courage, dear heart.

Lucy leant her head on the edge of the fighting top and whispered, "Aslan, Aslan, if ever you loved us at all, send us help now." The darkness did not grow any less, but she began to feel a little - a very, very little - better. "After all, nothing has really happened to us yet," she thought.

"Look!" cried Rynelf's voice hoarsely from the bows. There was a tiny speck of light ahead, and while they watched a broad beam of light fell from it upon the ship. It did not alter the surrounding darkness, but the whole ship was lit up as if by searchlight. Caspian blinked, stared round, saw the faces of his companions all with wild, fixed expressions. Everyone was staring in the same direction: behind everyone lay his black, sharply-edged shadow.

Lucy looked along the beam and presently saw something in it. At first it looked like a cross, then it looked like an aeroplane, then it looked like a kite, and at last with a whirring of wings it was right overhead and was an albatross. It circled three times round the mast and then perched for an instant on the crest of the gilded dragon at the prow. It called out in a strong sweet voice what seemed to be words though no one understood them. After that it spread its wings, rose, and began to fly slowly ahead, bearing a little to starboard. Drinian steered after it not doubting that it offered good guidance. But no one except Lucy knew that as it circled the mast it had whispered to her, "Courage, dear heart," and the voice, she felt sure, was Aslan's, and with the voice a delicious smell breathed in her face.
~C.S. Lewis, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

I do not mean to be over religiony to anyone. But I have to say, that tonight a prayer was answered. A fearful, worried, desperate for hope prayer. Andrew and I drove out to his parents place tonight. We left winnipeg, knowing that the weather wasn't great. It seemed okay as we drove down the75. We turned onto the 201 thinking we'd be okay.

By the time we realized it was not okay, it was too late to turn around. I am not kidding, we honestly had zero visibility on the high way with so much snow blowing across the road. We almost drove into the oposite side's ditch, thinking we were still going straight on the right side.

We got to the point that we pulled over and stopped with out hazards on. This was hard to do, because we didn't know how soon someone coming behind us could see us. We prayed together, asking for help and safety. As we started going again, I prayed in my heart for delivery. I remembered the text above from Voyage and I begged for an albatross.

Our albatross came.

We saw lights approaching us from behind. A truck stopped behind us, and then slowly pulled up beside us. I rolled down the window (Andrew and I had switched on this highway, so I was driving) and they rolled theirs down too. I shouted that I couldn't see the road, and they told us to follow them. They led us right into Altona and to safety.

Prayer is a beautiful thing.

boom boom boom.

you know what? i really love "firework" by katy perry. yes, i said that. i'm planning to put together a completely shameless pop mix of songs like that, and lady gaga's "bad romance" and sing a long in the car by myself super loud. it'll be great.

spring is slowly on its way... i am ready to welcome it with great affection. it's been a while since i've gone for a leisurely walk outside and taken my time as i go from place to place. it will feel good to have the windows in our apartment open again.

speaking of which.. are these not the cutest? man. they can be found on sabahnur's etsy page. sometimes i go onto etsy's main page just to get color scheme inspiration. what am i color scheming? nothing at this point. we can't paint our apartment. but one day i'll be able to paint... something!

i have been having dreams again lately. i hear we have dreams every night, so more specifically i've been remembering my dreams more lately. i've decided i will write them down a bit, and perhaps doodle them on occasion. while i'm not terribly big into dream interpretation in todays sense (direct definitions for elements of dreams found on the internet or fancy journals), i like thinking about the biblical significance that dreams had. they changed lives. they predicted things. do they still have that kind of power? i don't know, but it would be neat.

back to spring. it's a good season. things melt away to reveal newness and growth. i'm ready for spring. in every sense.