Split Second

There are billions of people on this earth at any given moment. The chance of meeting a specific person out of those billions is nearly slim to none. It's incredible to me how through a series of random events and occurrences we meet certain people. Circumstances really have to be just right to meet people. Minute choices that we make can change the course of our lives.

It's so difficult to wrap my mind around just how much our lives are interconnected as humans. The webs of our lives reach around the world and have changed people, have changed us. How has my life, my personality, my help changed the course of another life out there?

Our lives really are made up of instances, split second decisions really. It's a lot of pressure if you think about it.

I'm pretty addicted to this song by the way.

Life Lessons Through Film

I'm pretty sure I've told y'all before that I'm a projectionist at work, meaning I work with the digital projectors as well as the film projectors. Sometimes, things just don't work the way they are meant to work and a few days ago one of my projectors had a little accident. 

All that black stuff on the floor is a cute little movie called The Lorax. When I saw this mess when I went to check on the movies I nearly had a heart attack. I'd never had to deal with any real film issues before so this was pretty new to me.

To fix this tangled mess of a movie I had to patiently sit on the floor and feed the film onto the correct platter with the rest of the movie. It was a boring, tedious, tiring, at times even a little frightening Of course there were also moments when the film would simply slip through my fingers, doing exactly what it should but then it would catch and I would have to follow the film into the mess and work out the tangles. When the last little bit finally slid through my fingers, the relief and happiness at being done was almost too much for my little self.

As I was sitting in church today, it hit me, life is just like that tangled mass of film sometimes. There are times in our lives when we're just scooting along no problem when suddenly we get off track and things just seem to pile up and it seems like nothing will ever be the same. There are times when we must look to our Heavenly Father for that extra help in unravelling a particularly difficult knot in our life. Eventually everything will work out though. There are a few eternal truths and that is one of them.

Oh, Hello there officer...

I'm not one to break rules. I follow logical advice. I don't go exploring in places that it's obvious that they don't want outsiders. I'm cautious, so what. Well, those natural character traits of mine have been tested over the past couple days.

Looking back the story I'm about to relate is pretty funny and I'm going to enjoy telling it but at the time I was beyond anxious.

So, a new..er friend of mine wanted to show Rachael and I something on campus so he had me drive back behind a building by the agriculture equipment. We turned off the car and started walking away when suddenly Jon stops, putting his arms out to signal us to stop as well. He then frantically tells us to get back in the car. Once back in the car and trying to calm down, Jon explained his sudden desire to be back in the car, a security car had just backed out of the building we were parked somewhat behind. He tells me not to turn my car on and not to do anything but I'm really just wanting to get out of there. Even though, now looking back we really weren't doing anything wrong or bad so we probably wouldn't have even got in trouble. There's just something about authority and darkness that freaks me out. So I make a decision, turn on the car and suddenly my headlights flare into life. I reverse and get ready to get out of there and the security guard is standing in the middle of the road waiting for us.

From the backseat Jon is coaching me, "Okay, Bri, just let me do all the talking. I can handle this, it's going to be okay." As I press the button on my window I say, "Alright, Jon. This is all you." But here's the thing, as soon as the window was coming down, I freak out and start talking a million words a minute, making up some story about being lost and just wanting to get off campus. Believe me, I was mortified by every word coming out of my mouth and how scared I sounded.

Now, let me tell you something else about last night that just added to everything. Gale. Force. Winds. Strongest wind I've ever been in, in my life. The dust was even thick enough that you couldn't see for very far. Just seemed to make everything that much creepier.

After dropping Rachael off, we made our way out to the cemetery just because we could. Once we were out there (after getting lost once) it was pretty late and the wind was adding a giant chill to the air, we turned the car off so that there were no lights at all. Luckily by this time I wasn't waiting to see some crazy man. Jon suggested that we go lay down on top of a plot. If it hadn't been so dang cold I would've wanted to stay a little longer because the stars were so bright. So gorgeous. You could see every one of them. I miss that. I love the stars. But two seconds out there and I was shacking with cold. So we left.

Basically, my weekend was an adventure. Perhaps one that I didn't want at the time but one that I'm glad to have had.