Thoughts on Us.

In midst of my crazy summer schedule, various thoughts of camps and trips within the next two weeks, buying new clothes, worrying/being excited about birthdays, trying to pen 20,000 words for Camp NaNoWriMo, and ranting about how angry I am when they use different actors and actresses for the sequel of a movie I enjoyed ((BATMAN)), I realized that today, (shocker), is Friday. 

And...I felt the need to stop, take a deep, calming, relaxing breath, and a long, hot shower, and write something about the mysteries of the universe and why we all love them so much. 

This is gonna be totally random, but since I've been running around like [insert un-scarring analogy here, since I couldn't think of one], I decided that doing a little theorizing might do some wonders for my poor, addled brain. 

In but a moment, I will write out several subject neatly on a peice of notebook paper, cut them apart, fold them evenly, and place them, one by one, in this hat. 

I will then commence wearing said hat as I turn your thoughts to the workings of us humans or the universe or something amazingly spectacularifying like that. 

Prepare to be dumbfounded by my intelligence. 

I will now do the whole subject-paper-hat whatsyamadoohicky. 

Here is my list:

Yes, I spelled "business" with a "y" the first time. It's summer, and I'm in NaNoMode. Gimme a break. 

Here are my little bits of paper inside my wonderfully summery hat, which isn't nearly as colorful on the inside as it is on the outside. Bummer, right? 

And now, to CHOOSE!!! 8|

That says laughter, kiddies. Let's get theorizing! :D

Soooo...laughter. 

'Tis a strange thing, most definitely. 

Who could have ever thought of it if it wasn't already just a natural thing to do? Even the smallest babies can laugh. Even children have a sense of humor. 

Think about laughing, really think about the action, the science behind it, what it might look like to an alien who's never ever even thought of the concept of laughter or amusement. 

I'm sure an alien, looking on from his invisible ship, safely behind his über-safe, lazer-proof glass and hidden by a cloaking device...I'm sure he would be thouroughly weirded out by a room full of people, doubled over with some spasmodic episode and a strange liquid leaking from their eyes. 

Laughter is an action of the diaphragm, which is why you can get hiccups sometimes from laughing so hard. Hiccups are when your diaphragm decides to be a torture device and make you make embarrassing noises until people think you're dying. 

((The best thing ever is when you have the hiccups, and you try to sing something sort of fast-paced. Because then you're cracking up and hiccuping and singing and it's just the best feeling in the world. ^-^))

But seriously, when you get the hiccups, and you have that strange feeling in your stomach, your diaphragm is moving. Nothing to flip about. 

But WHY do we laugh, is my question. Because I'm just an inquisitive person like that. Why is it that even babies, newborns barely even introduced to our big, green, beautiful world, even they know that when something is funny, you laugh?

Isn't it just the most adorable thing when little babies laugh? My piano teacher's little girl is about five months old, and she's just the cutest baby on the earth. When she laughs, she gets this little sparkle in her eye, and she has this cute smile, and her laugh just...oh, babies just make me SOOOO happy! 

Sorry. ANYWHAZE!

Laughter is programmed into us. It's something we've always done, and something we always will do. Everyone has a sense of humor, and I guess that's because God knew we'd need the outlook and the ability to laugh things off. Embarrassments, problems, grief. 

They say laughter is the best medicine, and I think they're right. Nothing makes me happier after all the tears of sadness are shed then when one of my good friends takes me to a funny movie, or offers me a book they thoroughly enjoyed, or just sits and talks with me and makes me laugh because I just love being with them. 

I genuinely love to laugh, because I like being happy. I figure there's no use being sad all the time because life isn't about the sadness. 

Sure, sad things may happen, and they do, to all if us. But just remember you can't have the light without darkness to compare it to. If you're in a room covered in LED lights, painted white, then bringing in one candle isn't going to do anything. 

But if you're in a dark room, empty of everything, and you bring in a candle, it can be the start of something amazing. All the darkness in the world can't stand up to even one candle. 

And also, even when it's night, all you gotta do is remember that on the other side of the world, someone, right here, right now, is enjoying the sunshine, and when the time for their brightness has passed, it will move to you. 

It's never dark everywhere. There's always light if you're determined and hopeful enough to look for it. 

So keep laughing, because it's not worth it to be sad. If babies can laugh, so can you, because you can obviously read and navigate the Internet. You're big enough to laugh. 

I hope you're having a funtastic summer, as cheesy as that is. Maybe I've made you laugh. Maybe I've made you think. Maybe you're an alien and you're just discovering the human race. 

We're kind of a gloomy bunch right now, but I've kept my candle alight. I hope it spreads to each and every one of you wonderful, beautiful, amazingly perfect and perfectly amazing people, and together, we can banish the darkness with our glowing, shining, burning light of hope. 

I believe in this world. I believe in us. And no matter what problems you're facing, no matter how dark it seems and how hard it's getting to try and push through, I promise you, there's someone in the world who's gone through that. And there's someone in the world who's made it out of that as a better person. And there's someone in the world who's encouraging you. And there's someone in the the world who loves you. 

Promise me you'll never forget that. 

I leave you with a quote now, from Catherine of Siena, which really helps inspire me when I'm tempted to fake myself, cheat myself on what I'm feeling and who I am. 

"Be yourself, and you will set the world ablaze." 

Together, we can spread the light. Even if you only touch one person, that's one person more than you touched before. Wouldn't changing someone's heart for the better be worth all the pain and struggle and tribulation? I think so. 

Help me light the candles of everyone around the world, across the nations. Let's not cross the lines of race and color and religion and gender and opinions, but erase them.  Lines, straight or crooked, don't do anything in a world that is round. 

Help me spread love and encouragement and hope. Help me change the heart of someone who feels trapped, sunk unbelievably deep in the pit of despair. 

...Help me set the world ablaze. 

Keep Calm and Endeavor On, 

~Adalyn

Today Was The Craziest Day...

I sing in the choir at my church. I think I've told you that before. 

Today was the beginning of a Catholic homeschooling conference here in my state, and there was going to be a graduation mass for the class of 2013. 

It was my mom's idea and so she had to set it up, which meant finding a pair of priests, altar servers, a Eucharistic minister, and a choir, as well as transporting an altar, crucifix, vestments, and various other things necessary for a Mass. 

So, I had to sing for this mass with my choir, and since our choir director is sick, we had to draft someone from another parish to accompany us. 

Which meant that I had to copy, print, staple, and deliver a dozen copies of the songs we were going to sing, AND help my mom set up the altar, crucifix, hymn books and pamphlets. 

It was a total hassle, but the mass was celebrated by the bishop that confirmed my brothers and I, and it was an absolutely beautiful mass. 

Afterword, we had cake and lemonade at a reception for the graduates. 

My brother is severely allergic to nuts. And you'll never guess what. 

There was almond extract in the cake icing. 

So on the way home, he started swelling up, and he was having trouble breathing, and he had hives all over his body. 

Needless to say, my dad took him to the emergency room. 

So I had to babysit my little siblings until my parents got home. 

(That would have been my Friday post, but I fell asleep while putting my youngest sibling to bed, so I didn't post. This would have been the post from Saturday.) 

My dad woke me up at 12:30am and told me to head up to my own bed, where I promptly collapsed. 

And, because my body likes to torture me, I woke up a little before 6am. For some stupid reason, whenever I wake up in the middle of the night, my body decides I need less than eight hours of sleep to function. Genius, right?

My brother was fine. He'd had an IV in and they'd pumped Benadryl into his bloodstream, so he was out of there relatively quickly. I found him sleeping on the couch in the Living Room that morning. 

So I got my chores out of the way and got dressed, and then waited around for a couple hours until we left for the second day of the conference. 

It was actually pretty good. They had a speaker talk about what to expect in and about college, and then after a half-hour break, they had several religious of varying stages come in and talk about vocations. 

Then we had pizza for lunch and after that, I had a gig watching the elementary school-age kids for three hours. 

So I basically calmed down a few rowdy kids, watched Veggie Tales, helped a few kids tracing and coloring their hands, watched more Veggie Tales, and got paid $15 for it! :D

And then...after the day was done I bought some jewelry and headed home to freshen up a bit for my very first high school dance! 

It was held at a dance hall a little ways out of my city, and I went with my older brothers and a few friends. 

We were taught a bunch of line dances, and then we basically just did whatever to a specific playlist until the last song. 

It was really fun, and I can't wait for next month when there will be another one! 

I went swimming at a friend's house today, and we spent an hour and a half in the pool before drying off and getting dressed for mass. 

And that was basically my day. 

Oh, and I had three chocolate-chip cookies. 

Now that you've caught up...yay! 

I'm sorry if it's ridiculously long. And I'm sorry I posted two days late. But, you know, my brother was kind of in the hospital, so...

I promise next Friday, you'll have a post. As long as nobody I know is mauled by a monkey or run over by a trigonometry book, I swear on my favorite hat, I'll post on Friday. 

Keep Calm and Endeaovr On, 

~Adalyn

Excuses, Easter, and Everything in Between!

Well here I am again. For the third time. Trying to write this post. Safari has decided to make like Sebastian and crash all the time. I will explain.

Excuse #1 for why I haven't posted in weeks and weeks: My ancient and beloved laptop Sebastian committed suicide and murder all at the same time because he took all of my novels, ideas, lists, bookmarked websites, and passwords to the technological graveyard with him.

And I don't like using Safari for Internet because its slower and harder to type by a million and because of reasons stated above.

The first time it crashed, I was trying to insert a picture. And then it crashed and I lost everything. The second time, I had given up on the picture and was trying to insert a link. So I went to go copy it from YouTube and when I came back, there was this little error code and it said something about looking for a group of bloggers with similar problems.

For moral support, I guess?

But now I'm using my brand-spankin'-new blogger app! And if you're seeing this, then it worked!

So that's one excuse. Excuse #2: Holy Week and piano and school and friends and really just life in general have been moving so slowly and so quickly at once.

Lent seemed to fly by, and it's already Easter Thursday! I sort of miss Holy Week. It's the most eye-opening time of the year, I think. The beginning of a new life, a life open to God and life eternal.

I seem to be moving pretty quickly. Usually I'm slower than this. Maybe it's just the fact that I'm text-typing instead if real-typing.

It's harder to punctuate and spellcheck this way. And I can see much less of my post, so it seems like my sentences are really long, even when they're not.

Oh, well, it's better than leaving my beloved blog to die in that cybernetic graveyard we talked about earlier. At least I can salvage it.

But anyway, on to Holy Week! It really started for me on the Tuesday before Easter. My church had an absolutely gorgeous service called Tenebrae (pronounced TEN-eh-brey), which involved singing, readings, and the symbolic putting out of candles. We sang my favorite Lenten song, maybe my favorite choir song, period.

It's called Miserere Mei Deus by Allegri. It translates to "Have mercy on me, God." It's a beautiful piece with five parts, and it's got the sort of bittersweet sound to it that sends shivers down your spine when it's sung a certain way. That's how we sang it.

You can look it up if you want. I won't put in a link because the ones on YouTube just don't sound the way ours did. Standing in the middle of the action, in media res, so to speak, you hear things differently. We took it slower, softer than all the ones on the Internet. It was more sorrowful, somehow. More...repentant.

Tenebrae was probably the best way to start Holy Week, the Easter Tridium.

Then, on Holy Thursday, I sang with our choir again at the evening mass, and it was also beautiful, although in more of a serious way. The Eucharist was removed from the tabernacle and we all processed in to the Hall, the fellowship area, where our priest led a short benediction and then left. The Hall was a place of 24 hour Eucharistic adoration after that. You could come at any hour of the day or night and pray there, in front of the Blessed Sacrament.

What the priest does at that point of the liturgy is reposition the Blessed Sacrament in a different tabernacle and place a veil over it. When he positions the veil over the door of the tabernacle, it is a sign that Jesus has left the earth. It always stabs at my heart when I see the veil over Him. It really makes you feel that he was gone, dead.

Can you imagine? After seeing who you believed to be the savior of the world, the Christ of prophecy die suffering and pitiful...can you imagine still trusting that he would rise again in three days time? What faith you would have to have! It's nearly unbelievable!

I don't know what I would have believed. After following Jesus the Nazarene for three years, maybe knowing him for longer...can you imagine watching him tortured, scourged and beaten, forced to carry his murderers' tool, the wretched and blessed beam of wood he would give his life on. For us! Us, the poor, pitiful, frivolous sinners!

Watching him nailed to a splintered and bloody piece of wood, raised on the future symbol of his power, and bleed and bleed.

I've never seen The Passion, but whenever I think of Our Lord's passion and death, that's how I picture it.

I don't mean to be gruesome, but that's how it really happened. I won't apologize for the truth.

Back to the point, that stab in my heart made Good Friday all the more real. We got to sing the Miserere Mei Deus again, but it was more intense this time, a desperate plea for mercy rather than a humble sorrowing for sin.

Both times it was beautiful, though. What we do on Good Friday is at one point in the service (not a mass because there is no consecration of the Eucharist), everyone walks up to a large crucifix the priest is holding and takes a turn kissing it. The feet or the hands or the head of our crucified savior.

I always touch my lips to his feet. It reminds me of Mary Magdelene, washing Jesus' feet with her tears and drying then with her hair. Anointing them with oil and kissing them because of her deep regret for her sin. It makes me feel even more deeply the hallow emptiness in my soul on that day, knowing that it was me and my sins that put him on the cross. But it's a good emptiness, repentant.

I cried.

But the sorrow of Good Friday just made the Easter joy all the more wonderful.

I woke up at 6:15, still a child at heart, I guess. I'm the one in my family who wakes up my silly and sleepy older brothers on holidays. They never seem to want to get into the spirit of things.
It's annoying sometimes.

Anyway, that's why I wanted to insert a picture before. I got a new hat! Here it is!

I hope that works, anyway. If it doesn't, I will never post a picture again. :P

So I got a whole new summer wardrobe (sort of), and lots of my favorite candy. Then I spent the rest of the day chilling with friends and family. Our cascarone fight will never be forgotten.

So...you've basically caught up. I'm in the fourth quarter of eighth grade and looking forward to summer. Also, my braces are supposed to come off soon, hopefully by the end of June. I have VBS and summer camp to look forward to, and I'd rather so it with a straight smile.

It's really only my front teeth that are messed up, because they closed a space and one of them isn't perfectly aligned with my other teeth. But soon, the orthodontist says. Soon.

So anyway, now that you've read my über-long post, can go and live your perfectly different life.

Have fun, God bless, and happy Easter.

Keep Calm and Endeavor On,
~Adalyn