Weekly Gratitude (4)

I know I haven't done one of these in a couple of weeks now, but today I really think I need to voice (write?) my gratitude.  So here goes.

** Today at work, we received a call from one of my best friends.  

She was rushing home from work, having just received a call form a friend at the fire department telling her that her home was on fire.  

As it turns out, the neighbors (she lives in a twin) had left a lit cigarette in their bedroom that morning before leaving the house.  When the distress call was put in, my friend was called as well because the houses are connected.  

Tonight, I am grateful that my friend is okay, and that her home retained no real damage aside from some soot on her windowsills, a strong smell of barbecue in her bedroom, and the two destroyed doors which the firemen had to kick down in order to make sure nobody was inside the house. **

** I am grateful that I work in a restaurant where the staff is genuinely concerned about our safety, and where I have close friends who work with me. **

Every so often, I think that it is important for something like what happened to my friend today to happen to all of us.  It forces us to see the important things in our lives, and to be thankful for them.

I have been incredibly stressed over the past few days, and today made me realize that the things I was worried about are nothing that should upset me.  I am incredibly blessed with some very good friends who I know will help me through days like the past few, and who I would do the same thing for no matter what.  

Despite what has had me upset lately (and I'm sure a few of you saw the post I recently deleted from the other night), I have plenty in my life to be thankful for.

So friends, what are you grateful for this week?  Have you ever had something happen to you which made you forget everything you were upset about, and just be grateful for the good things in your life?
I'd love to hear about it, and don't forget to link up at Love, Life, Lace if you decide to make a post of your own!

<3 Kiersten

After-Midnight Thoughts

It's 1am and I'm still awake.  

I couldn't tell you why I'm still awake, except that I found old notebooks when I got home a half hour ago.  The old notebooks from two years ago, when I was a senior in high-school.  And now I'm feeling nostalgic for something that I don't remember ever believing I'd miss. 

I'm looking through old "last-minute-before-the-bell-poetry" that I wrote in every class of the day.  Poems that started in second period biology, and finally ended as the lunch bell rang, telling me it was time for the second half of my day.  Poems that I changed and edited, read and re-read on a daily basis for nine months straight.  

And everything's dated - telling me exactly where I was in the year when I wrote it.  Exactly what made me write it, and at exactly what point it tapered off.  A moment I remember, and a letter that marked the end of it.  A letter that's missing now.  And when you look at the dates - I wrote almost every day for months at a time. And I'm sure that on the days I didn't write something new, I was reading what I'd already written over and over, trying to make it fit just right, just the way the voice in my head was hearing it.  

The voice in my head that still screams at me every day to write, but somehow - at some point, I stopped listening as desperately to it.  I still dream of writing one day.  Whenever I pick up a magazine I like, or read an article that really meant something to me, I feel it inside of myself - that overwhelming desire to write something that matters to someone one day.  

It's been a long time though since I've written just for me.  Poetry or short stories that really mean nothing, and that I'll work at for months at a time, just so that I can read them over a year later, and realize that they're still not finished.  

Classes start in just over a week, and with them, the beginning of my sophomore year of college.  And just as soon as I can get the ink on the papers dried, the start of completing my major:  the one thing I've always known and believed I could do.  While I've always second guessed my ability to do anything else, I've always believed in my writing.  Even when I knew I could do better, even when I read an incredible story or a heart-wrenching personal essay and thought I'll never be that good, something inside of me has known that I do have that ability if I work for it heard enough.  And this year, I want to listen to that feeling every day.  I want to remind myself every morning, every time I read something that is better written than a story of mine, I want to know that one day, that article that makes someone smile can be written by me.

Every so often at work, a coworker of mine will tell me that they expect to see that novel one day.  

And one day, they will.

<3 Kiersten

I'm Having Brunch

Hello Friends!  So sorry that I've been gone for a bit - I've been settling back into routine since returning from vacation!

However, today I am guest-posting over at Alivia's blog: Brunch in April!!  Alivia's blog is one of my favorites, and I love reading her posts every day.  Normally, she has a featured blogger of the month, however for the month of August she invited her readers to guest-post for her.  

So definitely go check out my post over there, and while you're stopping by, check out some of Alivia's posts!!  She's wonderful - I promise! 

And if you're stopping by from Brunch in April, thanks so much for taking the time to come see me!  Please, pull up a chair, have an Irish Potato, and enjoy yourself.  And don't forget to let me know you were here so that I can stop by your little home some time! :)

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And now that I'm finished with announcements, who's ready for some vacation photos??

My mom, brother and I spent most of the week in LBI.  It was my first trip to the island, and as a girl who spent most summers in Wildwood and Ocean City, let me tell you - it was gorgeous.  The beach was beautiful and so clean (not really a factor in Wildwood), and we went biking through all the towns on the island to see the lighthouse in Barnnagut (is that how you spell that?).  All in all, it was a very relaxing vacation, and I'd love to go back next year!!

So without further ado, here are some photos from our trip.

This was a view of the water below from the top of the lighthouse.  My brother took this photo because I'm not a big fan of heights. 

Also the view from the top of the lighthouse

mom and brother in the ocean

So how about you, friends?  How are you enjoying the last few days of summer?

<3 Kiersten

Up and Away

Well, technically not up.  But oh well, I thought it sounded nice.

Tomorrow, as a last minute decision on our parts, my mom, brother and I are going down the shore (at least that's the plan for right now).  Over the past few months, our travel destination has changed more times than I can count, and about an hour ago, we finally decided on going to the beach (although we haven't decided which beach yet).  

So Friends, for the next five days, I will be digging my feet into the sand and catching up on my reading - two novellas I picked up at the bookstore last week and haven't had a chance to start yet.  

But I promise, I'll take plenty of photos to bring back and show you guys!  See you in a week!

<3 Kiersten
PS.  Anyone have some blog-design tips?  I'm trying (and desperately failing) to make Love Always look pretty, but I don't have the money for a blog design.  Any thoughts would be awesome!!

3 Weeks

Three weeks from today, I will be in my dorm room at school.  

I will be setting up our room, and getting ready for classes in a couple of days.  I will be spending time with friends who I haven't seen in a few months, and possibly thinking up all the things that I will write to my friends back home about.

I will be ordering Chinese food from our favorite delivery place in town (and trust me...that took a semester or two of trial and error to win a place in our hearts), the one that we all have stored in our phones.  We will be putting off eating in the school cafeteria for one more day.  

I will be meeting the people living on my floor, going to an all-floor meeting to introduce ourselves.  

I will be walking to the frozen yogurt place in town to make a diabetes-inducing mixture, and making plans to go to the fair in town later that week.  Because what else does a college-town have to do over the summer other than plan a celebration for the returning students?

I am so. ready. to be back.

<3 Kiersten

Write on Wednesday (4)

Hey guys!  So although I'm cutting it a bit close, today is Wednesday and that means my fourth attempt at WoW (and no, I don't mean the interactive computer game...).  If you guys haven't seen my previous posts for this project, or just haven't had a chance to check it out, you should jump right on over to InkPaperPen to check it out.  Go ahead, I'll wait here. :)

This week's prompt was a single phrase:  "The clock winked".  Our assignment was to take this sentence, and use it to write whatever came to mind over the course of five minutes.  I'll be honest:  I spent the first two minutes like a fish out of water, with no idea what to write, as though the art were a totally new form to me.  I'm not entirely happy with how it came out, but I think I'm proud of the general premise of it.  

What do you guys think?  Let me know in the comment box, please!

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The clock winked.

Mona was convinced that it had, despite being well aware that her eyes were playing plenty of tricks on her these days, and what was to stop this from being one of them.  But it had winked at her.  In a mocking sort of way too, as though it knew it had full power over her, and intended to use that for all it was worth.

You’re going to be here forever, the clock seemed to say to her.  I control time.  I can stay right here for hours if I like, and there’s really nothing you can do about it.  

But honestly, it seemed as though it had been days already just since she'd sat down on the kitchen chair which, according to the clock, had been five minutes ago.  Something so small as a second seemed to pass over the course of days for her now.  And days could pass as an eternity.  She had no idea as to how she was going to live the rest of her life.

There’d been a time though, when time seemed to go so fast.  When they knew they had so little of it, and that realization only seemed to result in their having less of it, no matter what they did to make sure they spent every moment being happy together.  What had they done wrong?  Why, after all they’d done to appreciate the time they had, did he have to be taken away in what seemed like the blink of an eye?  Or rather, the wink of a clock.  

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How about you, friends?  Do you want to give WoW a try?  Link up at InkPaperPen so we can all check it out!!

<3 Kiersten

Weekly Gratitude (3)

Hey guys!  

So it's Monday again (already?!), and you know what that means, right?  Time for Weekly Gratitude, a lovely idea from Love, Life, Lace!  If you just love this idea, be sure to link up over at the blog that started it, and let me know too so that I can check your list out!

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- Vacation to Wildwood next week.  I can't wait for the time off, and I miss the beach so much!!  
- Finding my ring that I thought I'd lost today at work.  At some point, I noticed I wasn't wearing it anymore, and thought that when I'd taken it off to wash my hands, I'd left it in the bathroom.  When I checked and it wasn't there, I assumed someone had taken it.  Towards to end of my shift though, I found it lying on the ground next to a table.  Guess I knocked it off when I was bussing a table?
-RAIN!  As much as I hated walking home from the bus-stop in it, the flowers and the grass and the trees needed it!


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So how about you, friends?  What are you thankful for this week?  Let me know!!

<3 Kiersten