game over!

Not ONE voluntary mention of 'facebook' today! I waited and waited all day but no, no one talked about it. A friend did bring it up over Skype but just in response to this blog. I told him it didn't count and he said I would make a good politician cause I make up the rules as I go along!

So yeah...that didn't last very long. There goes my theory. We'll see when 'facebook' gets a mention again and how long that will last for. Maybe it won't happen for days in a row again...

On another note, I don't think I had three fall-in-love moments today but I definitely had at least one - when I was feeling my pregnant friend Aimee's tummy! What an amazing thing new life and childbirth is. It was so surreal thinking there was a whole other living being INSIDE her. Congratulations Tim and Aimee!!! I know you'll be wonderful parents.

new look mel-star

I look the same but this is a new look blog. I love the colours on this template! I feel so refreshed whenever I look at it. And because I'm an ESFJ (if you speak 'Myers-Briggs' personality types), I love boxes and categories. I also like the efficient use of space in this template. So there you go: new look aussie girl!

book-keeping

I'm keeping a mental count of how often I hear someone talk about 'facebook'. So far it's been at least once a day for the last three days! I'm going to see how long this goes for before the series is broken. At about 9pm this evening, I was at a dinner party and realised that I hadn't heard the word 'facebook' once today. I thought to tell the other guests how amazed I was about this fact but I decided to wait out the evening and see if it would get a mention without me bringing it up and sure enough, it came up! Even on Monday when I was home all day and didn't interact with many people, it was on the news. Let's see how long this goes for...

Disclaimer: I don't have anything against facebook - I'm just not on it myself cause I don't need anymore distractions in my life :)

Other random thoughts related to technology:

• 'google' is a verb
• 'email' is in spellcheck ( I remember a time when it wasn't)

today's dose

I'm still on a campaign to 'fall in love' three times each day, but it is kind of hard to do when I'm sitting in front of a computer for most of the day or doing my readings for school. I do go on walks a couple of times a week though, and that's when I mostly have these moments. I usually walk to a hill in my local area - it's hard to explain what it is exactly. It's a man-made hill that I think has been constructed specially for people to walk/bike up. I think it's called a 'marker' (whatever that means!). 2 of my 3 fall-in-love moments are pretty much guaranteed whenever I go on this walk:

1. The view: when I get to the top of the hill, I take in the view of the surrounding area. Now, I wouldn't place it in the top 5 best views that I've seen (or top 10 for that matter), but there is something peaceful about being able to watch the world go by from up high somewhere. It also looks out over a creek and I love watching the sun glisten and dance on top of the water.
2. Lavendar: on the way back from my walk I usually walk past a lavendar bush and I'll pick off a leaf and sniff on it till I get home. I LOVE the smell of lavendar! It's so therapeutic.

Today's third moment was while I was walking up the hill and watching the sun start to set in the west. I'll have to bring my camera along one day.

I'm learning to enjoy the little things in life and to take in their beauty on an everyday basis. In my small group, we've been looking at the book of Genesis. I'm understanding more and more why our Creator looked at what he had made and said that it was good. And this is a fallen world too. I can't wait to see 'the real thing'. In the meantime, I'm going to just enjoy little bits of heaven here on earth.

how sweet the sound

I finally got to watch 'Amazing Grace' last night. It was as moving and inspiring as expected. What an incredible story of a world-changer who dedicated his life to abolishing slavery. Made me think about how this sort of oppression of humans by other humans still goes on today. Maybe I should be drinking Fair Trade Coffee...

If you haven't seen the film yet (although it seems like most people have seen it by now), I'd highly recommend it.

Mel rating: 8/10

three times a day

In my class on 'Spirituality' we've been learning about a brand of spirituality that was a pre-cursor to New Age, called 'Creation Spirituality'. While I don't agree with most of what its founder Matthew Fox has to say, he has at least one point that I like and agree with. He says that we should 'fall in love' at least three times a day. He doesn't mean falling in love in a 'romantic' way but in a more general way. Here are my three things from yesterday:

1. The 4 year old girl I was minding yesterday wanted me to have the sticker off her mandarin, and the little 3 year old boy offered me a piece of mandarin. (it's easy to have these 'fall in love' moments when you work with kids!) That sticker stayed on my hand all day.
2. Listening to the drum pattern of one of my favourite songs (Molly Johnson's 'Ooh Child/Redemption's Song')
3. Watching a waiter at the Chinese-Vietnamese restaurant I was dining at last night, reading the paper in Vietnamese to his aging mother.

On a day like today when I've been in front of the computer all day, I haven't had three moments yet. Have you had three fall-in-love moments today?

By the way, I'm sure it's a different Matthew Fox from Charlie of Party of Five a.k.a. Jack of Lost.

lessons from a dog

Earlier in the year I was on my way to college in a friend's car when we saw a small dog running for his life down the other side of the road with a long line up of cars behind him driving very slowly. I guess he had somehow gotten onto the road and now he was running to keep up with the cars and trying not to get run over. Poor puppy, his tongue was hanging out and he looked so tired. If he had just stopped and looked around he may have realised that he just had to escape onto the footpath (trans: sidewalk) and he would have been safe. But he just kept on running, I guess cause he didn't know what else to do. Or maybe he was enjoying the chase and thought it was all a game? We drove off and I'm not sure how that situation eventually resolved itself. I really hope he didn't get run over when he got to the intersection.

Since I've been back in Australia, I've noticed how our lives are often that way. We try to keep up with life and just keep on running hard in an effort not to get run over. But if we just STOP and look around, we'll see that there is an alternate route and that we're able to get off the treadmill (mixing metaphors now). Life here is so much busier than in China. People are on the go ALL the time and don't seem to have much time to rest. People seem to be valued not for who they are but for how much they are doing and contributing. It seems that most things here are based on schedules and activities rather than relationships and community.

So we keep running cause all we can do is look straight ahead, rather than look around. And it may kind of seem like we're surviving till we get to a crossroad...

I hope that in your life, you are finding time to stop, rest and look around at other alternative routes if the road you're on is too much for you.