I did not write this. But it is beautiful.

An Easter Poem

Love is hard
         as nails
And life, a gift
         as tender and precious
         as the morning dew.
Come, now. Wake up
         and   be   glad.

Animal Sacrifices

Today on my walk to school, I was listening to a This American Life episode about animal sacrifices. In the intro for the episode, the host talked with a professor of religion about the biblical requirement for the Hebrews to sacrifice animals to God, why they don't do it anymore, and how maybe modern people have a negative -or limited- view of sacrifice.

"It's stuff. One is giving something. One of the points that's often emphasized, even in the biblical tradition-- and also in later rabbinic tradition-- about sacrifice is that a proper sacrifice is something that one owns. You can't go steal an animal and sacrifice it to God. And we also have to remember even if we think of animals as property, ancients-- one has to imagine the domesticated life of people, shepherds, living with their animals, who know their animals. A proper sacrifice has to be unblemished.

To have an unblemished goat, one has to really care for that goat, from the time that the goat is born, to ensure that that goat will not become blemished in some way."

As a Christian, I don't sacrifice animals because Christ himself was the ultimate sacrifice for my sins and God requires no more payment for the wrong I continue to do. But this explanation of sacrifice really stuck with me.

"So you have a relationship with that goat. When you inspect it for blemishes-- which is Bible speak for any kind of nick, or bruise, or anything-- the goat looks you in the eye. And when you give this animal that you personally know to God, God isn't some abstract being. He is someone, someone who takes delight when you bring something to him, who you have this very literal interaction with."

It seems like such a beautiful picture of what God asks us to do in our lives: give everything over to Him, even the things we really care about. Especially those things. Our relationships, careers, children's futures, reputations - if we were able to physically give these things to God, would it be easier to have this literal interaction of sacrifice and delight?

And it makes me think: What in my life do I feel like is a literal interaction with God?
What in your life do you feel like is a literal interaction with God?

You can listen to the episode here:

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/480/animal-sacrifice

Med Student Running

Now that I'm in medical school, the extent of my exercise is often walking my dog or riding my bike to school.

People think that's okay.

I was an athlete.

It's not exercise if you don't sweat.

Med Student Cooking

I don't have a lot of time to cook. Weird how taking 19 credit hours of the hardest classes of your life (up to this point) will do that to you.
When I did have time, in that month between growing season when I worked at the greenhouse/getting married/medical school, this was my absolute favorite thing to make.

If you think you don't like broccoli, you're wrong. If you've had good broccoli before because it was smothered with cheese, you're wrong.

Not to be arrogant or anything.

But seriously, this is SO good.
I just ate it on rice for lunch. That's all I had.
I'm so disappointed it's gone.
(And I just uploaded four pictures of broccoli like it was my own first-born child. Not ashamed.)

And it's so easy.

Cut the broccoli.
Heat the oven to 410+
Toss broccoli in olive oil, add a little bit of something acidic (lemon juice is probably the best, although I have used apple cider vinegar when there was no lemon juice around).
Cook it for 20 minutes. Put stuff on top (parmesan cheese, salt, pepper, garlic).

Devour.

Every Joy Is Beyond All Others

I am not a morning person. I prefer the night, it's easy for me to stay up late and always a struggle to wake up, regardless of how early I went to bed. 

This year my husband works an hour away and has to wake up fairly early, and I do my best to wake up with him and see him off before starting my day. 

One of the best things about this: the sunrises. 

Just two days ago as I was getting my breakfast ready, there was liquid gold pouring into the window. 

I felt like I was being baptized with light so thick I would be able to reach out and pull it over me, a blanket that brings wakefulness and excitement instead of sleep. 

Isn't it beautiful? 

The weirdest thing I've learned this fall...

Situs inversus.

It's crazy. There are people walking around whose insides are the mirror image of everyone else's.

Sometimes this causes problems (generally heart defects are associated). Sometimes it doesn't.

A person with situs inversus is above, while a normal chest radiograph is on the right.
image from:


Weird.

Men and women

I read this interesting blog that Donal Miller wrote about how men treat men differently than they treat women.

http://storylineblog.com/2012/10/30/like-equals-or-like-men/

Outside of his questions, I now have some of my own...

She said men don’t compliment each other, they don’t encourage each other, and when they shake hands, they grab each other firmly and look each other in the eye without smiling. It’s like they don’t know how to get along, she said.

Is this why I tend to have better friendships with men...I don't know how to compliment/appease a woman's emotions enough to maintain multiple long-term/high-density relationships with them?

As a rule, men are not nice or kind to each other. We do have our friends and we play our favorites, but for the most part, men are competitive and intense and are often marking our territory. I don’t know a single man who isn’t more kind to women than they are to men. Men are tough with each other and much more likely to fight with each other than they are to fight with a woman.

Is this why guys who know each other through a significant other have a hard time getting along? They're "marking their territory"?

Weird.