Beautiful, no?
Here's her official website:
http://shop.sarahjanestudios.com/
Saturday, May 24, 2014
don't you dare look out your window, darling everything's on fire
I still think about Ukraine. Every day, actually. Especially right now.
Things are bad over there right now. Very bad.
Everything's in blood and fire.
And so I pray. I pray for her and her beautiful people. Because that's all I can do.
Things are bad over there right now. Very bad.
Everything's in blood and fire.
And so I pray. I pray for her and her beautiful people. Because that's all I can do.
Friday, May 23, 2014
Come the May, I say
It's May.
That beautiful month filled with the scent of
sunshine
grass
and lilacs.
The beginning of summer,
yet not too hot
and not too cold--
just right for a girl with
hopes and dreams
that even darkest winter cannot kill.
The May is here
with ribbons on her pinafore
and flowers in her hair.
That beautiful month filled with the scent of
sunshine
grass
and lilacs.
The beginning of summer,
yet not too hot
and not too cold--
just right for a girl with
hopes and dreams
that even darkest winter cannot kill.
The May is here
with ribbons on her pinafore
and flowers in her hair.
from sarah jane studios.
Men Seldom Make Passes at Girls Who Wear Glasses
I'm playing catch-up again.
I've had ideas for blog posts on my mind, but I haven't spaced them out properly, so there might be a deluge of Megan-thoughts. Happens every once in awhile. But, I guess, like one friend says, sub-par blogging is better than no blogging at all.
So, for those interested, here's a quick life update:
Winter Semester happened. So did finals. All is well. I'm still alive. Which is saying something. But I got through. Hallelujah.
I'm enjoying the beautiful spring weather in Provo. I forgot how beautiful springs are in Utah. The green mountains are gorgeous. And the lilacs? Be still my beating heart.
I'm interning at the Church History Library this semester. I love it. Absolutely love it. I'm sure that you'll hear me talk more about it whether you want to or not. Because it is that good.
In other news, you know you're a nerd when you watch old musicals and see yourself in the characters. Wait, I'm the only one who does this? Shocker.
ANYWAY. I was watching The Music Man (which, by the way, is a beautifully brilliant piece of Americana), and I realized:
Oh. my. goodness.
I am Marian.
This Marian. The one who tells people to be quiet in the library. The one who is no-nonsense and is disdainful towards silly women and con-men. The one who loves Chaucer, Rabelais, and Balzac.
And this Marian. The dreamer, who can never quite give up on her dreams, no matter how pragmatic she tries to be. The one who hopes for someone who will occasionally ponder what makes Shakespeare and Beethoven great.
Also, I just feel like I'd fit in well in early twentieth-century America. Votes for women, all the way.
I've had ideas for blog posts on my mind, but I haven't spaced them out properly, so there might be a deluge of Megan-thoughts. Happens every once in awhile. But, I guess, like one friend says, sub-par blogging is better than no blogging at all.
So, for those interested, here's a quick life update:
Winter Semester happened. So did finals. All is well. I'm still alive. Which is saying something. But I got through. Hallelujah.
I'm enjoying the beautiful spring weather in Provo. I forgot how beautiful springs are in Utah. The green mountains are gorgeous. And the lilacs? Be still my beating heart.
I'm interning at the Church History Library this semester. I love it. Absolutely love it. I'm sure that you'll hear me talk more about it whether you want to or not. Because it is that good.
In other news, you know you're a nerd when you watch old musicals and see yourself in the characters. Wait, I'm the only one who does this? Shocker.
ANYWAY. I was watching The Music Man (which, by the way, is a beautifully brilliant piece of Americana), and I realized:
Oh. my. goodness.
I am Marian.
This Marian. The one who tells people to be quiet in the library. The one who is no-nonsense and is disdainful towards silly women and con-men. The one who loves Chaucer, Rabelais, and Balzac.
And this Marian. The dreamer, who can never quite give up on her dreams, no matter how pragmatic she tries to be. The one who hopes for someone who will occasionally ponder what makes Shakespeare and Beethoven great.
Also, I just feel like I'd fit in well in early twentieth-century America. Votes for women, all the way.
Thursday, April 24, 2014
A BYU Experience as Told By William Shakespeare
If you weren't aware, yesterday was William Shakespeare's 450th Birthday! (Happy Birthday, Billy! . . . are we on nickname terms yet? If not, I just went there.)
It also happens to be BYU's convocation. I'm not graduating this year (although I did just finish finals--hallelujah!), but I do have many close, good friends who are graduating.
So, in honor of the BYU Class of 2014 and the bard himself (and for the enjoyment of everyone else . . . or at least to satisfy my nerdiness), here is my take on BYU life as told by William Shakespeare a la Buzzfeed.
Because whether your story is a comedy, tragedy, romance, or part of a four-part history, Shakespeare--like university--is filled with interesting characters, universal themes, and life lessons. (I just really hope that your BYU experience was nothing like Titus Andronicus.)
You start BYU as an incoming freshman with high hopes and expectations
"What is past is prologue." --The Tempest
Everything on campus is new and exciting.
"O, brave new world that has such people in't!" --The Tempest
Sure, the dorms are a bit small,
"He's too big to go in there. What shall I do?" -- Merry Wives of Windsor
Your roommate is passive-aggressive (or maybe you're the passive-aggressive one),
"Why, I can smile, and murder while I smile." -- Richard III
And you learn that you really don't know how to cook,
But you're bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and ready to take on the world . . . or at least pass Chem 105.
"Thoughts tending to ambition, they do plot unlikely wonders." -- Richard II
The grind of the semester begins, but you're grateful for the opportunity to receive an education.
"Ignorance is the curse of God; knowledge is the wing wherewith we fly to heaven." -- Henry VI, Part 2
You make friends,
"Words are easy, like the wind; Faithful friends are hard to find." -- The Passionate Pilgrim
Some enemies,
"If you prick us do we not bleed? If you tickle us do we not laugh? If you poison us do we not die? And if you wrong us shall we not revenge?" -- The Merchant of Venice
"You speak an infinite deal of nothing." -- The Merchant of Venice.
But you find that there are some people that will stand with you and always be there for you, thick or thin, freshman or senior.
"I count myself in nothing else so happy
As in a soul remembering my good friends." -- Richard II
Mid-terms hit and you find yourself begging for mercy.
"The quality of mercy is not strained." -- The Merchant of Venice
Still, you manage to have fun with your roommates and even manage to put your flirting skills to good use (I mean, after all, we are the hottest and smartest college campus in the USA).
And even if your first BYU date isn't quite like the masquerade scene from Romeo and Juliet . . .
"O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!" -- Romeo and Juliet
hey, there are worse things.
Like teenage suicide. (Romeo and Juliet)
Or having your eyes gouged out. (King Lear)
Or losing your kingdom for a horse. (Richard III)
In any case, the boys still have to go on their missions,
And you have finals to worry about . . . which really means that you have procrastination to do.
"I wasted time, and now doth time waste me." -- Richard II
Not to mention, you have to survive your first Provo winter, aka "the winter of our discontent" -- Richard III
As you progress through your university years, life will throw you a lot of curve balls and you'll have to learn to handle life with grace.
You'll have to decide what to major in.
"To be, or not to be: that is the question." -- Hamlet
Then you'll have to decide what you're going to do with that major.
You have to learn to have to have the courage to try.
"Our doubts are traitors and make us lose the good we oft might win by fearing to attempt." -- Measure for Measure
Some girls will decide to go on missions. But what used to be
will turn into the thing to do.
You'll learn life lessons at BYU.
You'll learn about forgiveness.
"I as free forgive you
As I would be forgiven: I forgive all." -- Henry VIII
And about how you knew absolutely nothing freshman year.
"A fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise man knows himself to be a fool." -- As You Like It
"What fools these mortals be!" -- Midsummer Night's Dream
You'll learn about trusting yourself.
"To thine own self be true." -- Hamlet
And trusting others.
"Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none." -- All's Well That Ends Well
And you'll fall in and out of love multiple times,
"Some Cupid kills with arrows, some with traps." -- Much Ado About Nothing
Which means you'll experience the joys and frustrations of falling in and out of love multiple times.
"Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind;
And therefore is wing'd Cupid painted blind." -- Midsummer Night's Dream
Because whether it's puppy love,
"No sooner met but they looked, no sooner looked but they loved, no sooner loved but they sighed, no sooner sighed but they asked one another the reason." -- As You Like It
Or unrequited love;
"We should be woo'd and were not made to woo!" -- A Midsummer Night's Dream
Whether you're tired of your bishop, home teachers, and long-lost third cousins telling you that you need to get married,
"Prince, thou art sad; get thee a wife, get thee a wife!" -- Much Ado About Nothing
Or whether you vow that you never will marry, like Kate from Taming of the Shrew,
One thing's for sure: "The course of true love never did run smooth." -- Midsummer Night's Dream
And that's all too evident in Provo, Utah.
All too soon (or not soon enough, depending on your perspective), it's your last semester at BYU.
You take your final classes and final tests,
"But this rough magic
I here abjure [. . .]
I'll break my staff,
Bury it certain fathoms in the earth,
And deeper than did ever plummet sound
I'll drown my book." -- The Tempest
And head to the Marriott Center to graduate and move on to the next chapter of your life,
"All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts."-- As You Like It
All the while knowing that you will be forever changed by the experiences, challenges, and people you met while an undergraduate at Brigham Young University.
"It is not in the stars to hold our destiny, but in ourselves." -- Julius Caesar
It also happens to be BYU's convocation. I'm not graduating this year (although I did just finish finals--hallelujah!), but I do have many close, good friends who are graduating.
So, in honor of the BYU Class of 2014 and the bard himself (and for the enjoyment of everyone else . . . or at least to satisfy my nerdiness), here is my take on BYU life as told by William Shakespeare a la Buzzfeed.
Because whether your story is a comedy, tragedy, romance, or part of a four-part history, Shakespeare--like university--is filled with interesting characters, universal themes, and life lessons. (I just really hope that your BYU experience was nothing like Titus Andronicus.)
You start BYU as an incoming freshman with high hopes and expectations
"What is past is prologue." --The Tempest
Everything on campus is new and exciting.
"O, brave new world that has such people in't!" --The Tempest
Sure, the dorms are a bit small,
"He's too big to go in there. What shall I do?" -- Merry Wives of Windsor
Your roommate is passive-aggressive (or maybe you're the passive-aggressive one),
"Why, I can smile, and murder while I smile." -- Richard III
And you learn that you really don't know how to cook,
"'Tis an ill cook that cannot lick his own fingers." -- Romeo and Juliet
But you're bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and ready to take on the world . . . or at least pass Chem 105.
"Thoughts tending to ambition, they do plot unlikely wonders." -- Richard II
The grind of the semester begins, but you're grateful for the opportunity to receive an education.
"Ignorance is the curse of God; knowledge is the wing wherewith we fly to heaven." -- Henry VI, Part 2
You make friends,
"Words are easy, like the wind; Faithful friends are hard to find." -- The Passionate Pilgrim
Some enemies,
"If you prick us do we not bleed? If you tickle us do we not laugh? If you poison us do we not die? And if you wrong us shall we not revenge?" -- The Merchant of Venice
And a lot of people that are neither this-nor-that.
"You speak an infinite deal of nothing." -- The Merchant of Venice.
But you find that there are some people that will stand with you and always be there for you, thick or thin, freshman or senior.
"I count myself in nothing else so happy
As in a soul remembering my good friends." -- Richard II
Mid-terms hit and you find yourself begging for mercy.
"The quality of mercy is not strained." -- The Merchant of Venice
Still, you manage to have fun with your roommates and even manage to put your flirting skills to good use (I mean, after all, we are the hottest and smartest college campus in the USA).
And even if your first BYU date isn't quite like the masquerade scene from Romeo and Juliet . . .
"O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!" -- Romeo and Juliet
hey, there are worse things.
Like teenage suicide. (Romeo and Juliet)
Or having your eyes gouged out. (King Lear)
Or losing your kingdom for a horse. (Richard III)
In any case, the boys still have to go on their missions,
"We band of brothers" -- Henry V
And you have finals to worry about . . . which really means that you have procrastination to do.
"I wasted time, and now doth time waste me." -- Richard II
Not to mention, you have to survive your first Provo winter, aka "the winter of our discontent" -- Richard III
As you progress through your university years, life will throw you a lot of curve balls and you'll have to learn to handle life with grace.
You'll have to decide what to major in.
"To be, or not to be: that is the question." -- Hamlet
Then you'll have to decide what you're going to do with that major.
You have to learn to have to have the courage to try.
"Our doubts are traitors and make us lose the good we oft might win by fearing to attempt." -- Measure for Measure
Some girls will decide to go on missions. But what used to be
"We few, we happy few"-- Henry V
will turn into the thing to do.
You'll learn life lessons at BYU.
You'll learn about forgiveness.
"I as free forgive you
As I would be forgiven: I forgive all." -- Henry VIII
And about how you knew absolutely nothing freshman year.
"A fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise man knows himself to be a fool." -- As You Like It
"What fools these mortals be!" -- Midsummer Night's Dream
You'll learn about trusting yourself.
"To thine own self be true." -- Hamlet
And trusting others.
"Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none." -- All's Well That Ends Well
And you'll fall in and out of love multiple times,
"Some Cupid kills with arrows, some with traps." -- Much Ado About Nothing
Which means you'll experience the joys and frustrations of falling in and out of love multiple times.
"Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind;
And therefore is wing'd Cupid painted blind." -- Midsummer Night's Dream
Because whether it's puppy love,
"No sooner met but they looked, no sooner looked but they loved, no sooner loved but they sighed, no sooner sighed but they asked one another the reason." -- As You Like It
Or unrequited love;
"We should be woo'd and were not made to woo!" -- A Midsummer Night's Dream
Whether you're tired of your bishop, home teachers, and long-lost third cousins telling you that you need to get married,
"Prince, thou art sad; get thee a wife, get thee a wife!" -- Much Ado About Nothing
Or whether you vow that you never will marry, like Kate from Taming of the Shrew,
One thing's for sure: "The course of true love never did run smooth." -- Midsummer Night's Dream
And that's all too evident in Provo, Utah.
All too soon (or not soon enough, depending on your perspective), it's your last semester at BYU.
You take your final classes and final tests,
"But this rough magic
I here abjure [. . .]
I'll break my staff,
Bury it certain fathoms in the earth,
And deeper than did ever plummet sound
I'll drown my book." -- The Tempest
And head to the Marriott Center to graduate and move on to the next chapter of your life,
"All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts."-- As You Like It
"It is not in the stars to hold our destiny, but in ourselves." -- Julius Caesar
Sunday, April 20, 2014
Happy Easter!
On Easter in most of Eastern Europe, people greet each other with a special saying. Instead of simply saying, "Hello," or not saying anything to each other at all (which is more common), people say, "Христос воскрес!"
Christos Voskres. Christ is risen.
And in response, people will say, "Во истинну воскрес!" Vo istininy, voskres! In truth, he is risen!
It is a beautiful tradition. Everyone participates, and it was the one day where people would actually smile at me when I talked to them. Easter was a day of hope, joy, and peace. As it should be.
A few of my favorite things:
Ukrainian Easter eggs.
Coolest thing ever.
Ukraine in springtime. Lilacs. And Cectpa Ahlstrom.
I am so grateful for Easter. I am grateful for the Resurrection and for Christ's atoning sacrifice for us.
Because of Him, we have hope.
Because of Him, we will all live, because everything Jesus touches, lives.
Because of Him, we know how to live.
Because of Him, we can be healed, in both body and spirit.
Because of Him, there are no endings, only eternal beginnings.
God be thanked for the divine gift of His Son.
Also. This video is beautiful.
He is risen! In truth, He is risen.
Monday, April 14, 2014
Don't Cry For Me, Украина
. . . because I am crying for you.
Today, I think of Ukraine. Everywhere I turn, I am reminded of her.
She haunts me.
Those streets--those broken-down, dusty streets
The smells of burning leaves mixed with burnt garbage
The grey Soviet doms, with the green of spring pressing through the cracks,
and lilacs in bloom.
The rynok (market) ladies selling pickled cabbage,
dried fish,
strawberries.
Exiting a marshrutka and walking down those familiar streets to the branch building
to an investigator's home,
to our apartment.
Those wrinkled, tough, wonderful babushki.
My beautiful, beautiful people.
Now at war with each other.
My heart--my heart is bursting with sorrow.
They've closed my mission.
All 85 missionaries. Gone from Donetsk.
From Mariupol.
From Makeevka.
From Kharkov.
And it makes me want to weep.
(I'd be lying to say that I haven't wept.)
I know that there is time for hope. That even when all hell is loosed, hope still remains.
She always does.
And the Ukrainian people are, if nothing else, resilient.
They keep coming back.
There are promises to keep.
But for right now . . . for right now . . . my heart aches.
Because I love them. I love Ukraine. My heart aches because I care and because I love.
Two years ago on Thursday will be two years since I set foot in Ukraine. That day changed my life forever. Because of that, spring will always remind me of Ukraine. Of new beginnings.
I just--there are no words to describe the love I have for that place. A holy place for me. A place where I grew to know God. Where I learned to love. Where I hurt more than I knew was possible. Where I learned that suffering could carve out a soul. Where I changed forever.
"I wish I had more inspiring things to say on my year-mark," I wrote in my journal almost a year ago today, "but I'm running out of time and I know new, exciting things are going to happen soon, so I'm just going to share one experience today that was so very 'Ukraine':
"Sister Erekson and I were walking on a bridge today. The bridge runs parallel to a highway, which leads to the big, looming steel factories, which have completely destroyed and polluted the air and water here. On either side of the bridge was a chastni dom sektor (private home area), with old homes and fences and blooming, budding trees. There was a railroad track running beneath the bridge and men pounding away at rocks. And another man taking care of goats with his granddaughter. And then the inlets of the polluted Azov Sea.
"It was just--Ukraine. It was one of those moments where I knew exactly where I was--Ukraine. This is Ukraine. I live in Ukraine."
How do you describe these feelings? My words fail me. Because to understand me, you would have to stand on that bridge with me and watch the flowered trees dance in the cool April breeze and hear the grandpa with the goats telling his granddaughter to watch out for the goat which bites; you'd have to sit with me in a tiny Ukrainian house, with golden-evening autumn light falling, as a beloved sister realizes for the first time that the Book of Mormon is true; you'd have to be jam-packed in the Metro, or better yet, in a green marshrytka as it careens down the broken streets of Kharkov.
To understand me, you'd have to live in Ukraine.
And you would have to leave your heart there.
Я люблю Украину. Украина, я тебя люблю.
I love Ukraine. Ukraine, I love you.
Today, I think of Ukraine. Everywhere I turn, I am reminded of her.
She haunts me.
Those streets--those broken-down, dusty streets
The smells of burning leaves mixed with burnt garbage
The grey Soviet doms, with the green of spring pressing through the cracks,
and lilacs in bloom.
The rynok (market) ladies selling pickled cabbage,
dried fish,
strawberries.
Exiting a marshrutka and walking down those familiar streets to the branch building
to an investigator's home,
to our apartment.
Those wrinkled, tough, wonderful babushki.
My beautiful, beautiful people.
Now at war with each other.
My heart--my heart is bursting with sorrow.
They've closed my mission.
All 85 missionaries. Gone from Donetsk.
From Mariupol.
From Makeevka.
From Kharkov.
And it makes me want to weep.
(I'd be lying to say that I haven't wept.)
I know that there is time for hope. That even when all hell is loosed, hope still remains.
She always does.
And the Ukrainian people are, if nothing else, resilient.
They keep coming back.
There are promises to keep.
But for right now . . . for right now . . . my heart aches.
Because I love them. I love Ukraine. My heart aches because I care and because I love.
Two years ago on Thursday will be two years since I set foot in Ukraine. That day changed my life forever. Because of that, spring will always remind me of Ukraine. Of new beginnings.
I just--there are no words to describe the love I have for that place. A holy place for me. A place where I grew to know God. Where I learned to love. Where I hurt more than I knew was possible. Where I learned that suffering could carve out a soul. Where I changed forever.
"I wish I had more inspiring things to say on my year-mark," I wrote in my journal almost a year ago today, "but I'm running out of time and I know new, exciting things are going to happen soon, so I'm just going to share one experience today that was so very 'Ukraine':
"Sister Erekson and I were walking on a bridge today. The bridge runs parallel to a highway, which leads to the big, looming steel factories, which have completely destroyed and polluted the air and water here. On either side of the bridge was a chastni dom sektor (private home area), with old homes and fences and blooming, budding trees. There was a railroad track running beneath the bridge and men pounding away at rocks. And another man taking care of goats with his granddaughter. And then the inlets of the polluted Azov Sea.
"It was just--Ukraine. It was one of those moments where I knew exactly where I was--Ukraine. This is Ukraine. I live in Ukraine."
How do you describe these feelings? My words fail me. Because to understand me, you would have to stand on that bridge with me and watch the flowered trees dance in the cool April breeze and hear the grandpa with the goats telling his granddaughter to watch out for the goat which bites; you'd have to sit with me in a tiny Ukrainian house, with golden-evening autumn light falling, as a beloved sister realizes for the first time that the Book of Mormon is true; you'd have to be jam-packed in the Metro, or better yet, in a green marshrytka as it careens down the broken streets of Kharkov.
To understand me, you'd have to live in Ukraine.
And you would have to leave your heart there.
Я люблю Украину. Украина, я тебя люблю.
I love Ukraine. Ukraine, I love you.
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