Isaiah 49:14-16

"Can a woman forget her nursing child, 

and have no compassion on the son of her womb?  

Even these may forget, 

but I will not forget you.  

Behold I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands; 

your walls are continually before Me."

Many times, this verse has comforted my heart. The Lord thinks of me day and night...more than a mother thinks of her child. He has inscribed my name forever in His palm and He take cares of my whole life. I have no need to worry, even though life brings its problems.

As I get older, life gets more complicated. Distance and separation from my family and loved ones makes things difficult. I still have a heart of a child. I want the warmth and comfort of my family. The coldness and loneliness sometimes seems unbearable in Vancouver but I need to keep reminding myself: The Lord is with me. We walks with me in this life journey and we face everything together.

Everything I do is for Him. He deeply appreciates my decisions and actions. He loves me very dearly and has the best prepared for me. All I have to do is wait, labour and bear fruits for Him. I want my faith to be stronger so that I can yield more for Him. 

Oh Lord, I love You. I bear all things for You.

Song of Solomon 5

I slept but my heart was awake.

Listen! My lover is knocking:
"Open to me,
my sister,
my darling,
my dove,
my flawless one.

My head is drenched with dew, my hair with the dampness of the night.

"I have taken off my robe—
must I put it on again? I have washed my feet—
must I soil them again?

My Lover thrust His hand through the latch-opening;
my heart began to pound for Him.
I arose to open for my lover, and my hands dripped with myrrh,
my fingers with flowing myrrh, on the handles of the lock.

I opened for my Lover,
but my Lover had left;
He was gone.

My heart sank at his departure.
I looked for Him but did not find Him.

I called Him but He did not answer...

[open the door to Him...He's been waiting for so long]

South of the Border

Pupusa night

El Salvador is a land of:

• Precious things
  
• Beautiful rain
  
• Big Insects
• Delicious food (pupusas)
• and awesome Friends :)

Tonight we went out for pupusas with my high school classmates. After almost 2 years of graduation, nothing much has changed. I really enjoyed hanging out with them.

Dr. Zhivago

"The whole human way of life has been destroyed and ruined. All that's left is the bare, shivering human soul, stripped to the last shred, the naked force of the human psyche for which nothing has changed because it was always cold and shivering and reaching out to its nearest neighbour, as cold and lonely as itself.

You and I are like the first two people on earth who at the beginning of the world had nothing to cover themselves -at the end of it, you and I are just as stripped and homeless. And you and I are the last remembrance of all that immeasurable greatness which has been created in the world in all the thousands of years between their time and ours, and it is in memory of all that vanished splendour that we live and love and weep and cling to one another"

Pasternak is a genius. He captures the essence of human life and love.

Russian poetry

The garden scatters burnt-up beetles
Like brazen ash, from braziers burst.
I witness, by my lighted candle,
A newly blossomed universe.

And like a not yet known religion
I enter this unheard of night,
In which the shabbily-grey poplar
Has curtained off the lunar light.

The pond is a presented secret.
Oh, whispers of the appletree!
The garden hangs-a pile construction,
And holds the sky in front of me.

Boris Pasternak

Russian lit

All right. Just forget for a minute that you have spectacles on your nose and autumn in your heart. Stop being tough at your desk and stammering with timidity in the presence of people. Imagine for one second that you raise hell in public places and stammer on paper. You're tiger, a lion, a cat.

-How it was done in Odessa.
Isaac Babel

Tango por una cabeza

I want to play like this one day.

the food of Love

If music be the food of love, play on;
Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting,
The appetite may sicken, and so die.
That strain again! it had a dying fall:
O, it came o'er my ear like the sweet sound,
That breathes upon a bank of violets,
Stealing and giving odour! Enough; no more:
'Tis not so sweet now as it was before.
O spirit of love! how quick and fresh art thou,
That, notwithstanding thy capacity
Receiveth as the sea, nought enters there,
Of what validity and pitch soe'er,
But falls into abatement and low price,
Even in a minute: so full of shapes is fancy
That it alone is high fantastical.
.............
Twelfth Night

William Shakespeare

The Wasteland

'My nerves are bad to-night. Yes, bad. Stay with me.
'Speak to me. Why do you never speak? Speak.
'What are you thinking of? What thinking? What?
'I never know what you are thinking. Think.'

---T.S Elliot

Read the entire poem if you have time.

The race of Faith

Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus,
The author and finisher of our faith,
who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

(Hebrews 12:1-2)

La Vita Nuova

At that moment I say truly that the vital spirit, that which lives in the most secret chamber of the heart began to tremble so violently that I felt it fiercely in the least pulsation, and, trembling, it uttered these words: ‘Ecce deus fortior me, qui veniens dominabitur michi: 

Behold a god more powerful than I, who, coming, will rule over me.’ At that moment the animal spirit, that which lives in the high chamber to which all the spirits of the senses carry their perceptions, began to wonder deeply at it, and, speaking especially to the spirit of sight, spoke these words: ‘Apparuit iam beatitudo vestra: Now your blessedness appears.’ At that moment the natural spirit, that which lives in the part where our food is delivered, began to weep, and weeping said these words: ‘Heu miser, quia frequenter impeditus ero deinceps!: Oh misery, since I will often be troubled from now on!’

-Dante

I love how he captures the feeling of love.

Psalms 4: 7-8

You have put gladness in my heart,
More than when their grain and new wine abound.
In peace I will both lie down and sleep,
For You alone, O LORD, make me to dwell in safety.

Fruit

Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me.
(John 15:4)

Un Rancho y Un Lucero

Un día ?¡primero Dios!?
has de quererme un poquito.
Yo levantaré el ranchito
en que vivamos los dos.

¿Que más pedir? Con tu amor,
mi rancho, un árbol, un perro,
y enfrente el cielo y el cerro
y el cafetalito en flor...

Y entre aroma de saúcos,
un zenzontle que cantará
y una poza que copiará
pajaritos y bejucos.

Lo que los pobres queremos,
lo que los pobres amamos,
eso que tanto adoramos
porque es lo que no tenemos...

Con sólo eso, vida mía;
con sólo eso:
con mi verso, con tu beso,
lo demás nos sobraría...

Porque no hay nada mejor
que un monte, un rancho, un lucero,
cuando se tiene un "Te quiero"
y huele a sendas en flor...

Alfredo Espino
Poeta Salvadoreño

Oda II

(Inspired by Horace and Eclesiastes)

¿De que se sacia los deseos del Corazón?
Con nada debajo del sol.
He aqui, he buscado la alegría en las riquezas,
las amistades, el amor terrenal....
pero encontre afán, dolor y miseria.

Mi alma hambrienta, inquiria:

¿Qué es la vida?
Fugaz.

Una pequeña fracción de lo que es eterno.
Un misterio, un significado escondido
en la eternidades que puso Dios
dentro de nuestro corazones.

(to be continued when I find more answers....)

random question

Is it practise or practice?

end of term

I finished classes yesterday.

The winter term is ridiculously short: 4 months.

That means, if I am not taking Summer School, I don't study for another 4 months.

I don't have to take Summer because the timetables are crazy (7pm-10pm??) and I have enough credits to get me through.

I rather go to a missionary trips or find a job.

Zephaniah 3:15-17

Sing, O Daughter of Zion;
shout aloud, O Israel!
Be glad and rejoice with all your heart,
O Daughter of Jerusalem!
The LORD has taken away your punishment,
He has turned back your enemy.
The LORD, the King of Israel, is with you;
never again will you fear any harm.
On that day they will say to Jerusalem,
"Do not fear, O Zion;
do not let your hands hang limp.
The LORD your God is with you,
He is mighty to save.
He will take great delight in you,
He will quiet you with His love,
He will rejoice over you with singing."

1Corinthians 13:13

Love, faith and hope are the only things that keeps me running this race and fighting this battle.

I am so thankful I have the Lord.

It is well with my soul.