This Just In...

I really want to see Prince Caspian... and Iron Man. I am so behind and out of the loop.

And, in other news:

• Blackberries, strawberries and blueberries are just coming into season. I can't wait til peach season comes 'round the corner. [drooooool]
  
• I watched NKOTB perform this morning on the Today Show as I was getting ready for work. It was surreal. And, I realized I still have a soft spot for Jonathan Knight.
  
• Eurorebs and I are getting together tomorrow afternoon for a late brunch/lunch at Sabrina's. It's nice to know these imaginary friends of mine are actual living, breathing people and not just figments of my imagination
  
• I'm officially becoming a member of my church, liberti, on Sunday (Pray that I get there on time for the prep talk!)
  
• Every weekend 'til June is packed with retreats, birthday parties, housewarmings, etc. My wallet is starting to feel the pain and I'm starting to get tired/stressed just thinking about it.
  
• I am awfully behind in prepping for the flowers I'm doing for Hanna's wedding (June 21st! Gah!) Hopefully, I'll take a day off of work next week to get that done.
• We're only about a month and a half away from my small group leaders' move back to Nashville. We all can't believe it and are still hoping God changes His/their minds.
• I really enjoy Top Chef and Step It Up and Dance I mean really. Basically, my TV is forever tuned into Bravo
• Most of my former Youth Group students will have graduated by the week's end. Dumbfounded am I.
• I intend to watch I'm Not There. Finally.

That's all. Tune in later for the latest breaking news. This is Annie C signing off.

The Sound of Silence

Last night I began to watch a documentary about a deaf couple who decided on cochlear implants. They were both in their late 50s and had 3 grown children.

I sat mesmerized as I watched this couple speak about their childhoods - about growing up in a "hearing" world in the 1950s and their struggle to belong. The husband told a story about his first years in high school. Having spent a better part of his childhood at a school that used breakthrough techniques in speech-learning, he never realized he wasn't "normal" until high school when a girl offered him her phone number.

"What was I going to do with a phone number?"

The film continued, following them as they met with specialists, scheduled and underwent operations and joined the hearing world.

It was amazing and humbling. I wondered at their experience of something I take for granted every day. What it would be like for a blind man to see or a deaf man to hear.

And then I was reminded of Christ, who took us "out of darkness and into his marvelous light." Who took what was broken and made it whole. Who took mud and made a blind man see. Who filled the mute man's mouth with praise and the deaf man's ears with song.

But I've lived far too long with these gifts and taken Him for granted in the process. Like a toddler banging away at pots and pans, I've made so much noise that I've made His voice nothing more than a whisper. I've spent way too much time tuning into myself that I've burned an image of me (and not Him) on my heart's retinas.

Lord, help me... I need some doctorin'.