Mexico Memories...

Hey guys, if you want to know more about our trip to Mexico, check out Hannah's blog (the link's in the sidebar on the right). Every day for 8 days Hannah's posting one day of her journal from Mexico (just without the really personal stuff). It's really cool, check it out!

Tea and Sympathy

Just noticed something I had to tell y'all! I'm listening to my favorite Jars of Clay cd, Much Afraid. A line in the song Tea and Sympathy said: "...All your words fall to the floor and break like china cups." Well, that reminds me of one of my favorite poems (rather depressing, though!), by Emily Dickinson (a poet I really like). I thought I'd share it with you:

"It dropped so low in my regard"

It dropped so low in my regard
I heard it hit the ground,
And go to pieces on the stones
At bottom of my mind;

Yet blamed the fate that fractured, less
Than I reviled myself
For entertaining plated wares
Upon my silver shelf.

I have no idea why I thought of that, but I just randomly decided to share it with y'all!

Here's the names (or rather, first lines) of some of my other favorite poetry by her, in case you want to look it up (a good site is http://www.bartleby.com/113). One or two of them are pretty depressing, I'll warn you, but what I love about her poetry is that the imagery is beyond what I always thought words could describe.
"I stepped from plank to plank"
"Father, I bring thee not myself"
"They dropped like flakes, they dropped like stars"
"It was not death, for I stood up" (this is the depressing one, but read it anyway just for the imagery!)
"The cricket sang"
"A thought went up my mind to-day"
"The moon was but a chin of gold"
"If you were coming in the fall"
"The wind begun to rock the grass"

Good stuff! Come to think of it, that's one of the reasons I like Jars of Clay songs so much in the first place... the amazing imagery. It's like poetry. It IS poetry!

A quiz for everyone

I made it up myself, aren't y'all proud of me! Seriously, it would be SO awesome if each and every one of you could fill this out. I'll fill it out myself first (except for the last part, of course). So, introducing...

RACHE'S QUIZ TO END ALL QUIZZES

1. First name: Rachel
2. Age: 18
3. Birthday: April 25, 1987
4. The all-important question: chocolate or vanilla? CHOCOLATE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (You all knew that, though.) Although as far as scents go, vanilla's one of my favorites.
5. Tea or coffee? COFFEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Tea's not really my cup of tea.
6. Pessimist or optimist? Somewhere in between. It really depends on my mood; I could go either way.
7. Extrovert or introvert? Introvert. Although I love being around my friends!

Favorite...
8. Book (other than the Bible): Lord of the Rings!!!!!
9. Movie: Guess what? Lord of the Rings!
10. Song(s): "When the Snow Melts," by Phil Cunningham and Manus Lunny (it's Celtic)
11. Music artists/bands (list from 1-10): (warning, these aren't really much in order after the first two!)
• 1. Switchfoot
• 2. dc Talk
• 3. Jars of Clay
• 4. Pillar
• 5. Thousand Foot Krutch
• 6. The Benjamin Gate
• 7. Enya
• 8. Old Blind Dogs
• 9. Rebecca St. James
• 10. U2
12. Food: chocolate, of course. Oh, and strawberries. Oh, and I LOVE Mexican food!
13. Cold drink on a hot day: IC Caramel or IC Mocha from Panera
14. Jelly Belly flavor: watermelon
15. Model of car: '57 (I think!) Chevy Bel Air
16. Thing to do when you’re sick: watch old home videos, look at old photo albums, and read of course!
17. Color: Deep, dark blue
18. Season: Summer
19. Month: March
20. Day of the week: Saturday or Sunday
21. Hour of the day: 8 or 9 pm for the summer, or actually whenever the sun's setting. Or 5 pm. I don't know why. :D This was a hard question though.
22. Girl’s name (pick a few of your favorites): Muireann Elwing (if you want to know how it's pronounced, ask me sometime), Lúthien Marielle, Elanor Lea. I also like Grace for a middle name.
23. Boy’s name (pick a few of your favorites): I have no idea about middle names, but I love Eli, Christian, Micaiah, Micah, and Levi.

24. What is your dream place to live? Scotland
25. What do you want to be “when you grow up”? A dance teacher... but I'll do whatever God leads me to. I know I want to be a wife and mother eventually!
26. Who is your biggest role-model (other than Jesus if you’re a Christian)? My parents. Oh, and my dance teacher.
27. If there was one thing you could change about yourself, what would it be? I would be a whole lot less selfish and a true servant to others, not just on the outside but in my heart. Not be so concerned with myself. Because I am so freakin' selfish it depresses me sometimes.
28. What’s one of the things you like most about yourself? I like to think and I like to dream.
29. What is your love language? Probably time is my biggest. But others are really important to me too, especially touch. I appreciate service, too, and I'm trying to work on being a better servant to others myself, as I've already said.
30. What’s your favorite Scripture verse? Why? I have a few favorites, and it's so hard to pick just one! I do REALLY like Zephaniah 3:16-17, that goes something like this in my favorite translation of it: ""My daughter, have no fear, do not let your hands fall limp. Yahweh your God is with you, a victorious warrior. He will take great delight in you, he will renew you by his love; he will dance over you with shouts of joy as on a day of festival."
31. List five things that you really enjoy doing.
• 1. Talking to God
• 2. Talking about deep stuff with friends
• 3. Dreaming/thinking/writing in my journal/making up stories and poetry (it's all sort of lumped together)
• 4. DANCING! I seriously practice just about every day now... how can I not? It's like flying!
• 5. Spending time with my friends
32. Describe an interesting dream you remember having: Hmm... Well, one time I had a dream that a bunch of my friends and I were on this cruise ship sort of thing. Except it wasn't really fancy or anything. I do remember there was this one room with some foosball tables and stuff like that. But we were all exploring, and some of us were playing foosball and some of us were going to get something to eat when the ship hit something and started sinking, Titanic-style. You'd think it would turn into a nightmare, but it didn't (actually, most of my dreams don't anymore!). It wasn't really scary, just an adventure sort of thing like you'd read in a book. We all got out okay, by the way. :-D I've also had other really cool dreams. Mysteries and other adventures and such.
33. Who is one person that you would like to see right now (God doesn't count, if that's what you're thinking)? I really don't know... I guess Sara and Lora cause they're gone... oh and Kaitlin! I haven't seen her since Mexico, really. :( Makes me sad. Oh and I would like to see all the troupers... I miss them! I went from seeing most of them practically every day to not at all. We have got to have a party sometime. That would be so cool. Lol, so this isn't exactly one person, but I give y'all leave to cheat, too! After all, it IS my quiz!

And some questions for you to answer about me (feel free to email your answers to me if you don’t want everyone to see them):
34. Do I remind you of a character from a story? Who and why?
35. If there were to be a movie of my life, who would star in the lead role?
36. When you think of me, what comes to mind?
37. What do you like about me?
38. What do you think I need to work on?
39. Is there any way I could be a better friend to you?
40. How does my relationship with God look to you?
41. Is there any additional advice you have for me?


Thanks guys! I'd really appreciate you all filling this out, it will help me to get to know y'all better and it will also help me if there's anything I need to work on!

Everyone run and hide...

The Rachieth Returneth!

Lol, that was for all the girls I used to email every day back in 10th grade. I LOVE YOU GIRLS!!!

I used to write about whatever popped into my mind. Hannah's chicken noises, Susanna's chainsaw snoring, my obsession with brownies (and, well, all chocolate for that matter), guys who need longer to bake, the evil socks in Kevin and Chris' closet, etc. So I think I'll try my best to write a "random email from Rache" again. Newsletter #1553 (since I already wrote Newsletter #1552).

I like Celtic music. If you hadn't already noticed. It's practically all I listen to anymore. Especially the dance songs. It's kind of interesting how Celtic music is always REALLY happy and bursting with joy and love or REALLY sad and depressing. Or VERY WEIRD. Like the song called "I Buried My Wife and Danced on Top of Her." It's really upbeat and joyful sounding, lol. And I guess when you've been around Celtic music all your life you get used to it, but I know of many wonderful songs out there about such different things as:

• Milking a cow.
• The conversation between a man and his mother right after he killed his father. And the mother's entire concern is for what wealth she acquires from him when he goes over the sea in penance.
• A beggar bragging about how great it is to be a beggar. (?!?)
• As the song says: "The age of 14, he was a married man. The age of 15; the father of a son. The age of 16, his grave it did grow green...." Very typical Celtic song right there.
• An ode to the "salmon of knowledge"... wow. That must be one smart fish.
• A girl who's begging her mother to let her go to the fair because she's in love with the shoemaker and wants to marry him... and she's only 10 years old.
• Open the door for the fiddling tailor! Because he's the king's son! So open the door for him! And that's practically all the words to the song!
• Alasdair son of Cholla was a gallant warrior, and all of Scotland is burning.
• Ri ri o ro, ri ri o ro, ri ri o ro. The chickens are squawking. Ri ri o ro, ri ri o ro. The older girl drowned the youngest in the pool of swans, ri ri o ro, and stole her lover for herself, ri ri o ro, ri ri o ro. We must feed the chickens, dear Maggie.


Lol, you get my point now, don't you? I love Celtic music though, anyway! And those are really just some of the songs, the weird ones (though I love those anyway). Others, like "The Mystic's Dream," or "Be Thou My Vision," or "Caoineadh Na Mhara/Amen," or "Our Wedding Day," are some of the most beautiful songs lyrically and musically in the world, IMHO.

Okay, you all are going to laugh at me, but something really funny just happened: I'm sitting here listening to music (Celtic, of course!), when I notice that there's only 40 songs in my music library on iTunes! Normally there are 1,744! So I totally start panicking. AAAAAUUUUUGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!! ALL MY MUSIC!!!!!!! GONE!!!!!!! Of course we have back-up, but it's for the other computer, so it's not as personalized. So I run down in a panic to Dad who's about to go to bed, looking very pale and scared. "DAD!" I whisper/scream, "THERE'S ONLY 40 SONGS IN MY ITUNES LIBRARY!!!" So he calmly tells me to bring the iBook down and show him, and lo and behold, I had typed some words in the "search" field and so it was only showing the songs relating to that search.

Oops. I felt really stupid. We had a pretty good laugh about it, though.

I'm going to do something that I haven't done in awhile. I'm going to work on my foreign language skills. J'aime parlant en français. Je l'apprendrai plus à l'université. J'ai oublié très beaucoup de cette langue belle, malheureusement. Alors, mes mots sont horribles.

Agus an Gàidhlig. 'S fìor thoil leam an Gàidhlig. Bha mi ag ionnsachadh i anns an sgoil am bliadhna, ach feumaidh mi tòrr a ionnsaich.

Melinyë i lambë Eldaron. Quenya ná i anvanya ilyë i lambëo. Melinyë quetes rimbavë. Tencenyë Valaquenta Quenyassë atta yéni yá. Nás lambë mára linden i elenion.

Okay, I'm glad I got that off my chest. I haven't done that in awhile, so thanks for putting up with me! That was French, Scottish Gaelic, and Quenya. And just so you know, Gaelic sounds NOTHING like how it looks, so don't even attempt to sound it out.

Last night was great. It was Breakaway's Informal Night Out and we went to some restaurants on Campus Corner. The food was okay, nothing special (except for the fried oreos. It's funny I liked them so much, considering my aversion to both grease and oreos!). The laughter and time with friends was what made it so great. By the way, WELCOME BACK STEPHEN! Okay, I've just got to say it: Matt and Katie brought these two ADORABLE 4-week-old kittens with them. I cannot describe how cute they were. I was dying from cuteness. But anyway, it made me really sad since I'm allergic to kittens. Not like Sara—she breaks out in hives and stuff. I just get itchy all over and occasionally asthma. Oh and when I get scratched it swells up to the size of Mt. Everest. But eventually I just gave up and HAD to hold one. It was so precious! I would so get a cat if I could... I love cats (sorry all you dog-lovers, but I do). Sigh... it makes me sad.

The good thing was I didn't have much of a problem with allergies afterwards, for some crazy reason. Yay!

Oh, tomorrow we're going out to eat with some people I haven't seen since I was like, 5. One of the guys' names is Grady, and I still remember him. He's the one I always used to call "Gravy."

OH! One more thing before I go! I feel so darn proud of myself! I was watching that acappella guys' dance in Riverdance, the one with all the thunder and lightning that is SO DARN COOL and so fast I can't even tell what moves they're doing most of the time (that is seriously one of the most amazing dances in the entire show from the perspective of an Irish dancer!). Well, anyway, there's this one move they do that makes a really cool rhythm with a neat little heel click stuck in there somewhere. I had always wished I could do that, so I watched it over and over, and finally sort of figured out my own best guess of what it might be! It's so awesome! Now I just need to make up a dance to put it in, lol.

GOODBYE SARA AND LORA!! I'll miss y'all! I love you girls!! See ya next week!

Well, I'm off into the wide blue yonder for now (a.k.a. bedtime). I'm really tired. Even though I slept in until 11 this morning. That's really strange because I don't sleep in that late very often. I have an internal alarm clock that usually wakes me up at 8:30 at the latest, but recently it hasn't been working, I guess. But anyway... I love you all! Goodnight!

Rache

YEAH Caleb!

Okay, everyone go to Caleb's blog (http://herohtar.myvnc.com/) NOW. He just posted the ENTIRE song I was just talking about in the last post in a media player that should work for all of you.

A quick sidenote for those of you who aren't Celtic music junkies: The song starts out with her singing a little (no words), and then there's this really weird but cool Gregorian Chant-like thing. This all lasts about a minute, and then the song really starts. It's ALL absolutely beautiful, I'm just warning you so you won't get 30 seconds into it and think, "how the heck could she dance to THAT?"

Oh, and she has a really interesting, REALLY strong voice! Just as a reminder, this is Loreena McKennitt singing her song "The Mystic's Dream."

The Coming Dawn

Hey everyone, check out the audio clip I put in my profile. I LOVE that song... even though I haven't heard it all the way through just yet, lol. It's so beautiful. I can so imagine a dance to it. As a matter of fact, when I buy that song off the iTunes music store God's probably going to choreograph it in my head. He's already started!

Info about the song: it's a GORGEOUS song called The Mystic's Dream by Loreena McKennitt. I have a very strong feeling that she is a pagan (as a matter of fact I pretty much know), but the lyrics to this song can totally be interpreted as Christian. I think of it as a song about the return of Christ... sort of like a dream I might have about His return. I also think it ties in VERY strongly with the whole theme of my blog, which is the story of Elwing and Eärendil. All three things snap together like a puzzle, because they really are about the same thing. Here's the lyrics:


A clouded dream on an earthly night
Hangs upon the crescent moon
Voiceless song in an ageless light
Sings at the coming dawn
Birds in flight are calling there
Where the heart moves the stones
There that my heart is longing for
All for the love of you

A painting hangs on an ivy wall
Nestled in the emerald moss
Eyes declare a truce of trust
Then it draws me far away
Where deep in the desert twilight
Sand melts in pools of the sky
Darkness lays her crimson cloak
Your lamps will call, call me home

So it's there my homage's due
Clutched by the still of the night
Now I feel, feel you move
And every breath, breath is full
So it's there my homage's due
Clutched by the still of the night
Even the distance feels so near
All for the love of you

A clouded dream on an earthly night
Hangs upon the crescent moon
A voiceless song in an ageless light
Sings at the coming dawn
Birds in flight are calling there
Where the heart moves the stones
There that my heart is longing for
All for the love of you

Oh, Mexico...

Mexico
James Taylor

Way down here you need a reason to move
Feel a fool running your stateside games
Lose your load, leave your mind behind

Oh, Mexico
It sounds so simple I just got to go
The sun's so hot I forgot to go home
Guess I'll have to go now

"Americano" got the sleepy eye
But his body's still shaking like a live wire
Sleepy "Señorita" with the eyes on fire

Oh, Mexico
It sounds so sweet with the sun sinking low
Moon's so bright like to light up the night
Make everything all right


I stole the lyrics from Stephen, lol. If he minds, then I'll just have to get out my hardshoes (oh wait, that just works on Kevin... I don't know if it would work on Stephen since he hasn't seen what they can do!)

But anyway, I love that song... it paints a picture of this last week. I'll give you all a big post later with all the cool stories and adventures that we had so many of. I can hardly begin to describe to you how awesome this mission trip was. I can't wait to attempt it, though! But meanwhile, I'll explain why this song fits so perfectly.

"Way down here you need a reason to move
Feel a fool running your stateside games
Lose your load, leave your mind behind"

When we were down there, it was down to the grit. All the other motives fell away (for the most part, that is), and God became our true reason for moving. We left the foolish games of the comfortable. When we did that, when we experienced the reality of life in most of the world, and when we did it for God and helped others, it was incredibly freeing. We lost the burden of the mindset of the rich.

"'Americano' got the sleepy eye
But his body's still shaking like a live wire
Sleepy "Señorita" with the eyes on fire"

Toward the end of the week, especially, we all got pretty tired, but God lifted us up on eagle's wings. Not only did he give me strength, but joy, too, in the work. I was on fire for Him this week, but I don't exactly know if that could be seen in my eyes! I'd hope so. Another thing this verse reminds me of is how even though we'd be tired every night (REALLY tired toward the end of the week), we'd all stay up late being crazy... actually just being ourselves. ;)

"Oh, Mexico
It sounds so sweet with the sun sinking low
Moon's so bright like to light up the night
Make everything all right"

This reminds me of all those times, whether in Tekax or Cancún or elsewhere, when I soaked up the beauty of God's creation. All those times looking up at the bright sliver of the moon... watching the sunset with stormclouds everywhere but where we were in the poor outskirts of Cancún... picking out constellations in a sky filled with jewels at the top of the hill in Tekax... singing through my tears to the God of hope beyond the stars that spun over the railing of the mission... watching purple twilight set in over white sand and a turquoise sea... staring in awe and wonder at the power of God in the waves of the ocean crashing at my feet and the dark sky full of endless stars above.

That was beautiful, seeing the ocean at night again. I felt so small. So powerless. The ocean is so strong. It seemed to go on forever. I felt so small against it. I have no control at all over the waves, and it could easily crush me in its depths. And the night sky... so many billions upon billions of stars in billions upon billions of galaxies... it's so big. And I couldn't stand up to it, either. Not even a chance against either of them. But God is bigger than they are, and He is the one that spins the stars and orchestrates the waves, and He's also the one who creates the symphonies of our lives. So it's okay. I'm okay. It's good to be small. It's more than okay, because this same God loves us beyond comprehension. What a beautiful mystery! So I sang Amazing Grace.

And now I am so tired that the room is spinning. I think I'd better go to bed now! Hasta luego.

Two major events within one week!!

These things are so major and so close together that I can hardly get my head around them both at once!

Major event #1: THE DANCE RECITAL WAS SATURDAY!!!! IT WAS AWESOME!! One of the best nights of my life! I think I enjoyed it even more than the audience did, lol!! I can't describe how amazing it was. It went SO smoothly, much smoother than last year. Except for two things, but both turned into sort of adventures and will be great memories. First of all, this big supercell storm came through and everyone had to go to these dressing rooms for shelter because there was a possibility of tornadoes!! Like right when we got there! But it turned out to be a blessing in disguise for us, and it's one of the reasons why it was one of the best nights of my life. At first I was a little freaked out because my Dad had dropped us off to go get something to eat, and then Hannah I got split up from Mom and Susie because we went to different dressing rooms. But I was with some of my friends, and we got creative with passing the time. None of us had any decks of cards (Hannah's were in her bag out in the little auditorium... oops!), but I did have some duck tape! We made a wallet for our teacher's brother and finished it just in time for us all to move back out into the little auditorium. When we got out, we looked over to the other dressing room, and one of the troupers' dads was playing his fiddle, and some of the younger Irish dancers were dancing! Of course we ran over to join the ceili!!

For those of you who don't know, a ceili (or ceilidh, if you speak Scottish Gaelic) is the ULTIMATE in fun parties. It's basically a get-together with lots of dancing and music and laughter and food and such. Irish dancers use the term for certain dances that can be danced at ceilis, but a lot of times we just use the word for any sort of dancing together, whether completely spontaneous or at a party.

Well, anyway, we joined in. Everyone took turns dancing in the middle of the circle to the fiddle's tune, while everyone else clapped and whooped. Even non-Irish dancers joined the fun and kicked up their heels! Then the four of us there from the troupe did a basket (a move where you lock arms around each other in a circle, lean back, and go around really fast!). It felt like we were flying! Then, we got everyone who wanted to, Irish dancers or no, and taught them how to do the basket! Soon a lot of people were going around and around (a lot slower, though, but they were THRILLED!). They absolutely loved it. And so did I! It was so much fun, so awesome, I can't even describe how great it was. It was really a ceili! Wow!

The second little "adventure" came right after we did our ballet dance. Kara and I had to run and change into our hip-hop costume. But no sooner had we gotten back to the dressing room and started changing than someone came and told us that we had to go backstage as we would be saying our verses onstage with a bunch of others soon! We just about panicked, because I remembered that after we said the verses there would only be ONE song before our hip-hop dance! That is NO time at all to change in and take off our "wreaths of death" (the flower wreaths we wore in our hair that took FOREVER to put on and take off), even if we changed in the backstage dressing room, which we couldn't. So there we were, lined up backstage to say our verses, half-changed. I was in my ballet dress with my black hip-hop tights and no shoes. Hannah helped me take off the wreath, so at least that was done. But we had so little time, we were really freaking out! Finally someone told us to just skip saying our verses and to go ahead and change, right as the rest of the people were going onstage to say it. So we RAN. Down the backstage hall, through the main hall, into the little auditorium, leaping over kids, around to the dressing room. We changed quickly, but I was having trouble getting my headband-thing to stay on! So I was trying to bobby-pin it and Kara was trying to get her jazz shoes on and people kept running in saying that we had to get backstage. I said a quick prayer, and then we RAN like maniacs back through the little auditorium, through the halls, and we JUST made it backstage in time for the ending of the song right before ours. It was pretty funny. We both decided we wished someone had got it on videotape, because it must have looked REALLY hilarious, what with us bumping into walls, leaping over kids, running like total maniacs and slamming into doors at full speed. Oh wow, I'm laughing now just thinking about it!! It was hilarious! Craziness.

By the way, a big THANK YOU to those of you who made it to the recital, even despite the storm (and we missed those of you who couldn't, because of the storm or otherwise! We love you anyway, lol!). I was so happy to see you all there! And my fellow graduates (most of you don't read this, but I'll say it anyway): Kevin, Aaron, Jessie, you all are awesome! And Kev, watch out, you never know when I might sneak on my hardshoes! *evil laugh* I threatened to do a click at him for punching my arm at the reception after the recital... I had NOTHING to do it, no NOTHING... of course I wouldn't have punched him in the arm first or anything... I'm too nice... lol. He went and hid behind Sara after that, lol.

And of course I won't forget all of you who weren't my fellow graduates! Sara, Kaitlin, Chris, Bethany, and the rest of you—so many! It meant SO much to me that you all were there! You rock!

Okay, so onto Major Event #2. On Wednesday, I leave for... MEXICO!!!! For the mission trip!! I. AM. SO. FREAKIN. EXCITED. AAAAAAAAAAAAAUGGGGHHHH!!!!!!! I can't wait!!! This will be my second year going, and it's going to be a LOT harder stuff than last year (we'll actually be staying out in a remote village for 4 days, with no showers or anything!!), but last year I discovered that when you're serving God with a willing heart, it's FUN. It'll be incredible. It'll be a blast! Wow, there are almost twice as many people going this year as last year! 29 instead of 17! So it'll be a little crowded, but it'll be great anyway. I think most of the people who went last year are going again and bringing their siblings, too, so that's why it's so much more! (Random comment of the day: have you ever noticed what a strange word "sibling" is?) Well, anyway, I am PUMPED. I will write all about it when I get back; there'll be a lot of stories to tell!

Would everyone please pray for us? Here are some specific things that I'd really appreciate your prayers for:

• For physical and spiritual health throughout all 8 days of the trip for everyone going.
• That our hearts would be open and that God would use this trip to do wonderful things in each one of our lives, and change us to be more like Him.
• For the first-timers that they wouldn't be too nervous (one gets sick when she's really nervous or excited on trips, so pray for her in particular!) and that we all would trust in God. Some of the first-timers are my sister Hannah, Kaitlin, and Kevin, plus MANY more.
• For safety for all of us, whether on the plane or on the bus or taxi in Mexico, or even walking around the villages or in the Hotel Zone on our R&R day.

Thank you all SOOOO MUCH!! You guys are AWESOME!