F5 - incredible damage

Where has people’s creativity and courage gone to these days? Is no one adventurous anymore? Spontaneous? What the heck! Everything around me has become so boring, that it’s become hard for me to be imaginative anymore.

Last week in my geography class, we learned about how tornadoes form. Personally, I think that tornadoes are pretty darn radical. I mean, come on, just to think that a little wind circling in different directions can quickly pick up speed, and create winds of 450km/h? Yeah, I guess people get pretty freaked out by their destruction, but that comes with any natural disaster. It’s why they’re called DISASTERS. Anyway.. while our prof was talking about tornadoes, he asked if anyone had ever chased one before. No one put their hand up. Then he asked if anyone ever wanted to. Out of almost 300 kids, I was the ONLY person who put up their hand. I was completely shocked. Of all those people, was I the only one with the guts to go out and find a tornado? It’s not like I’m going to get and get myself sucked up into one. Obviously I’m going to be completely prepared for it, well, as much as I could be, and educate myself enough to understand how they work.

So I guess I’m wondering if people lose their sense of adventure as they grow older. It seems plausible. The younger generations are where the imaginations are, and I guess that’s why I’m afraid of growing up. I don’t want to lose my creative or adventurous side to old age, and everything that goes along with it. At home I have come pretty crazy friends, all who are as bold as the fearless 7 year olds that I worked with all summer. They don’t usually think about anything twice before going ahead and doing it. I don’t know if that makes them stupid or ingenious. Personally I think that they’re pretty smart. Sure I may seem biased, them being my friends and all, but in all honesty, I think that it’s the risk takers that experience life moreso than those who are afraid. They are the one’s that aren’t afraid to try new things, and they are the ones who show me that I don’t need to second guess myself on new things.

It was these friends that showed me that I don’t have to be afriad to go after things that I enjoy in life. I don’t understand how people can just wonder their way through life, not trying new things, never straying away from the path that they’ve set out for themselves in life.

love is...

Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. Love does not demand its own way. Love is not irritable, and it keeps no record of when it has been wronged. It is never glad about injustice but rejoies whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.

There are three things that will endure - faith, hope and love - the greatest of these is love.


-1 corinthians 13:4-7, 13

but the eyes are blind. one must look with the heart

"If someone loves a flower, of which just one single blossom grows in all millions and millions of stars, it is enough to make him happy just to look at the stars. He can say to himself: 'Somewhere, my flower is there...' But if the sheep eats his flower, in one moment all his stars will be darkened." -le petite prince, antoine de saint exupéry

If you have never read the book The Little Prince, I really encourage you to do it. It is a simple story, originally in french, about a little prince and his travels, far away from the little planets that he lives on. One story within this book is about the love that he has for his flower back home. He meets many people (as well as other animals and plants..they can talk..) along the way, and from each one he learns a little bit more about life, and mostly about love. He encounters many different characters, each that have their own love in their lives. Counting stars, themselves, alcohol, and people who had silly jobs, but just couldn't pull themselves away from them. The little prince learns from all of these people that he really just wants to go home and take care of what he loves, his little flower.

I don't think that love can really be explained, especially if it's a feeling. The little prince loved his flower so much; he would do anything for it. He covered it at night to protect it from animals, watered it daily, and made a screen to get the most sun, and protect it from winds. He missed his flower so much when he was away from it, and his precious little flower was constantly on his mind. In the beginning, he believed that his little flower was the only of its kind, until he came to earth and found a whole bunch of his little flowers (they were roses). Even when he realized that there were more in the universe, and his little flower wasn't unique, he still loved it. Even though his little flower was demanding, he still loved it.

This book taught me a lot about the different types of love that people can feel in the world. At church we learn about love, intimate, brotherly, and Godly.. but there are so many more types out there too. Even the words 'love' itself can have so much meaning, sometimes more than people think. Even the dictionary can't set a finite definition for the word. It explains that love is 1.great affection for a person or thing, 2. a passionate desire for someone, 3. to like (to do something) very much, 5. a deep feeling of sexual attraction, and many more.. There are so many definitions, yet none fit with how the word is just thrown around in society today.

The world love (and hate, but that's something entirely separate) needs to be cherished now, more than ever. I think that people should almost stop using, unless they are really going to stop and think about what they are about to say before they use it. I know that's a ridiculous request, and I don't think that I could even stop using it carelessly, not without incredible patience, but I DO think that people use it without understanding what it really means, or figuring out what it means to them.

I know that there isn’t a sure definition of the word love, but I believe that each person has their own interpretation of what the word means to them. Sometimes it is a way to descirbe your favourite thing or that immense feeling that you have toward something, and you know of no other way to express it. I just know that it’s a beautiful word that needs to be used for those beautiful situations. And love can only come from the heart