a splotchy two weeks

When a baby panda is born, it takes approximately two weeks for black splotches to appear on his skin and in his fur.

It would take me, according to google maps, two weeks of continuous walking to get half way from Chicago to my home in Gig Harbor.

Two weeks is the allotted amount of time one should give their boss to replace them after quitting. 

It is also, apparently, the amount of time it takes Hugh Grant to realize that he is in love with Sandra Bullock.  

Two weeks from now I will be curled up in a blanket on the family room floor with my puppy on my right, my other dog on my left and the sweet sound of classical jazz dancing through the speakers.

Shortly after this much needed relaxation I will be met by a competitive card game with the family, serious smack-talking insults, spontaneous laughter and if I'm lucky, I might even get some Jackson 5 karaoke.  

I'll be home.

But, I cannot dwell on this thought.

In these two next weeks I need to:

write a history of early christian art paper

write a critical response to a narrative on greco roman lifestyles

take a statistics exam

formulate a debate regarding the apostle Paul's views on homosexuality

take another statistics exam

deep clean my room

take an african studies exam

meet with my study abroad coordinator 

organize all of my books, files, and papers

take an art history exam

meet with my small group

pack the things I am bringing home into duffle bags 

actually debate Paul's views

tutor my darling elementary students who do not speak English

pack my things in boxes that I am leaving in Chicago

do laundry... so much laundry

plan the end of the year event for the club I am presidenting

AND

remember to breathe, laugh, eat, shower, work out, smile, relax and not go completely insane. 

As I read over my list of "necessities" before I go home, I notice my lack of planned God time.

As these next few weeks fly by I need to be conscious of human self-centeredness and focus on the things that are truly important.

Yes, school is important.

Packing is important.

Community service is important. 

But God is the utmost important. 

Matthew 6:25-34

"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life... Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? ... See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all of his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothes you- you of little faith? So do not worry... But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."

Though the urge to stress is present, I will not succumb to it.

Faith has the power to move mountains.

My mountains are many, but in two weeks I will be able to look back and say "Hallelujah!" because freshman year will be finished and I will still be alive.

So let's go

this baby panda is gettin' spotchy

these feet are reaching Mizpah Road, Montana

George Wade is assuring Lucy Kelson that he did not and will not destroy the community center

and I am going home. 

Glory a Dios!