"lucy woke out of the deepest sleep you can imagine, with the feeling that the voice she liked best in the world had been calling her name.  she thought at first it was her father's voice, but that did not seem quite right.  then she thought it was peter's voice, but that did not seem to fit either.  she did not want to get up; not because she was still tired- on the contrary she was wonderfully rested and all the aches had gone from her bones- but because she felt so extremely happy and comfortable.  she was looking at the narnian moon, which is larger than ours, and at the starry sky, for the place where they had bivouacked was completely open.  'lucy,' came the call again, neither her father's voice nor peter's.  she sat up, trembling with excitement but not with fear.

...

she went fearlessly in among them (the dancing trees), dancing herself as she leaped this way and that to avoid being run into by these huge partners.  but she was only half interested in them.  she wanted to get beyond them to something else; it was from beyond them that the dear voice had called.  she soon got through them ... she stepped out from among their shifting confusion of lovely light and shadows.  a circle of grass, smooth as lawn, met her eyes, with dark trees dancing all round it.  and then- oh joy!  for He was there: the huge Lion, shining white in the moonlight, with his huge black shadow underneath him.  but for the movement of his tail he might have been a stone lion, but lucy never thought of that.  she never stopped to think whether he was a friendly lion or not.  she rushed to him.  she felt her heart would burst if she lost a moment.  and the next thing she knew was that she was kissing him and putting her arms as far round his neck as she could and burying her face in the beautiful rich silkiness of his mane.

'aslan, aslan.  dear aslan,' sobbed lucy (sobbed alexi).  'at last.'"

taken from prince caspian by c.s. lewis, pages 132-136

sorry i've been so awful at blogging these days!  ugh.  i don't know what's up with me.  although!  this post would have been out two days ago, but my computer likes to do this fun thing where it just shuts off randomly.  happened two times while i was trying to write this the other night and then i'm like forget it, i'm going to bed.  haha.  anyway!  moments of great joy!

sunday, when my coworker showed me these "running man challenge" youtube videos and then we started dancin.

also sunday when i went to my family's house and ate dinner, with all five of us together at the table (whaaat?!), and then afterward paige said "i really wanna wrestle you" and i said "oh let's goooo!" and took her down! (mostly because she was weak from laughing harder). :)  lil noob.

that sunday sidney and i hung out and went on a thrift store crawl (because lol at having money ;)) and i found a book about holland (the country) and bought it for my bookshelf because two very dear people in my life are named holland.

when i texted my new roomies that i finally bought a garbage can for our kitchen and i got back "yay for garbage cans and not weird plastic bags!" and "praise God for the little things!"

every time i am in my car, because #harrypotteraudiobooks.

last night, when i made myself a sweet potato and some broccoli for dinner and sat on my sunny deck.  then, alyssa came home and sat next to me and we read our books with blankets til it got dark out.

when i got to celebrate emily lancette at her bachelorette party on saturday!  what a freakin blast!  and with the most beautiful women!  seriously, i was stunned by the beauty all around me!

when i found out that one of the guys who's been volunteering and playing guitar for this weekly church service for people with disabilities is actually the head pastor of a big church nearby but he didn't want anyone to know.

sunday morning, when my pastor teared up randomly at different spots during his talk, because he just loves God so so much.  (random, but i just hope so much that i marry a man like my pastor... i know it might sound odd, and don't worry, i'm not like crushing on my sixty-something-year-old married pastor, but a man who is still tearing up about how much he loves God and how honored he is that God loves him... a man who is humble and gentle... not unlike my own father!  
sometimes humility and gentleness and tearing up about God have been associated with weak, pansy-like-ness, but actually i think those are the strongest, manliest features.)

(also sunday morning) when my pastor told us what about God got his heart all those years ago.

driving to church with my roomie now!!

when my mama prayed over our dinner on my birthday and she started tearing up.  that meant the very most to me.

when i read each book in the narnia series (one of my roomies has them all, so i've been the happiest alexi borrowing them from her and eating them up one a day!)  i just finished prince caspian and teared up so much about aslan in that book!  ugh.  they're incredible.

and how bout today, huh?!  let's say today's gonna be moments of great joy!

...then look no further!  (make sure you listen til the end... the spoken word is soo sick)  also, this song has been approved by sidney speich, so if that doesn't tell ya it's a good one, i don't know what does!