do Christmas in China, but not St. Patrick’s Day.

I thought I should do another “Blessings and Stories” post; so, keeping the Valentine’s Day theme (because March is not May), I did one I wrote about love.

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When I was little I came to the conclusion that we would be happier if we didn’t lose our hearts to stuff.  I realized that if there wasn’t anything I didn’t want broken or lost, and I knew I would go to heaven, I would have no problems.  No worries.  Zero.

But there was a hitch: people.  If there were people in you life that you loved, you would worry about them.  Even if you knew they were going to heaven, you would worry about them–and you don’t.  Sometimes you just don’t know.

And try as I might I couldn’t get past that.  I knew it was important to love people–I wasn’t giving up on that.  But loving is problematic.  It’s dangerous, and it’s inconvenient.

I remember a time when two of my friends weren’t getting along, and I felt stuck in the middle of it; and when I told my mom about it she explained that if you lived all alone on an island you would be lonely, but life would be easier.  ‘Cause relationships are messy.  Very messy.

Recently we re-watched The Princess Bride.  It’s a good movie; entertaining and funny, but it’s morals are “off”.  And there’s this theme in it that if you love someone hard enough then neither of you can die.  Which is absurd.

It makes love practical.  And love is not.

Oh, and love is not a feeling.  Whatever anyone says.  It’s not a wishy-woshy sensation that makes you go light-headed whenever someone walks into the room.  It’s a choice.  And a hard one sometimes.

Love is not practical.  It doesn’t make things perfect.  It will wreck your life.  And resurrect it again.  Because God is love, and Jesus will wreck you life, and then bring it back together again–exactly what happened to HIM when HE loved us.

I love the quote from the movie Frozen: “Love is putting someone else’s needs before you own.”  Because that’s a choice.  And you rarely feel like putting someone else first.

I wrote on my blog recently: “I’m in love.  And that’s dangerous, because when you truly love someone you are willing to do anything for them.”

I liked the quote from the Rend Collective song The Cost: “Real love is not afraid to bleed.”

Love is patient.  Love is kind.

But love is courageous.

As I have loved you…

So, when I posted on Valentine’s Day I decided I wanted to end my post with a Bible verse.  And I didn’t want to do the typical first-Corinthians-thirteen-thing.  I mean, those verses are great, but everybody uses them!

And something in me wanted to be unique.  Maybe it’s because I never “fit in” when I was little(r), and so I have a problem with it now.  I mean, I went years without a TV in my house, I didn’t play the popular video-games, I didn’t watch the popular movies, I didn’t wear the popular cloths, etc.  So I went unique.  I picked kind of randomly, but that made me think.

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“My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.” -John 15:12

I have been praying recently that God would give me HIS heart, and help me love as HE loved me. I realized recently what this means–the extent of what I was asking HIM.  I realized it was probably one of the most risky things I’ve ever done.  But I still do it.  I can’t say why.  Probably because I want to love.  I just want to.

When told to ask for anything, Solomon asked for wisdom.  I started wondering what I would ask for, if I was given that choice.  I decided I’d  ask for HIS heart–HIS love.

I have this “thing” with love.  Probably because I gave up on the whole wisdom-thing a long time ago.  Probably because I know if I love, it will motivate me to do what I can–which might not be much, but I know it’s a whole lot more when I’m motivated by something.

Loving is dangerous.  Begging to be able to love like crazy is reckless.  And I don’t even care.  I get defiant about love.  I say “I don’t care” a lot.  So maybe I don’t.

I honestly don’t know why I have this love “thing”–I don’t know where it came from.  But I want to love anyway.  I just do.

This probably sounds crazy, but I don’t even care!