The better you look, the more you will see.

One week. Then I'll truly be old. Twenty-one. It sounds so grown-up. So much older than I feel. I still am that little girl who counts down to her birthday and lights up anytime anyone mentions it. I think that's okay...even at twenty-one. :)

Slowly God has begun to prepare me for coming home. I will miss Ireland dearly, and will keep it in my heart. But, this time is coming to a close, this season is ending, this chapter concluding. I like thinking of my life as a book. It's probably one of my favorite common analogies made.

I feel like a different person somehow. After just three, incredibly short months. I feel a strength inside me that I never knew before. A strength that is strongest when I am closest to Jesus. He is life-giving, and I have realized that in such a new way this semester. Today we had a very famous artist come and speak to us, Ross Wilson. He sculpted the C.S.Lewis statue (that I recently took photos of), among many other sculptures. He also paints and has painted hundreds of famous people, including the Prince of Wales. Needless to say, it was a great honor to meet him. He is a Christian and hearing him speak about his love for art and his love for God was so encouraging, and inspiring. He gave us each prints of a piece he did of an angel's face coming out of this haze-like aura, and on the back of mine he wrote, "The better you look, the more you will see." He was speaking of looking for a touch of eternity in the everyday, ordinary of life. Those words mean so much to me, and I will treasure that picture. Since being here in Ireland God has sprung such a great love in my heart for writing and literature. I feel anxious and wait with great expectancy for God to use me...whether in writing, art, or something else I have yet to discover. I am excited about graduating. It is a world of possibilities...an ocean of adventure. Frightening, yes...but terribly exciting as well.

I hope to suck all the life out of my last two weeks here in Ireland, taking time to savor each moment. This is one of the most beautiful gifts I have ever received, and I will always think back on it with the best of memories.

Also, can you tell I have become a C.S. Lewis fanatic? I have. Here is one of my absolute favorite quotations...

"It isn't Narnia, you know," sobbed Lucy. "It's you. We shan't meet you there. And how can we live, never meeting you?"

"But you shall meet me, dear one," said Aslan.

"Are -are you there too, Sir?" said Edmund.

"I am," said Aslan. "But there I have another name. You must learn to know me by that name. This was the very reason why you were brought to Narnia, that by knowing me here for a little, you may know me better there."

[C.S. Lewis :: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader)