[insert your life here]

friday: hiking rattlesnake ledge. amazing view of God's amazing creation. living in the view, yet again. It's the backdrop to my everyday.

saturday: walking ALL over downtown Seattle and Rosie Thomas. She is hilarious... and pink. So good.

Sunday: Church in Snoho, Fremont walking tour, Mars' Hill night service, and chanting at St.Marks


oh so fun.

I am home.

This is quite possibly the last letter I will write from the hollowed grounds of Trinity Western University... at least for four months. Yes, I meant to wrote hollowed instead of hallowed. I guess one of the main reasons I am so ready to go is because this place becomes more and more hollow every hour as more and more lovely people leave. My dorm has shrunk to about 6 girls in the past 3 days. My roommate left this morning. Her barren bunk and deserted desk made me want to pack... it's a good thing I didn't need to study much for my final final (which went very well, by the way). I find it is very true: the building and location don't make the school, it's the people. I miss them a lot already, and some of them aren't even gone.

My packing party really started after my final final. I turned up my CD player really loud with all the the music that worry my neighbors: Radiohead, Sigur Ros, and Pedro.

"Hey, Leah, you might want to change the CD," Heather said as she walked out the door.

"Right, Heather." We laughed.

In my packing adventure I found the one the only the amazing WONDER SOCK. He helped me pack for a few hours. haha.

I think it's Wondersock, my bubble wrap rug, and, of course, the crazy icelanders that really made people question my sanity today. I had fun. They enjoyed laughing at me. Life is beautiful.

What's left to do? Well... I packed every article of clothing aside from what I am wearing now and what I will wear tomorrow in a HUGE garbage bag. It's very heavy. I think I will let Sarah try to carry it down the stairs. Aside from packing up the stereo and laptop I have the extreme joy of excavating my corkboards and seeing the layers of pictures that have accumulated over the year.

In other news: The Langley Value Village that burned down last summer is having its grand opening tomorrow! Catherine and I are going to bike there in the morning. Biking and thrift store shopping! What could be better? (Well, obviously, biking, reading, writing, thrift store, photography, Adrianne, and the ZOO)

No longer your Canadian correspondent,
leah albertson.

So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
Shakespeare, Sonnet 18

Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve,
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff
As dreams are made on, and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.
Shakespeare, The Tempest: IV,i,148-158

"And either way there is a devouring... many different things are said... many sacred stories... many great mysteries. Some say the loving and the devouring are all the same thing."
CS Lewis, Till We Have Faces

"'Would you like to be Redival? What? No? Then she's pitiable, If I am allowed to give my jewels as I please, you must keep all the things that you and I have really loved.'"
ibid.

"'You don't think any mortal life seems a long thing to me tonight? And how would it be better if I had lived? I suppose I should have been given to some king in the end---perhaps such another as our father. And there you can see again how little difference there is between dying and being married. To leave your home---to lose you, Maia, and the Fox---to lose one's maidenhead---to bear a child---they are all deaths.'"
ibid

ha! I didn't die. Beat that IDIS beast in 25 minutes. 2G praise was ringing throughout the campus. I swear we are the loudest dorm.

This easter I focused on one aspect of the Death and Resurrection: the inbetween time. My question: what would have happened if Jesus had just died? If he had never rose again. I believe it is terribly obvious that the Church would have flopped. After Jesus' death the disciples scattered and hid because they were afraid. What gave them the umption (in their gumption) to get the church going? The Resurrection. The Risen Christ!

I have a bag of easter eggs left over from last year's hunt. I was going to place them in strategic locations all over campus but have yet to complete this task. The eggs, however, got me thinking:

See Christ as an egg (a real one.. not plastic with candy inside). Christ the egg: a symbol of new life. Crucifxion. The egg is broken. The white and yoke spill over the peices of shell. Resurrection. God rebuilds his egg. Christ the egg lives. The church is birthed from the egg.

After thinking about this all weekend and coming to an understanding last night of how blessed I truly am (no resurrection=end of new covenant=old covenant [law] dominates=no hope for gentiles=no hope for me), the pastor at my dormmate Sarah J's church talked about the Saturday in between the crucifixion and the resurrection. Coincidence? No, divine plannning. 1 Corinthians 15:12-19. Read it.

In other news: I got to eat real food today! Ham, potatoes, fresh-baked bread, hardboiled eggs, snicker salad, strawberry shortcake. So good! Real food is such a luxury.

Still in other news: Catherine is coming home with me for a few days and we are going to do some hiking on Friday morning if any of you (not in school..) are interested.

Only two more finals! IDIS is tomorrow and it is supposed to be a killer. SO, I may die. But in order to prevent that I will go study now. Wednesday is my final final: public speaking. Please pray. Thanks.