Tallyn's Bard

     The moisture from our breath gathered on the car windows, enclosing us, so that we couldn’t see the shapes of cars and people outside, only the lights of a police car flashing red… blue… red…blue… It almost looked purple inbetween the red and the blue. The moments seemed to crawl by as I tried to stop myself from falling asleep. A climactic ending to the stress, joy, excitment, nervousness, and hyperness of the past few days at the tournament.

     So now that I have your attention (hopefuly). It was an AWESOME tournament! I actually remembered to bring my camera too, but I didn’t take any pictures… no not one It was a very fun trip up and I got to see Josie who I haven’t seen in a very long time.

       First day of the tounament was awesome, and so was the second All my debate rounds were really fun and I never didn’t have something to say; but sometimes I didn’t have enough time to say it all; but I usually did. They were some of the most fun debate rounds I’ve ever done so that was fun. Impromptu was fine filled I up my time for the first speech, almost filled it up on the second, and the third was two minutes under time, but the third was the only one that I got something other than fifth and below on! Anyway I thought that was weird, but maybe they were just happy that I’d stopped talking and wanted me to know that. All my other speeches went fine. I didn’t break in debate or speech but oh well at least it was a fun tournament Though I would have liked it to be a fun tournament and broken! So I did get a speaker award and I was really surprised. It was the 32nd which is the lowest one you can get That made me laugh.

     ARC did really well! All these awesome people broke and made it to double octafinals, octafinals, quarterfinals, semis, and my awesome brother made it to finals! And Toni came the second day which was so cool! So it was fun and I could repeat those four words in a continuous line for a long time but I’ll save you the trouble. If and when some nice person sends me pictures I’ll post those! =)

So my Mom and I were coming back from the tournament (my brother was spending the night with some friends in Houstan) abd we stopped at a grocery store and then when we were pulling out of the parking lot a car sped up right behind us. It barely touched our bumper and then swerved into a tree at the side of the road. Forgeting we were in Houstan my Mom pulled into the parking lot to get out and help them. The driver pressed on the gass and sped off down the road out of sight with the whole front of the car crushed in. So we decided to just keep going on our way since there didn’t seem much else to do. A few blocks up we came upon the car pulled up at the side of the road, smoking. My mom pulled up a ways in front of it and called the police. The police came and it turned out that they were two drunk drivers. So we spent about two hours waiting for them to be done with their investigation and all. We went to bed at three in the morning and I was completely exhausted the next day. Thinking about it, we came really close to being hit.

So some cool things that have happened recently that I haven’t blogged about:

My violin teacher is letting me borrow her mandolin and I’m so very happy!!!

There is the March for life on Saturday and you should go to it if you can =)

Then there is also a youth group retreat on Saturday!

Miriam gave me a sea star she got in Florida and thinking about it makes me happy… *sigh* 

I’ve been playing a lot of music recently.

I have an HI to write before another tournament next week.

Come to think of it the fact that we have to go to a tournament next week should be a point all by itself.

I’m completly lost at the thought of debate.

I don’t know what to do to prepare for apolegetics except write more cards which I very well may not use.

Here is a brilliant idea for impromptu: write a list of all the books you’ve read recently and then write out all the scenes, incidents, intresting events that happened in them and read it over before you go in to every impromptu room.

I read my really short NaNo novel from this past November and I love it! I think it’s the best story I’ve ever written even though it’s only seven pages long as of yet…

I also did a lot of school this week and I just wrote two essays (rather short ones)

I am finished with my ramblings for the time present!

Have a wonderful week! God bless you!

                           ~Ness

I was awarded! Thank you Katy

The rules:

1. I practiced violin yesterday for a long time

Walking through the city down the sidewalk passing by stores, T J max, Justice, Target. Making my way through pushing shoving crowds of people. Christmas shopping. There was someting about everyones faces something I’ve always seen in the faces of people in the city. A blankness, off in their own world. Brooding on the past or worrying about the future, I can’t tell. But I think that the main thing is they aren’t in the present.

I notice this expression a lot among shoppers in the city but really I’ve come to realize that I see it everywhere to some degree, and I’ve felt it on my own face. So many people don’t live in the present.

Thinking about the future. A busy schedule, trying to figure out how everyone is going to get the party: who’s going with who. Other times we are dreaming, imagining, lost in our future dreams; traveling the world.

Sometimes it’s the past. Replaying a scene over and over. Hurting inside about something that happened to you, lacking the ability to forgive.

Both thoughts of the future and thoughts of the past go hand in hand. A thoughtless act, what will those people think?

So many minutes out of our life we are not living in the present. As people grow older they are less and less in the present. Remember “Become as a little child” ? Maybe part of that is living in the present. Not taking things for granted but enjoying every moment.

It’s really much harder than it seems, to live in the present.

It takes the faith to trust inGod.          

It takes the courage to forgive and forget.

It takes the concentraition to control your own thoughts

It takes the strength to pray

It takes the ability to love people the way God loves us, even if we can immitate him to only the smallest degree.

The future is coming no matter what we do, we can’t change that.

 Can’t make it go faster: thinking of the future.  Can’t make it go backwards: thinking of the past. . As C.S. Lewis put it:                                                                                                                    

“The future is something which everyone reaches at the rate of 60 minutes an hour, whatever he does, whoever he is”

Thinking in the future is a habit. If all we think about is being a teenager when we’re ten then when we won’t have enjoyed being ten, and when were a teenager we will only think about going to college, instead of enjoying highschool, and when we reach college we won’t  be enjoying it, rather we’ll be thinking of when we get married, and when we get married we’ll only think of when we have children, and when there are children we’ll only wait till they are old enough to speak and not cry and when they are older we can’t wait till they are out of the house and we don’t have to worry about what time Sally’s basketball and Bobby’s piano lesson. At some point as an old man or and old woman it will catch up to you: a wasted life. A life of always looking ahead and never enjoying the moment.

In the Bible it says:

This is the day the Lord has made let us rejoice and be glad in it.

psalm118:24

Have you ever met someone who lives in the present 100% , who laughs, who hears, who speaks and thinks as if this may be his last moment here on earth?

I have and it was inspiring, it inspired this post.

Live as though this may be your last day. The Bible calls us to be watchful. For the second coming will be when no one will expect it.

Again another quote from my favorite author, C.S. Lewis. “Where except in the present can the Eternal be met?”

Certainly not in our broodings of the past or ponderings of the future.

Living each moment as if it was the last: that is what changes lives for the better.

Happy New Years!

God Bless you!

                   ~Ness