This Is What My Life Looks Like: 7/3/11

Friday, July 8, 2011

Reliving Italia: Days 8 & 9

Days 8 & 9: Firenze

After our lovely time in Venezia, we were whisked away to another fabulous city of Italia: Florence! Florence is home to many influential artists including Leonardo da Vinci, Brunelleschi, and Michaelangelo, and the dome in Florence is actually what inspired St. Peter's Basilica in Roma. While we were there, I was able to not only photograph the dome, but sketch it as well, which made me quite happy!

Florence also houses Michaelangelo's famous statue of David. Seeing that statue, and other works by Michaelangelo was definitely one of the highlights of my visit to Firenze. The pictures and postcards that you've seen do not do it justice. It was incredible.

Our time in Florence was perfectly lovely, and quite a nice way to wind down the whirlwind that was our trip. We ate gelato. We shopped. We ate gelato. We sketched. We ate gelato. We photographed. We ate gelato. We talked, and laughed, and wished the trip wasn't almost over. Then we ate more gelato.

Highlights from our time in Firenze:

Gelato and waffles? I think yes!

Gelato. Again.

This was a happy moment. The whole trip, I had been paying 1-2 Euros for bottled water. But here, at this amazing grocery store in Florence, I found it for 14 cents. I bought 4.

Well that's it peeps! My reminiscing about Italia is all finished up. Hope you enjoyed the images, and understand, at least a little bit why it was such a special trip. If you've never been to Italy: GO! If you have been to Italy: GO AGAIN!

Have a great weekend, all!

Ciao for now,

Jazzy

Sunday, July 3, 2011

Reliving Italia: Days 6 & 7

Days 6 & 7: Venezia

Oh Venice. How I loved getting to meet you!

After leaving Cinque Terre, we took a train to Venice. Venice!!! It had been a long day full of rain, a train that randomly wasn't running when it was supposed to, and lots of stairs and running through train stations, but it was all worth it when we finally set foot outside the station in Venice. The group let out a collective gasp, followed by squeals of delight and excitement.

"You guys, we're in Venice!"

There was something absolutely thrilling about walking out of the station and staring down the Grand Canal.

That night, after eating some of the most fabulous pizza from the trip, we all took a water bus ride down to St. Mark's Square for a night shoot. Let me set the scene:

beautiful church.

grand canal.

rain.

lights reflecting off the water.

live music.

couples dancing in the square.

Is there anything more beautiful or romantic? Ohmygoodness! Incredible!

I've been thinking for a long time about how to try and explain what God taught me while I was in Venice, because as far as lessons learned, this was one of the top three days of the trip. I have to say though, I'm a little frustrated, because I don't know how to convey what I learned in a way that relatively concise. It's a bit aggravating.

First, let me share this verse that I was reading on the train to Venice.

"Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart." Psalm 37:4

How many times have I read that verse? Probably hundreds. Yet, as I sat in that train, I realized that I had never taken the time to really think about what it really means to delight myself in the Lord. What does that look like in my every day life?

Thankfully, one of the wonderful parts of this trip was the amazing leaders we had with us. They're all awesome, and always available to chat about questions such as this, so I had the privilege of mulling this question over with someone else. While our conversation really didn't last that long, I have thought about what we discussed everyday since then. We talked about how if someone told you to spend the day delighting yourself in a friend- what would that mean? Simply put, it would probably involve spending every single moment of the day with them. It would mean bringing them with you to every activity you had planned, going everywhere with them, finding out what they loved... It's a huge investment of time in order to truly know someone.

delight: to take great pleasure or joy.

I realize this probably seems super obvious, and yes, it was one of those blinding flash of the obvious moments. But it's kind of changed me. As I rode down the Grand Canal that night, I kept turning over that idea in my head. Do I really delight myself in the Lord? Do I take joy in making Jesus a part of every part of my life? That night in Venice, I felt like my eyes had been opened to a new concept. I felt like Jesus was sitting right next to me on the boat, and that we were enjoying that magical city together; and I was delighting in our time. I wrote in my journal a few weeks later,

Jesus, I feel like you have given me more of yourself, which has filled and contented me,

while at the same time made me crave you more!

That night changed me. It changed not only the way I start every day, but the way I live throughout the day. If I can't say anything else at the day's end, I want to be able to say that I have delighted myself in the Lord. I'm sooooo excited to continue to learn more about this beautifully simple idea and see how it affects my life.

I hope that makes a little bit of sense. I'm not entirely sure it does, but I thought I would give it a shot to try and share what I learned because I'm pretty ecstatic about it!