closer to loveee

wowwwzzzaaa i checked the forecast for kelowna and it's gonna be hot hot hot!! yessss i am SO SO SO excited for Casa Loma :) Can't believe it's only 3 more days until I'm back at my 2nd home!!! A summer isn't complete without going to Casa Loma and it's going to be a little piece of heaven. I'm ready for the magic. Better go packkk :)

memory footprints

I guess I'm a really nostalgic person. That's sometimes a bad thing, but mostly a good thing. I try to savour the experiences of life and hold onto them in my heart. So far, this summer has been magical. I know that I'll never forget the things that have happened in may and june. The hard days have melted away and the precious, sparkling things that make life so wonderful will be in my mind for a long time.

home is such a beautiful, sweet word and i am so blessed to have so many wonderful people in my life.

The question was raised
As my conscience fell
A silly, little lie
It didn’t mean much
But it lingers still
In the corners of my mind
Still you call me to walk
On the edge of this world
To spread my dreams and fly
But the future’s so far
My heart is so frail
I think I’d rather stay inside
But You love me anyway
It’s like nothing in life that I’ve ever known
Yes You love me anyway
Oh Lord, how You love me

love/hate but home

It's been eight years since I left the only place I ever knew to come to Vancouver, BC. Sometimes it's hard for me to believe that all those years have past. But at the same time, it's not so hard. When I search my heart, I realize that Saskatoon is no longer home. It is home in the sense that it is my hometown, but it remains simply the place that holds my childhood. It doesn't feel like home to me anymore.
Vancouver has become my home. It's happened slowly, and without my realization. It's happened as I have come to know it better - that big, foreboding, intimidating city that seemed so scary and overwhelming before has come to feel like my neighborhood. Not to say that I am not extremely cautious when I go there - it's still a big city after all and not the safest one at that. Nor would I say that I am super familiar with it, because I'm not. However, I've slowly learned who Vancouver really is. And I've come to realize that I have a complicated relationship with Vancouver. It's love/hate.
Love: There are many reasons to love Vancouver and I love Vancouver for all of them. It has superb weather. Okay, it does rain a lot, and that stinks, but I would take rain over snow any day. So the mild climate, yes is a plus. It has so many places to explore. Amazing shopping. Myriads of restaurants and cafes. Historical attractions, tourist attractions, and outdoor adventures are plentiful. Worldclass events come here: the Olympics are number one. Figure skating. Concerts. And there's another reason I love Vancouver: the spirit of the people who live here. I realized this during the Canuck Stanley Cup craze. We have an awesome hockey team. We hosted an awesome Olympic Games. And ignoring the riot, we know how to come together to celebrate something that unites us. It's magical.
Hate: I don't like the sketchy people that a big city always brings or how you don't feel safe all the time because of the seedy areas. I don't like how materialisitc the city is and how rich it is. I don't like how spiritually dark Vancouver is. There are so many broken people here and very few who have encountered God. When I think of missions, I realize that God has laid Vancouver on my heart. We always think of missions as going somewhere internationl, but really, the biggest mission field is on my doorstep. I love Vancouverites and I have such a burden for them. I know that God loves them so much and I pray that I can somehow become a worker in the harvest that I know he has in store for this city.
But even though Vancouver is not perfect, it is my home. That I have come to realize as I sit here in my Canucks shirt and look at the photos pasted on my wall that depict my Olympic memories here from just over a year ago. I have realized that my heart has come to lie in Vancouver and that no matter where I go, I will always be a Vancouver girl. There is a part of me that will always be a prairie girl, but another part that belongs to Vancouver.
We have the best hockey team, had the best Olympics, have the best weather, and the best opportunities. I pray that God will reveal himself to the people of Vancouver and save this city that I have come to love so much.

beauty amongst ashes

Although I'm obviously sad and disappointed the Canucks couldn't come through last night, I am still very proud of our team. They gave us an amazing run to the cup this year - two months of fun, excitement, entertainment, thrills, gripping moments, jubilation, and patriotic spirit reminiscent of the Olympics. How can that be looked on as a disappointment? Yes, we were oh so close to being #1, but sometimes it's not all about being #1. Sometimes it's being thankful for opportunities, for the journey, and for being #2. Come on guys, we were second best in the league, President's Trophy Winners and Division Champions. Sometimes you need to look at the glass as half full. We have a great team here in Vancouver and there's always another year, another run at the cup :) Go Canucks Go!
What's sad though is to see such a fun two months of cheering on the Canucks end like this. What were those idiots thinking? How is it acceptable to destroy other people's property, mock authority, and disgrace the reputation of Vancouver and all of Canada? How those people who rioted last night can call that a good time is mind-blowing to me. Seriously people, we LOST A HOCKEY GAME. It was a GAME. It was supposed to be fun. It's not like you lost your jobs or your right to vote or anything else that a riot is normally about. So the Canucks didn't win? So what? It's sad, but life goes on. Life is about far more than a hockey game, and for people to use a trivial disappointment as a chance to showcase outright rebellion and oppositionality is beyond me. I'm very disappointed that this city, which showcased the most successful Olympic Games in history, has tarnished that reputation with this outrageous immaturity.
At the end of it all, however, I am reminded of the bigger picture. I realize now that I have been guilty of maybe getting too caught up in Canucks fever over the past few months. The slogan for the Canucks post-season was "This is what we live for." How very sad and depressing that this thing that so many Vancouverites and Canucks players supposedly 'live for' is the chance at the Stanley Cup - something so uncertain and volatile. Fans and players have thrown all of themselves into one thing - Canucks for the Cup - for months and what is the result? Failure. How sad that the thing you live for is always just a little out of reach, never certain, and never promising of peace or accomplishment.
What we really should be living for is the one thing that NEVER fails or leads to disappointment - God. He says "You will know that I am the Lord. Those who hope in me will never be disappointed." Isaiah 49:23. Jesus promises that a life devoted to Him will reap GUARANTEED eternal rewards - rewards that far outshine a Stanley Cup - rewards that will never, ever fade.
In conclusion, all of this makes me realize that we as a people are very, very lost. We are a broken people. We are all in great need of God's mercy, His grace, and His love.

thisisourtime

Canucks, I know this has been a rough run to the cup, but you have one chance to take it all.
Put every last ounce of effort and drive you have out on the ice tomorrow and you'll be unstoppable.
Make Vancouver proud and show all those critics and haters out there what you're really made of.
You guys really are the best team. And no matter what the outcome tomorrow, you'll always be heroes to Vancouverites for who you are and how far you've come.
<3

GO CANUCKS GO!!