Marriage

What is it with people and marriage lately? I swear that everywhere I look people seem to have their hate on for the topic. I can't count the amount of times I've heard lately, "Marriage ruins your life", "Don't get married, don't have kids, it's a waste of time and money" etc etc etc. Screw off people and leave my happy fantasy alone.

I, Anne Kathleen Suttie, want to get married someday. And likely or not it will be a lot sooner than when you (marriage hater) want me to. I still believe that marriage is love and love leads to joy and although there will indefinitely be hard times, the good times will overshadow the bad ones. I still believe that marriage is a blessing and a sacred union between two people who God has placed together for a purpose. What could be more exciting than that? What could be more exciting than having someone to spend the rest of your life with? Someone to love you until death do you part, someone to share the load and encourage you, someone for you to encourage? I'm not jaded like you people seem to be.

Sure, you say that I can't possibly have a valid opinion as I have never been married before. But I've seen marriages that are proof of everything I have stated above even if yours isn't.

So please, the next time you decide to tell me that marriage is a curse, a joke, and a waste of time, bite your tongue. I don't want to hear it.

Post number 100

I've decided that at one point in my life I would like to make a hugely rash decision.

Maybe I'll sell all of my worldly possessions and move to Africa to save the children. Maybe I'll quit school, get married, and have 25 kids. Maybe I'll sell my soul to rock and roll. Maybe I'll meet James Bond, throw my morals out the window and live in heavenly sin for the rest of my life. Maybe I'll join a convent and have a chastity belt glued to me for eternity.

Who knows.

But I would like to do something exciting, something that scares me and makes me feel more alive. Something completely unpredictable. Keep them talking, you know.

Stay tuned.

Slowly I've learned

Slowly I've learned

I've learned that growing up doesn't mean having the maturity to hold a 9-5 job
I've learned that being unique isn't something to be ashamed of
I've learned that really loving someone means accepting them for everything they are

Slowly I am learning

I'm learning that each moment is a precious gift from God and should be treated as such
I'm learning that being apart is a blessing because it shows me my capacity to love
I'm learning that I will never ever never stop learning.

twomonthstwomonthstwomonths

Two months.
Two months.
Two months.

I count the days at least 200 times a day.
My mantra.

Two months.
Two months.
Two months.
Two months.

I have never missed someone this much in my life.

A different day I would've entertained you

I had this extensive metaphor the other day about how finding a husband was like bargain shopping. I worked out every little detail in my head and compartmentalized it for a later blogging date.

And now I'm too tired to type it all out. Too bad. You can be assured that it was damn good though.

You bring the cup and I'll bring the moonshine

I'm not sure if I like my job or not. It makes me feel lonely. I don't miss camp. I really don't. But I miss having people around who care about me at my work place. I work in an office now and it's so different. The focus is so different. What is number one priority at camp; relationships, is number 10,567 at my work. Number one is performance. Stress from lack of performance leads to drama and drama leads to gossip. It's not abnormal to hear people whispering about other people around my office. It's lame. Lame lame lame and I don't like it. Is this what most offices are like?

On the other side of the mountain, I am enjoying spending the majority of my off time with my family. I'll visit my grandma lots this summer. I'm slowly realizing how important her grandchildren are to her. And my parents continually amaze me. I don't know why. Maybe I've come out of the 'my parents are embarrassing' stage to the 'my parents are quirky but generous and kind people' stage. It's a strange feeling. Life changing, really.

And yet again I have managed to leave my glasses at someone else's house. Someone at Canada Post is making a fortune off of me this summer.

Just sitting here praying

I never thought that I would wind up sitting on my floor praying for something as silly as cell phone service. But on the floor I am, and that's what I'm doing. My best friend and the love of my life is in Prince George in the bush for the next 3 and a half months and I don't know what to do with myself other than pray for cell phone service so that I can have a blessed phone conversation with him every night. My life feels slightly empty although I've tried as hard as I can to incorporate him into my every day experience. I have three of his shirts in my closet in a pile so that I can wear them when I need a snuggle, I have pictures of us up all over my room, and I've already started accumulating things for care parcels. However there still remains a lump in my throat the size of the Hoover Dam and there aren't enough chores in the world to keep me occupied through a summer of free time.

'Distance makes the heart grow stronger'. 'You'll appreciate each other more when you've had some time off'. From this point on I solemnly swear to never use these sentences in a serious situation again.

Ugghh

Sometimes I wish I had not a compassionate bone in my body. It would make being mad a lot easier.

Taken

Josh and I went out to watch the movie Taken tonight. Basically the premise behind the movie is that a man's daughter goes traveling to Paris with a friend and is kidnapped by an Albanian mob group to be sold into the sex trade. Luckily for her, her father is somewhat of a James Bond type and does anything (and everything) possible to hunt her down and kill her captors. Aside from the necessary steep death toll and convenient invincibility of the main character required in North American produced action movie, the film was really good. I know that because there are several things that have resonated with me.

Number one. If this movie were a little less thriller and a little less...movie..it would be a great sermon. Daughter refuses the advise of her father, makes a stupid move, gets in trouble, and father does everything he can to get her back. Remind you of another such story? There was this one section in the movie that I love. The father had just seen his daughter stripped down in a bidding room getting sold to eligible sex owners. He made a silly move and got caught by the head of the group in charge of selling her. He manages to kill everyone in the room and comes face to face with the head dude, shoots him twice in his extremities, and as he is getting ready to shoot the last bullet into his heart the man in charge says, "Please understand, it was all business. It wasn't personal." Father looks back at the dude and says, in a very James Bondesque fashion, "It was all personal to me." Think about it. I'm sure you can connect the dots in this section so I'm going to move to the next.

Number two. Holy. wow. I've been wearing a blindfold for the past 20 years of my life and someone just ripped it off. Tell me that this world is an awful place and I will agree. Tell me that bad things happen to good people everyday and I will agree again. Tell me that I am incredibly lucky to live in the country that I live in and your reply will be a resounding yes. Yet I watched this movie tonight and I feel as though a new dimension has been added to each of my responses to the above questions. I just don't understand how things like this can happen in our world where the worst person that I personally know is someone who has cheated on an exam 25 years ago. I want to know that there is a hope for people who have been trafficked. Men who are sold into work in sweat shops, women who are sold into the sex trade, children who have been forced to become child soldiers. Is there a hope? I'd like to think so. Heck, I'd like to step out of my comfortable little world where the worst thing I've had lately is no milk for my morning tea to help create hope. Want to join me?

Plants

I think my love bamboo is dying. I've been feeding him responsibly, he's sitting on a comfortable ledge, and he has sunlight and a nice view in front of him. Maybe I need to start reading to him.

I'm going to make a garden this summer with sweet peas, carrots, onions, garlic, flowers, etc. I'm going to grow those plants like they're my children and then I'm going to make yummy food from them that will taste so good because they've been grown through my efforts and love. Maybe I'll sing to them too.

I bought biodegradable earth friendly laundry detergent yesterday and it brought me great joy and excitement. I might have a mini garden in my house next year on a windowsill.

I think I'm turning into a hippy.

Baby steps and proclaiming hallelujah on high

I've discovered something about myself lately. I don't generally want God to do great things in my life. Of course I don't actually consciously pray to God to make my life miserable. But subconsciously I don't 100 percent believe that my life is great enough for Him to work in. And consequently I have chosen to refuse blessings or refuse to acknowledge blessings in my life as a form of punishment to myself. Punishment for not being perfect, worthy, for not trying enough.

I don't know why I never realized this before. Maybe God chose this opportune time in my life to show me that He has great plans for me if I would only believe that I am worthy enough of what He has to give. Or maybe I just refused to open the doors of my heart to this realization until now.

Either way, I want it. I want those great things so bad. And if admitting it is the first step, I am very excited to take the next!

25 by 25

25 things I would like to do by the ripe age of 25.. (God willing and not necessarily in this order).

1. Graduate!
2. Spend 6 months or longer on a missions trip in Africa.
3. Get married to the love of my life :).
4. Start the adoption process for a precious little black blessing from God.
5. Adopt a German Sheppard and name him Mogley. Mogey bear for short.
6. Become a dancer extraordinaire.
7. Spend a summer living on a boat.
8. Buy a car and name it Madre. Like Tomater but without the 'te'.
9. Learn to speak espagnol.
10. Enjoy school even though it feels like the bane of existence.
11. Grow my own garden with peas and carrots and sunflowers.
12. Get involved in a church after school doing small groups.
13. Obtain a job that I really enjoy and that makes me feel like I am contributing to people who are worse off than I am.
14. Delete my facebook account.
15. Learn how to alter clothing to create new looks.
16. Go to Venice, Italy and ride in one of those boats with a boatman who sings 'That's Amore!' with the love of my life.
17. Use all organic product for at least a year consecutively.
18. Stand on a surf board.
19. Backpack around South America.
20. Go to Greece.
21. See Hillsong in concert.
22. Foster kittens for the SPCA or Animal Pound.
23. Make a book list and read everything on it.
24. Either come out of University with no debt or pay it off the summer after graduating.
25. Rent a beach cabin on the Ocean in a warm country for a while and live the life of a beach bum.

Ahhh so refreshing.

A small lesson

A little lesson I've learned lately and recently put into words.

Do not resent the imperfect in others, rather rejoice in it. For it is through this imperfection that God allows you to see how truly great He is.

-Ak.

I love you.

Love. love. love. love. love. love.
love. love. love. love. love.
love. love. love. love.
love. love. love.
love. love.
love.
me?

Reasons why I should live in the tropics.

1.) I am more environmentally friendly.
For some reason, once the sun starts to shine in the early spring and beginning of the summer I find that I switch all of my products from random spa essentials to Alba botanicals. (Alba botanicals is a brand of product that is all natural, 'committed to the environment - or so they say, and tropical themed). I also find myself wanting to bike or walk places rather than drive.

2.) I am healthier in body.
I find that there is a direct correlation between what I let into my body and the amount of sun that is shining. On gross, rainy days, I eat my pain away with chocolate and foods that are slightly higher on the fat factor scale. On sunny days I drink green tea, eat more than my quota of fruits and vegs, and lots of salad. I don't know why, but I crave healthy foods. I also like to get out and be active in the summer which equals a nicer bikini body!

3.) I am healthier in spirit.
I am more motivated, more dreamy, and more relaxed when the sun is shining. Summer and sun equals a happy Anne. Amen.

I.can.not.wait.

This summer will be my first 'independent' summer since I was in grade 9 (if you could call grade 9 independent). I am overwhelmingly excited. I have the privilege of being able to move back in with my parents, in a beautiful city that comes alive with sunshine and opportunities during the months of May to August. I get to pursue a job that will hopefully challenge my skills and advance me along my education. I get to pursue things that I am passionate about like dance during my free time. I've already found the best dance studio ever to train at during the summer and I am so excited.
I.can.not.wait.

It's learning time, kids!

Did you know...

Air pollution is a global problem. Although Greenland has about half the population of Nanaimo atmospheric pollution is still found there. (Due to air currents.)

We DO have a problem.

80-90% of energy in developed countries comes from fossil fuels. Due to rising populations and depleting resources, it is likely that these resources WILL be used up within the next 50 years UNLESS we do something about it. I've heard from so many people, "I'm a Christian. I have a passion for Jesus, I'm not willing to have a passion for anything else including environmental issues." I don't get that. If you have a passion for Jesus you should have a passion for His people. If you have a passion for His people you should be doing your best to live a lifestyle so that His people will have a future on this planet. If you aren't Christian and you don't care about other people, think about your kids and your grandkids. Do you really want to leave them with the problem of fixing the enormous problem that we (and past generations) have created? Think about it.