so much beauty it makes you cry*

Tonight as I got ready to go for a walk/run I had an inexplicable urge to cry.
I didn't.

Yesterday night as I watched the movie The Notebook for the first time I had an uncontrollable urge to cry.
I did.**

For some reason my walk tonight made me think of Sunday nights in Covenant hall at Dordt. People were quietly milling about, watching tv (someone was even watching tv on their porch!), walking with friends, sitting in the dark on their porches with family, kids doing cartwheels in the middle of the road (at 10pm). It felt like everything a summer night should be. Relaxed. The faint smell of a bonfire. Old men watering their lawns. Lots of those solar powered little lamps lining sidewalks. A minivan coming home from a trip with two red canoes on its roof. Couples walking along quietly murmuring to each other. The cicadas buzzing away. Thankfully, none of those darned lady beetle bugs that infested Dordt in the summer and fall. The neighbourhood had the kind of good-natured neighbourliness that exists on a campground; everyone relaxed and helpful, chatty and content.

I've purchased two cds in the past week: Rufus Wainwright (Release the Stars) and Martyn Joseph (Deep Blue). Both are excellent. I enjoy them more each time I listen to them. To me that's a sign of a very good cd.

I'm done with my two week summer class. Except for the paper. In the next two weeks I have to finish that paper and a paper for a previous course. Ikes. I want to get them both done before leaving for the wedding tour. August 4: Grand Rapids. August 10: South Holland. August 18: Minneapolis. Sweet! (I decided to just keep going west--there's no point in coming home in between!)

To celebrate the completion of the class, I got two novels from the library to read FOR FUN. I've been trying to read more Canadian fiction lately, so I started with Who Has Seen the Wind by W. O Mitchell and Larry's Party by Carol Sheilds. I'm three-fourth the way through the first book, and it's remarkable. Anyone who wants a good look into the mind of a 4 to 11 year old, especially into the thoughts he has about God, or if you just want a good story about growing up on the prairies--this is a great read.

That's all for now.



*I do believe I have Amy Blok to credit for that title, which came to me while running tonight. I really hadn't understood what it meant until tonight.
**Warning: spoiler-I held out until the part when the old Noah arranges the candlelight dinner for Allie and then she remembers him and she's all there until all of a sudden she's screaming that she doesn't know him and he sinks into the bed with tears in his eyes. That's when I lost it.