Sunday, July 29, 2012

Olympics-for athletes and 9 year olds

Friday was the Opening Ceremony for the 2012 Olympic Games.  Saturday was the first day of competitions.  Saturday was also the day J8 (my youngest sister) became J9.  It being July of an Olympic year, we threw her an Olympics-style party.
So far on the Olympics, we've seen swimming and men's gymnastics.  We're looking forward to seeing women's gymnastics and syncro diving tonight.  The "competitions" for J9's party were somewhat less sophisticated.  We have foam swords, so we had fencing (none of the swordplay was particularly brilliant), and we have a bow made out of PVC pipe and and arrow made out of a dowel, so we did distance archery (we didn't have a target for accuracy archery).  We had a "long jump", using the children's ballet game, "Over the Alligators".  For those unfamiliar, it involves two objects, usually a pair of shoes, which start about two feet apart, and gradually are moved farther apart as everyone leaps over both shoes.
We had gymnastics of a sort, mostly seeing who could do the best cartwheel.  Not really Olympic quality, I know.  There's a big difference between eighteen-twenty year olds who have been training nearly their whole lives and nine year olds who have virtually no experience.  J9 has had a year of gymnastics, but that was more that any of them had in any other "event".
Which brings me to the value of training.  As a dancer, I know this as well as anyone.  I would not be where I am today without ever-increasing training over the last four years.
But there is one place where training takes even greater importance.  More than a dancer, I am a soldier.  If I don't train, I could, and probably will, die.  Where is my battleground?  Right here.  As a Christian, I am constantly fighting, both myself and everything that would drag me away from God.  It is a constant battle, and it's easy to get distracted and forget what's important.  If I get distracted, I get that much more vulnerable, that much more open to attack.  I have to train all the time to keep my guard up, and, sadly, I'm not perfect.  Like ballet, I get frustrated with my progress, but I keep training anyway, because I get worse if I stop training.
I know this has been kinda rambly, especially the last paragraph.  I was working on the last paragraph when the Olympics came on.  As I was writing about being distracted, that's exactly what I was becoming.  I had a well-thought out argument, and I kept looking up and loosing it.  That's why it's so disjointed.  Sorry.

pointe4Jesus
~Dancing for Him Who died for me.~

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Colorado

Good heavens, Colorado has had more than it's share of disaster.  First the fires, now a psycho in a theater.  A couple of things stand out to me about these stories, mostly serving to illustrate that America is the home of the brave.
  •  Countless firefighters traveled to Colorado to fight the many fires, some of which still aren't out yet. One of the incredible things about this set of fires is that there were around a dozen fires, burning thousands of acres and some 600 homes, but only TWO people are known to have died.  Timely firefighter response was a part of that.  I cannot imagine what it would be like to be a firefighter, being within a few feet of blazes like the ones I've seen in pictures.  It's terrifying to even see the pictures, even when the pictures are from several miles away, at least.
  • During the Aurora shooting, one girl was hit in the neck and fell.  Her friend dropped with her, putting pressure on the wound, keeping her from bleeding to death until help arrived.  The girl will recover.

I wonder what goes through the mind of someone who does something like the Aurora shooting.  I can't come up with anything that could make someone do something this heartlessly brutal.  I also wonder what goes through the minds of the people around when someone starts shooting.  I've so far been fortunate enough to not find out, but I can't imagine the terror.
A miracle, though:  A friend of a friend's was at the theater, and was shot 3x in the arm, and once in the head.  The shot through her head came within a hair's width of hitting the brain, but went instead up the nasal cavity in the middle.  By God's providence, she will make a complete recovery.
There are also stories of homes spared from the fires, and of other victims who will make full recoveries.  My heart aches for the families of those who have died, for the family of the shooter as they deal with the actions of their son/brother, and for those who have lost nearly everything in the fires.  But I rejoice for everything that has been spared.  God's providence is truly amazing, and I hope that many more examples will emerge over the coming weeks.
One just came up now, in fact.  I was typing, and something happened, and I thought it had deleted everything I had written.  After a minute, though, I figured out where it went, and got it back without having to re-type everything.  Yay!
pointe4Jesus
~Dancing for Him Who died for me.~

Saturday, July 14, 2012

Griping about colds and knees

Today, I seeb to hab a cold.  By dose is leaking like a faucet, and by head is pounding like a drub.  And by throat hurts so buch I can't talk.  I ab not happy.
Today was supposed to be the day I embarked on a massive crusade against the piles of laundry in the laundry room.  It turned into the day I laid around on the couch trying to say "ugh," and working on the books on my reading list.  I finished one, but the next one is the Diary of Anne Frank, and I do NOT feel like reading that one right now.  I already don't feel good, I don't need to be depressed too.
Having my sisters at my beck and call was kinda fun, though.  Usually they just get mad when I ask them to do something for me.  It's still not worth being sick, though.
Being injured isn't fun either.  According to the physical therapist, the little muscle that prevents my knee from over-hyper-extending got irritated, making my knee stay slightly bent for quite awhile.  It wasn't enough that I noticed it, but some muscle on the other side of my knee sure did.  So now I have two irritated muscles in my knee, and it isn't happy with me.  I can still dance, and the PT guy said I should dance, but it hurts some.  Especially after Character, which we had yesterday.  If anyone's had character, they know that, especially at barre, there's a LOT of bending and straightening, including a lot on one leg.  So now it's really not happy with me.  I'm icing it, of course, and it ought to be fine by Monday, but it's still a pain right now.
I suppose I should be grateful that I can still dance.  After all, I could have something broken, and not be able to dance at all.  Or I could be starving in the streets or something like that.
But since I'm a woman, it's still fun to get in a good gripe now and then.

pointe4Jesus
~Dancing for Him Who died for me.~

Thursday, July 12, 2012

Overview

Blog-
a Web site containing the writer's or group of writers' own experiences, observations, opinions, etc.
So anyhow, this is my blog.  I suppose for a first post I should say a little bit about me.  My passion (my obsession, according to my sister) is ballet, and I'm looking at making a career in teaching it to children.  At the moment, I'm dancing 30 hours every week, though when the school year starts, it will go down to about half that.  Teachers use summer as a chance to beat up on you more.
I love to read, and currently have a list of about 20 books I'm supposed to be reading over the course of the summer.  My sisters keep saying I should read whatever their current favorite book happens to be, but I keep having to remind them that I simply don't have time to read anything else.  I suppose that's what comes of being a family of homeschoolers.
I feel like I should insert some really funny story here, but none are jumping to mind.  So I guess that will have to wait.


I have decided to allow reader comments, HOWEVER if you cannot be civil and keep your language clean, I will remove your comment.  (When I say clean, I mean really, really, clean.  Pretty much no vulgarity at all, and certainly no swearing.)  Other than that, though, I welcome comments/feedback.  Even debate is alright, as long as it's civil.  No name-calling, either.


Anyhow, I guess that's all I can think of for now.


pointe4Jesus
~Dancing for Him Who died for me~