[allie and i decided a long time ago to tag team this blog and of course, just like with everything else, we sat around and talked about it for ages before finally doing it. so thanks for pulling the trigger on that one, allie. to the countless (more like 3) people out there that are reading this blog, you’ll be hearing from allie and me both now. i’m sure no one will object to this, because she’s cooler, wittier, and way more granola than me anyway.]
this summer i spent a weekend in boulder, colorado, and it took everything in me not to drop everything and move out there. let me start by reminding you that i love going places i’ve never been. i’m not sure what it is, but there’s an irresistible pull that emerges whenever anything new, fresh, different, exciting, out-of-the-ordinary is involved. maybe that’s why i love to travel so much, and maybe that’s why i’m constantly looking forward to the next big thing i have planned. but that’s a whole different story…
anyway, back to boulder. it was brimming with street musicians, barefoot hippies with dreds dancing in the middle of the street, cool shops, cute walking streets, breathtaking stars, and the dark outline of the rocky mountains on the western border of the sky. so beautiful & so fascinating. mostly, i loved looking at the people the best. they were all just so colorful, which is the only word i can think of to describe these people, but i think it’s the very word i’m looking for regardless. i saw a man who had the most intricate tattoo that covered his entire face & neck, starting in the center of his face & spreading to his temples, over his jawline, across his cheekbones like tree roots. there were homeless people asking for spare change, people in long skirts & bare feet, a man carrying a banjo across his back like a cross. basically, almost every person that passed me was someone who i would love to sit down with and hear the story of who they are, where they come from, and what they’re all about.
but i guess i’m just really drawn to colorful people, and there a part of me that just really wants to be a barefoot hippie & be a street musician in boulder, colorado. i’m not sure that my parents would go for that, and the whole not showering thing would probably start to get to me. but i think my desire to be a hippie is really the same thing as a desire to be a colorful person. and i think i can live colorfully without having to renounce showers and shaving.
the more i’ve thought about this concept of living colorfully, the more i’ve come to believe that as christians, we are all called to live colorfully, or to live in a way that is slightly off-center from what the world accepts as the norm. it reminds me of flannery o’connor’s definition of the word “eccentric” and how she argues that every christian should be eccentric in the sense that we are all, by the very definition of who we are, “not-centered.” the very core of who we are is so completely different than the center of the world that we have no choice but to stand out and be labeled as mildly (or no-so-mildly) “eccentric.” all that being said, i want my life to be slightly off-center from the norm. really, i just want to live colorfully. i’m not entirely sure what this looks like, but i’m certain that it includes loving extravagantly, delighting in the beauty that surrounds me, seeing the redemption that has affected every aspect of life, looking for ways that i can be a part of redemption in the world and rejoicing in the redemption that has taken place/is still taking place in me.
-katy
No comments:
Post a Comment