SNOW!!!

I awakened this morning to a blue sky. It seemed like it had been ages and ages since I had seen the pale-blue of a morning sky, but in reality it was only 4 or 5 days, I think. My eyes then rose to the mountaintop that's behind our house and saw that it was a adorned with a speckled-white mantel. Snow! Yippee! It makes the mountains so beautiful. Little did I know that 3 hours later there would be a caravan of families congregating at my house with the intent of going up to that beautiful white stuff.

I wasn't sold on going until the very last minute because I had had my day planned out and I wanted to get a bunch of stuff done, but then again I didn't want to be a party pooper and in the end I decided to go. After a somewhat stressful ride up, we finally arrived. And there was thankfully an ample amount of snow. I love going to the snow, but like pretty much everything in life it has a flip side. And in this particular case, it is much, much cooler than that of your pillow. It was so cold. Everything was just burning. That is, when I could feel it at all. My contraption for keeping my feet dry failed miserably and there were basins of ice water in the interior of my shoes. But it was still fun in a sort of odd way. It was totally worth the cold misery my friends and I were suffering through. Possibly. No, it really was good. Deep down inside where it counts.

In other news, I am pretty much done with Perelandra, the second book in the C.S. Lewis Space Trilogy. I am not sure if I can describe how much I loved it. I am in awe. Its not just his amazing writing; its not just the amazing intuition he has in regards to both the workings of the human soul and the devil; its not just his crazy good imagination, although those are all wonderful in their own right. What really amazed me were his thoughts on the bridge that exists between the spiritual and the physical in our case. It was indescribably cool to read his thoughts on that connection, because I've spent a lot time pondering it. I don't doubt it, but if you think about it, it seems strange that, for instance, an infatuation your taste buds develop for food can decide the course of your everlasting soul. It is a mystery to me as to how the physical has spiritual consequences. They are so far and wide apart. To me it seems strange that something as significant as the destiny of an everlasting soul can be decided, controlled by fleeting, time-bound physical acts. In comparison they seem so insignificant.

I know why this is, but I desperately want to know how. In regards to the 'why', I especially picked the word "controlled" for it has a significance. Isn't that what its all about? The body is a gift, a tool through which you are enabled to carry out the great trial our earthly existence is. That trial is, to put it it simply, the trial of whether you use your body as it was intended, or whether you let it takeover and control your soul. Its not the 'why' that fascinates, though, that's quite simple. Its the 'how.' To see how God bridged the enormity of the gap between the physical and the spiritual. That is my fascination. I know this sounds rather morbid, but in some ways I just can't wait to die. So many answers to so many questions will be revealed through the Beatific Vision. Anyway. Lewis brings his ideas about the connection between the spiritual and the physical to life in Perelandra and its simply wonderful. He doesn't explain the phenomenon because, well, no normal human can. But his ideas about the nature of the interaction that the two share are wonderful. Read it if you find the time.

In other, other news, my knee is sore for some mysterious reason and I'm not happy about that. But everything else is going quite perfectly, so on the whole I cant complain. In fact, I am sometimes overwhelmed by how lucky I am. My faith, my family, my friends, my community....its like, How, exactly, do I deserve this? The answer is nothing. But, no one deserves anything in life because life itself is a free gift from God. (that's why its sacred and we are not to tamper with it, btw) Heck, no one can say with truth that he or she deserves to exist.

Happy living!

TTFN,

-Thomas