loving leads to living...

Over half a year has passed since Dean and I were married. Four and a half months have passed since I have given myself time to update my blog.

Alot of time has passed.

Life is so cool. Winter came and left pretty quickly I think. Spring is trying to get here, but with very little success. The only proof that the seasons are changing is the growth all around.

I wave good-bye to Dean from my front window every morning. There are several trees impeding my view. In the winter it didn't matter because they were naked trees; very thin and stick-like. Now that it is spring, however, they have been dressing themselves very slowly. Over the past few weeks I have started to notice the leaves growing. It's been the coolest thing. Nature has been living right before my very eyes. Just as things in my life have been growing - my marriage, my new job, friendships - so too is the world around me. We just don't usually take the opportunity to stop and look at it very often. But when it's happening right in front of you, you can't help but look.

Dean and I went to the zoo in Seattle the other day. It was so much fun. Penguins, giraffes, hippos, peacocks, gorillas, leopards, tigers, bears, kangaroos...(check out peas and carrots for some pics)...and again, I was struck by the concept of life. We were completely surrounded by wild animals and insects and plants...all unique and created differently. We actually paid money to go walk around their environment and just look at them.

The ironic thing is that, at the same time, I was walking amongst the really important part of Creation - the people. And yet, I wasn't looking at them with the same awe and admiration that I was the animals in the cages. In fact, you can't help but be irritated by the crazy man yelling at his equally crazy wife, who is standing, for whatever reason, on the opposite side of the indoor exhibit, to come and check something out, or the numerous children who are standing right in your way so that all you can see is the animal's tail...the screaming, the crying, the whining...all of these things compounded into one giant feeling of irritation with the very part of Creation God loves the most.

Last week at youth Bryce spoke about love. Love. Love. Love. I realized, as I reflected back on our day at the zoo, that there were certainly times I could have been doing more of that. It's very easy to get caught up in a selfish way of thought, and it's much easier letting yourself stay in that way of thinking rather than consciously putting others' first and loving them like we are called to do.

Time passes and life changes and grows, but love is constant. And the opportunity to show it to others is always in front of us. We just need to open our eyes.