Monday, September 22, 2008

Chimney

I have a friend, her name is Holly. My brothers wifes name is Holly but she is not whom I’m talking about. My friend is living in Ecuador for a year and keeps a blog that many of us, her friends, often read. They are short inlength but wonderful in depth and description. She describes her experiences and memories with beauty and honesty. I pretty much devour every word she writes. I don't think she would say out loud that she has a way with words but she is one of the few people I know that can tell a story that wraps around you like a blanket. Her eyes light up when she talks and she tells stories like she is on a merry go round spinning pass those who will listen. She tells the first layer of a story and when she passes by again tells the next and the next until you can hear the tones of peoples voices and see the lines in their faces. She has comedic timing that is very much her own and sounds cool when she curses. A dying breed if you ask me.

I met Holly a little over two years ago. She lived in a house with some other Vanderbilt girls she went to school with. They graduated in may and slowly left Nashville over the summer. I was a year behind them and as August approached I was unsure how to start the year knowing that they wouldn't be as frequent visitors in my life. They used to live right down the street in a house together. (Now we all know that in Nashville there can’t be more than 5 girls living in a house together or its considered a brothel, in other words its illegal.)

8 people lived in their house. It was amazing.

It was always full of laughter and conversation, I remember my first visit like it was 5 minutes ago. I walked in and could hear thunderstorms of footsteps going on upstairs, people were getting ready to go to the Justin Timberlake concert and at the same time gathering in someone’s room to watch an episode of Grey’s Anatomy. Further in the house I heard someone listening to Ludacris and rewinding the same verse over and over again, as if they were trying to memorize it. I was in love.

A friend of mine asked me the other day how I met all of these girls and at first I felt like I had always known them in some way because when I am with them it feels like that, but then I realize its been close to 2 years since I have really been getting to know them.

I also, have a friend named Kristen who has opened her life to us but on Friday she opens her home for all of us college folk to come by and to enjoy in some cookies and quality conversation. That’s where I met my chimney friends.I call them chimney friends as do others because that is what they named their house, which consequently did not/ does not have a chimney.

Fridays were my favorite day of the week. They were scheduled to start at 5pm but all of us would find our way to Kristens around 5:30. We were always greeted with the smell of fresh chocolate chip cookies and cold organic milk. After we all devoured the cookies we would gather on the blue couch in the living room and begin what others might call bible study but what I can only describe as tasting community. I could sit next to any of these women in the room and see truth in them when they spoke. I could also see heartache, suffering, passions, dreams, excitement, joy, hope etc. The only reason I could see that was because they allowed me to, they were the most transparent people I've met and I think might have the privilege to know. (If any of them are reading this, they are probably shaking their heads thinking they weren't... but to me, they were.) They are all out saving the world at the moment. One in Ecuador, Two in Nashville, One in San Antonio, San Francisco, St. Lewis, Fayetteville and lastly somewhere in South Asia. And I mean that they are saving the world. You would only have to meet them once to know I wasn't lying.


The tone of this blog is a bit more serious... but for me, part of saying goodbye to people is remembering what they mean to you. These friends helped me to believe and to hope in the fact that community is real and its around us whether we notice it or not, its one of the most important things in our life that lets us know we are loved and not alone. Saying goodbye to people you tasted community with is knowing that its not the end, its really just a pause until the next moment you see their face. I hope wherever my friends are that they remember mine and know that for all who knew and loved them here in Nashville, we remember them often and praise God for them constantly.

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Top 5

So I never got around to posting pictures. I know... I know.

However, I was talking with one of my friends today and I started listing things that I had read in the past year so I decided to make a top 5 list. But not just one good people. A top 5 list of Movies, Books, and Records. Here is the rule... anything you choose has to be something that you listened/read/watched in the last year.

Here I go...

Movies
1. Juno
2. The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (saw it for the first time in October or something.. I was obsessed)
3. Wall-e
4. Groundhog Day
5.The Bourne Ultimatum

Books
Fredrick Beuchner - Telling the Truth; The Gospel as Comedy, Trajedy and Fairy Tale.
Rob Bell- Sex God
C.S. Lewis- A Grief Observed
Anne Lammott- Traveling Mercies
Hannah Hurnard- Hinds Feet on High Places

Records
Coldplay- Viva La Vida
The Weepies- Hideaway
Katie Herzig- Apple Tree
William Fitzsimmons- Goodnight
Jon Foreman- Fall, Summer, Spring, and Winter Ep's
Matthew Perryman Jones- Swallow the Sea
Mindy Smith- My holiday
Aaron Roche-Travel *
Feist- The Reminder
Boniver- For Emma, Forever Ago
Jars of Clay - Closer Ep

*not on itunes, check myspace/aaronroche

I know I listed more on the Records than I was sappost to... but I just couldn't stop... I actually had around 20 down but decided to show some restraint. Also, these are no in order of preference... I would definately not put any of these records on the bottom of any list.