Passport, please

Passport, Please: A User's Guide to the World will be a guide to the common traveler in need. While I have little more than the introduction written at this time, I plan it to be a tool of tips and pieces of advice I had to learn the hard way while traveling. A wise traveler knows to always take a map with them, and this is just that. Have you ever wondered how to avoid the body shock of new food? Is it really worth getting all that insurance? What if you need to change your flight days? Where is the best way to exchange currency? How do you decrease your chances of getting pick pocketed?

This book will not help you bump up your economy seats into first class. It will not magically help you avoid the fees for visas and passports. It won't even teach you how to make perfect sushi without getting the nasty food poisoning that comes when you do it wrong. This is not a  travel-rich-quick kind of text. Win the lottery and splurge as you see fit! These stories will open your eyes to realistic ways to enjoy the world around you. What it will do is help you decrease jet lag, get through customs with little harassment, and avoid lame adventures which always end in disappointment. Don't believe me? Hold out for the book.

                                             89% Experience. 52.8% Humor. 100% True.

Because I'm ANGRY

Anger is a twisted little creature. Some people are obviously angry. It's hard not to see the bulging vein ready to pop off their neck, the tomato red forehead, deep furrowed brows, and the sound of crashing cars from the verbose amount of language that streams from their mouth. I'm not that type of angry.

A friend of mine joked once saying, "I never want to see you angry! It's always the quiet ones that will kill us all!" I laughed, agreeing that it's not a pretty sight  when I show my anger, but now I wonder. Anger is an essential tool for emotional stability. One cannot simply stay quiet forever. To never be angry means they have not lived and have not touched the world around them. If you are human there will come a day that you will be angry. Jesus got angry. Ghandi got angry. Shiddharth Guatam (the original buddha) got angry.Mother Teresa got angry. You'll get angry.

 Anger is not the opposite of love. Anger is simply the opposite of happiness. Whether you are stopping cars with your vulgarity or quietly stewing in your pot of fumes, anger stops us from being happy. So here's the thing: what makes you happy? Is it the same thing that makes you angry? How so? How do you separate the two so you can enjoy the world around you?

Oh wait. you wanted answer? Hah.... Maybe next time comrades!

It takes more than a fridge full of pudding to slow me down!~

I'm probably the lamest person on this side of the internet. I read my last blog, but only after a friend of mine mentioned that I should have a website. He said he would subscribe to it if I did. So I told him the truth; I'm a terrible blogger.

 My last blog, if you haven't looked back at it yet, was written well over a year ago. It was about how I hadn't written for the past five years prior to that. I'm glad I didn't promise to start using the blog. That would have been a little embarrassing.... But it did get me thinking.

 And after I thought about broken chocolate chip cookies, spare change all over my floor, and why piggy banks look like pigs (seriously- the pig? Is it supposed to symbolize greed? How are pigs greedy? Isn't that a uniquely human trait?), I thought about how I SHOULD use this blogspot for the betterment of my mental health. And a few laughs. You can always use a few laughs. :)

 So maybe I WILL do something with this space. Who knows? Maybe I do actually have something worthwhile to say after all... :)

Past Fitz slapping Now Fitz in the head...

If you've noticed, this has been the first update in somewhere around 5 years. Yes. I've been busy.

It was odd reading what insight I had 5 years ago. How is it that I could have been smarter in 2007 than I am right now in 2011? Did I not graduate from college? Did I not start in on a work force? Did I not travel to various countries and see various things? How did I get dumber in that process?

And yet, here I am, reading my past blogs and wondering in awe at Past Fitz. What would she have told me? I'm pretty sure she would have sat me down to explain that experience does not equate intelligence. And after I remark in a fairly sarcastic fashion (as I do when I'm defensive), she would probably slap me in the back of my head and say, "Stop being YOU! You are so far inside yourself, there's no way of ever getting out alive! Knock it off and you might have a chance of survival. Until then, you're screwed."

Ah, to know thyself.

She's right, you know. Past Fitz. She's so self assured of God and His game plan. That He has one. That He's got it in the works as we speak. That we need not freak out. I'm pretty sure I could have convinced her of some financial actions that would put us in a better stand right now. But between the two of these nuggest of knowledge-- I'll take God's Game Plan any day.

contemplations on my own little piece of the world

I love being where I'm at. To me, there's nothing greater than knowing you are loved by God. God first thought of me, wished me into being, created my world around me, then chose to show his love to me. That's a lot of 'me' but it's really all about him. His thougths, his wishes, his creations, his choices... I may be self centered when it comes to a lot of things, but sometimes that self centeredness just returns me back to God. It seems a bit backwards, but consider this: next time you are looking at some great thing that you accomplished, say to yourself, "that's cool, but can you grow a palm tree in the antarctic?" God could.

God doesn't want us to think of ourselves in a negative light, but he does want us to focus our attention on Him. Here's one way, albeit different from the way most people think...

You hear someone talking about their 'calling'. The magnificent idea that God wants us to do something productive with our life; that sounds like a great idea to me. I do not negate that God, indeed has a plan for all of our lives and we all do have a purpose, but what if God made you chose between His calling and Him? It sounds a bit strange, but consider yourself involved highly in a ministry that reaches out to millions of people daily and spreads the love of God to all corners of the world... would God ever ask you to give that up? He could. He can do anything. Our initial question is, "Why would God ask me to do that?" but our question really should be, "If it was between spending time with God and following His calling in my life, would I give up my calling?"

I hope the answer would be yes. For Christians, our primary point in life should be about Jesus. It shouldn't be about what He wants to do in my life, how we can better his church, and all the trimmings. It should be about Him. Jesus. The person. God. Redemption. When he says to drop everything and follow Him, he's asking us to drop the life we hold onto for something much better. It's our relationship with Him that matters. Everything else is gravy.

Would you let go of your calling for Jesus?

Acts 26:15 "Then I asked, 'Who are you God?'"

^.^

This is going to be fun and short but ... whatever.
So school started again and I'm really looking forward to the classes that I've taken. They all seem interesting in one way or another and I'm looking forward to working with some Prof's I haven't worked with before. This said because I am deep in my majors and that doesn't happen often. In fact, half of my classes are taken with Prof's I have worked with on numerous occasions.

The joy that it's January, I'm now on the apartment hunt for May ^.^

Have a great new year and I hope not to be a scary blogger as per usual!
The Amberness.

A time of all things good

It's interesting to see what God has planned for me and those around me. I am never too surprised by the effects of the world around me. Even with all of the curveballs God has thrown me in my life, I still know that He is in control of everything. How great is that?

I have been working on an altering of the chaos in my life. My finances are organized (I'm actually saving for the future! Shocker!!), and I have spent a great several days reading some very good Christian books from Lori Wick. I'm quite smitten by her. My devotion books are also enlightening and I think that even the days when I don't like reading the words on the page, I'm still learning from what God is showing me.

My next step is learning how to physically keep things clean. My problem is that I seem quite content to leave my room a mess and sometimes forget to do the dishes for days at a time. Soon enough I'll be forced to reconcile my differences and work at keeping everything organized and clean. Probably the best idea I think. Until then- meh *shrug*

I'm also taking the appropriate steps to a healthier lifestyle. This is a good idea because my health is in limbo as we speak and I am unsure as the good and bad of it all. Fresh fruits and veggies= good. One step at a time I guess. :) At least I'm making the fun steps toward a healthier lifestyle for God. I might teasingly call it a living sacrifice- ha!!

Have a good time friends, you are an interesting faceless audience that I can count on.

Amber