Things I've learnt from QR

I started my new job on Monday - and part of the whole "getting out of my comfort zone" thing meant that I was going to be taking the train to work. It's approximately a 45 minute train ride - which is enough time to observe several things about people, train travel and life.

I find it entertaining to watch people while I'm riding the train. However I don't always watch people's facial expressions - I find their footwear fascinating. You can tell a lot about a person from the kind of shoes they wear on the train. I've realised there a 3 kinds of people - well women, because men don't wear heels.

1. Women who don't really care what their shoes look like - as long as they are comfortable and can wear them all day long.

2. Women who care what they look like at work - but either have to walk long distances or prefer to be comfortable on the train - therefore wear sneakers or thongs.

3. People who constantly care what they look like and so wear painstakingly high or uncomfortable shoes on the train.

I am yet to decide which kind of person I will be - I started off as a 3 type of person, as most women probably do and have now become a mix of both 1 & 2. I think however after a month of changing over my shoes in the lift thing - I'll probably end up as a 1. And buy some ugly flat shoes.

Love

My thoughts on love..
I borrowed them from Coldplay's 'Swallowed in the Sea'. I bolded the bits I love most.

You cut me down a tree
And brought it back to me
And that's what made me see
Where I was going wrong
You put me on a shelf
And kept me for yourself
I can only blame myself
You can only blame me

And I could write a song
A hundred miles long
Well, that's where I belong
And you belong to me

And I could write it down
Or spread it all around
Get lost and then get found
Or swallowed in the sea

You put me on a line
And hung me out to dry
And darling that's when I
Decided to go to see you

You cut me down to size
And opened up my eyes
Made me realize
What I could not see

And I could write a book
The one they'll say that shook
The world, and then it took
It took it back from me

And I could write it down
Or spread it all around
Get lost and then get found
And you'll come back to me
Not swallowed in the sea

Ooh...

And I could write a song
A hundred miles long
Well, that's where I belong
And you belong with me

The streets you're walking on
A thousand houses long
Well, that's where I belong
And you belong with me

Oh what good is it to live
With nothing left to give

Forget but not forgive
Not loving all you see

Oh the streets you're walking on
A thousand houses long
Well that's where I belong
And you belong with me
Not swallowed in the sea

You belong with me
Not swallowed in the sea
Yeah, you belong with me
Not swallowed in the sea

Alone - A quote.

A quote about loneliness from Donald Miller's book, Blue like Jazz.

Loneliness is something that happens to us, but I think it is something we can move ourselves out of. I think a person who is lonely should dig into a community, give himself to a community, humble himself before his friends, initiate community, teach people to care for each other, love each other. Jesus does not want us floating through space or sitting in front of our televisions. Jesus wants us interacting, eating together, laughing together, praying together. Loneliness is something that came with the fall.
If loving other people is a bit of heaven then certainly isolation is a bit of hell, and to that degree, here on earth, we decide in which state we would like to live.