the love-hat relationship -Aaron Belz

I have been thinking about the love-hat relationship.

It is the relationship based on love of one another's hats.

The problem with the love-hat relationship is that it is superficial.

You don't necessarily even know the other person.

Also it is too dependent on whether the other person

is even wearing the favored hat. We all enjoy hats,

but they're not something to build an entire relationship on.

My advice to young people is to like hats but not love them.

Try having like-hats relationships with one another.

See if you can find something interesting about

the personality of the person whose hat you like.

what -Aaron Belz

{this poem makes me laugh every time}

Every day I get emails

that say things like

BELZ! We should

have done that one

thing that one

time, remember?

Really though

how ARE things?

And I always reply

the same way,

like, DUDE!

I do not know

who you are.

Where do I know

you from?

But I never hear back.

I save all those emails

in a special folder

labeled "I hate my life."

Cupped In My Hand

The stars are very

far away.

I stood outside

my chin lifted heavenward.

"Look up at the heavens

And count the stars--

if indeed you can

count them"

I cannot.

"So your offspring shall be."

Since Abram

Many stars have burnt

their last.

How many more

till I see my Lord?

I hope to be wise.

Those who are wise

will shine like the

brightness of the heavens.

I hope to be righteous,

and like those who lead

many to righteousness, so I

may shine like the stars for

ever and ever.

Fireflies are like little stars.

Stars we can touch.

The twinkle in the

dusk.

God reminding us of

his covenant.

It is almost like

holding this divinity

cupped in my hand.

What a little blessing.

{photo found on raefrazier.blogspot.com}

Just Call Me Sal

I've gone strawberry picking. I've gone raspberry picking (we have a huuuuuge raspberry bush in our backyard). I have yet to go blueberry picking.

One of the things I love most about summer is the fruit it produces--namely, Blueberries. I Love Them. oh I love them.

This morning, while eating a bagel and blueberries for breakfast, I thought about two things:

a) how good Mom's fruit salad was last night (pictured left).

and

b) how if I ever went blueberry picking I would want to do it like Sal. If you have never read Blueberries For Sal you have been deprived and you must now go to the library and read this adorable book.

If I ever go blueberry picking it must be on a mountain like structure. I must wear overalls. I must have short hair. I must eat more blueberries than I pick. and I must become a bear's child.

I want to be Sal. for, I love blueberries. and so does she.

and she's just so cute!!

Read the book. Now. Go. DO. It.

and it POURED.

Saturday it rained. I mean really rained. It was coming down in sheets. I decided to take a shower as said rain was coming down upon my house. These are the thoughts that went through my mind while in said shower.

1) It's probably a bad idea to be taking a shower with so much lightening and thunder outside. Can people die in showers while a thunder storm is happening? I hope I don't die...

2) This reminds me of the first chapter of I Capture the Castle (insert mentioned quote here) ahem: "Drips from the roof are plopping into the water-butt by the back door. The view through the windows above the sink is excessively drear. Beyond the dank garden in the courtyard are the ruined walls on the edge of the moat. Beyond the moat, the boggy ploughed fields stretch to the leaden sky. I tell myself that all the rain we have had lately is good for nature, and that at any moment spring will surge on us. I try to see leaves on the trees and the courtyard filled with sunlight. Unfortunately, the more my mind's eye sees green and gold, the more drained of all colour does the twilight seem."

As inconvenient as a leaky house would be, the passage seems rather romantic. I wish I could write like that. Maybe someday I will.

3) The last thing that occurred to me was the fact that the Lord had flooded the earth. I imagined that this kind of rain was the kind Noah experienced in the ark. I became very thankful that God promised to never flood the earth again like that. And then I thought of a poem. I quickly got out of the shower so that a) I wouldn't die and b) I could write this poem down that I wrote while washing my hair. Here it is:

There is something strangely

Comforting

About thunderstorms.

The thunder reminds us

We are still alive.

You say that the lightening

Is from Zeus.

The rain are tears

From an angry Poseidon.

Mount Olympus is fighting

And thus thunder is crashing.

I disagree.

My God is greater

Than any on

That silly mountain.

He is reminding us

He is in Control.

He's whispering

"I'm still Here."

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Happy Tuesday Everyone,

xoxo

C.A.