cupcake candles

I spent a day at the Johnny Apple Seed festival in Forte Waine Indiana.  It was insanely big, with unending tents of merchandise and food.  The vendors were dressed in bonnets and dresses, the women that is. The men were decked out in straw hats, overalls, and leather boots.  A few minutes after getting there I smelled cooked apples and simmering hot caramel. 
There, in the middle of a bedlam of buyers and sellers, sat a man stirring a pot of caramel.  It was thin and soupy, with a light brown color.  Next to the man sat a little boy with the biggest chubby cheeks and the widest eyes.  He chewed his lower lip with anticipation before looking up at me. His cheeks folded in half as he gave a wide smile. Luckily, later on I got to try some caramel and apples.  It was sticky and sweet and full of flavor.  At lunch I munched an apple and observed the people around me.
The crowd was mostly families.  Dads pushing strollers, Moms snapping pictures, and Grandparents strolling along, so carefree, as if they hadn't a care in the world.  Off in the distance I heard bagpipes.  Men in Kilts found their way over to my grassy hill.  They played music that turned the heads of everyone around me. As sweet apple juice ran down my forearm I thought to myself, Summer is gone and autumn is here =D

The cutest thing I saw at the festival, something I had to blog about, was a candle.  It was shaped like a cupcake piled with icing.  What a brilliant idea.  A cupcake candle.  I would have bought one but dorm rules wont allow it.  Instead my roommate and and I bought something called smelly jelly. It's a sticky colorful substance that gives off a pleasant apple cinnamon scent. Warm apple cinnamon reminds me of the apple pies I use to bake every weekend last fall.  So I guess I'll have to live with the smell of apple pie instead of the presence of a cute little cupcake.

Spiritual Renewal

One of my college Gen Eds is Fit for Life.   My most recent assignment was to research a disease and give a decent explanation of what it is. I would much rather research a recipe and find a way to improve it. that would most likely be an assignment for a course called unfit for life. Nonetheless, I chose Asthma, a disease I've lived with ever since I can remember.  It's a part of who I am, nothing foreign or strange.  Taking my inhaler is second nature, like brushing my teeth or making my bed (though it is incredibly hard to do when I'm late for class.)  I've really enjoyed my research so far.  I discovered that my primary asthma trigger is cold weather. 

On a chilly September morning my lungs become inflamed and my airways start to shrink.  This is only when I am actively moving around.  Running is the worst.  This morning ran along a straight road just parallel to campus. I passed by the Taylor lake in all its shimmering glory.  The lazy clouds peaked down at their reflection in the water.  I felt my chest getting tighter.  

I persisted for a while longer.  In no time I came upon a beautiful country house.  hanging potted plants decorated its wrap around porch.  At the top of the driveway stood a deer. His antlers suited him well.  We examined each other.  A fearful thought entered my mind of whether or not he would chase me.  I laughed it away uneasily.  A mad dash for my dorm would most definitely result in an asthma attack.

In some ways identifying a disease and learning about it is like identifying a sin.  I've mastered the way I should take care of my asthma.  Sometimes I forget I even have asthma. But have I mastered and overcome the sins in my life?  Living with sin is like living with a disease.  It's chronic.  But like asthma there is a medicine that though you have a sin nature, will free you from the symptoms.

 With inhalers I barely ever wheeze.  On occasion I struggle to breath, but it's nothing a few puffs of medicine can't cure.  What are the inhalers of your life? 

Back to Joy

When you find yourself in a strange place, you normally look for a friend.  It could be a person or a personal belonging.  For many freshmen at Taylor University their friend and security is their phone. It lights up their face in the dark chapel auditorium.  It captures their attention when lectures grow dull. For some people its their laptop.  They hide behind it during class as if the professor might think they were taking notes.  Yet another "friend" could be something as simple as a cupcake.  A cute cupcake is sweet and delicious. It's soft and soothing to the soul and stomach.  It brings a since of comfort.  Though I didn't know it at first, my violin is actually my comfort and security.  Opening my case is like being reunited with an old friend.  A best friend.  Each scale or etude is a conversation, a how are you, a how have you been.  And when I play a familiar tune I'm back home.  Music is a window to another world.  I peer in with excitement while a world of memories unfolds. I think God gives us these comforts to bring us back to joy when we're down.  Find your "back to joy" so that when bad days come, you have something to cheer you up.

Bio Labs No Different Than a Recipe Book

OUR  Bio Labs here at Taylor are fantastic.  We come into lab on our own time and do the work.  Not much different than home schooling.  Black counter tops serve as platforms for the most expensive microscopes I've ever seen.  They're about $2,300 dollars each! The whole laboratory is beautiful.  Each counter top has a jet like sink. It takes pleasure in getting you wet at every chance. Our chairs have wheels and seat adjusters.  Five enormous windows give us sunlight and a gorgeous view of the Taylor campus.  Trees surround us for miles and miles.  Looking past the little green sprouts that the plant bio class is growing, I see the prayer chapel outside.  Not far from that is the TU bell tower.  It plays the most beautiful music before Chapel. I'm taking Cell Bio this semester, so what else would we explore but cells.  Though we come into lab on our own time, we follow a lab manual. At first I didn't know what to expect.  A thin sliver of carrot under a 40X lens meant nothing.  Little did I know that I was about to enter the amazing microscopic world.

Following a lab manual is no different than following a cake recipe.  You read it over a few times to get the idea and just follow the steps.  My favorite thing to observe in lab this week was an onion.  The sliver I cut was so thin that I would see clear through it.  Under the microscope I saw a million little cells squished together, all different shapes and sizes. I put a few drops of blue dye on my slide and watched it seep under the cover slip.  Like a rushing river I watched the dye collide with the water covered onion. Gazing through my oculars, or lenses, I observed swirling waves like those under the deep blue sea.  I half expected to see little whales causing the swirls.  The dye enhanced the onion cells as a beautiful, colored, piping design enhances a cake. I must admit it was hard to take my eyes away.