Anna is a beautiful person whose eyes are constantly sweeping through a room, awaiting a place to land. (at first this habit made me think she was shy, but now I think she is simply a person who drinks in her environment slowly through a deliberate search.) She is a bit shorter than I, but her movements are long, leisurely, with almost a bit of a hop or a skip to them. I've noticed that she flips her hair over her right shoulder more than her left.
These are the things I've learned about her from being around her about once a week for more than three years. It is possible that I could count for you the number of times we have had a personal conversation, but she is still in my heart.
When I think of Anna, I see her in my mind: leaning in. She might be in the kitchen hugging the blue counters close under her folded arms as she listens and sweeps through the room. Anna could be standing just to my left, but I catch her silhouette in my vision; she is angled forward looking always for what it next.
I would rather get to know a person through years of proximity, than months of digital conversation. I confessed to Joe and David on Saturday night that I feel somehow voyeuristic reading the blog of a person I do not know well, or looking at the facebook page of a friends friend.
Here I am blogging, so I obviously see the live journal as a valuable tool, but if I am not known to a person through the sharing of physical space, I am afraid my writings will not make much sense to them.
rebekah
2 comments:
I like this blog, Rebekah. I like all the blogs on the Christ the Lightgiver site because they are all written by people I know. Rebekah did a great job of describing her friend Anna in this blog. I don't have the grip on language that Rebekah has... but I can try to describe what I see and hear when I read her words and the words of the other Christ the Lightgiver bloggers. Rebekah has a soft, melodious voice that is very soothing to the ear. I often want to engage her in conversation perhaps more often than she'd like to talk simply to hear the sound of her voice, and because she speaks from her heart - her words are heavy and dense and full of truth and authenticity. Her eyes range from playful to compassionate to thoughtful sometimes in the flash of a moment. She feels deeply for others and she is very "present" with those who are visiting the bookstore, and with those who are around her at any other given moment, I think. She is a joy to know. Those of you who are reading her words and haven't visited the bookstore truly need to do so if the opportunity arises for you. Father Aidan's words also carry a lot of weight. Father Aidan has the gift of brevity (the soul of wit) - he can boil everything right down and gets immediately to the heart of a matter - triviality isn't something he's capable of, I think. Father Aidan's words are often accompanied by a wry smile, and he will often surprise you with an extremely funny comment or unexpected reference to a movie or song or band you'd never peg him as knowing. Father Aidan can't be described well in words that I can come up with - maybe someone else could do a better job - but again, it's best to visit the church and visit with him in person. And finally there's Matthew - probably a little unfair for me to comment about him because I happen to be his wife. :) But before I was his wife, before we were even dating, I was very often with him in the bookstore and I can still remember my impressions of him before I became as biased as I am now. Matt is quietly passionate. Sometimes it's hard to get him started talking about himself or about a topic for which he cares deeply, but once he gets going, he GETS GOING! His eyes are always a little bit mischievous looking. Even when he's speaking seriously about God's love or some subject of truth about which he'd like to preach on at UT, his eyes still maintain that mischievous glimmer - always the potential for mischief exists. It's so often present, in fact, that when it's missing I'm very concerned. It was missing the day he asked me out for the first time and I thought when he asked to speak to me that he was going to tell me someone had died or something - he was just very heart-felt, it turned out and very focused. He cares about truth and loves to talk about it and think about it and read about it. You can see him at the bookstore or on campus at UT on the west mall, preaching about God's love and true faith. I agree with Rebekah that it's very nice to get to know someone over a long time, face to face, observing their mannerisms, listening to the changing timbres of their voice, observing their various facial expressions... I hope that reading these blogs on the Christ the Lightgiver site makes you curious to know more and to visit the store to meet these three very different and very delightful bloggers in person. See you soon, I hope - at the bookstore!
Hello Rebekah!
I missed your comment with this link on it!
A tag is where one person makes a list of questions and then he sends it somone who answeres all the questions and then sends it to the next person... They can be sort of boring sometimes =)
Thanks for visiting my blog! I hoped you enjoyed it! Feel free to come by any time and leave a comment :-D
~Anna
Post a Comment