My Writings


You can't fight being happy. Why should you choose to be miserable when there is so much that you can be happy about? Je ne peux pas m'empêcher d'être heureuse. Pourquoi choisir d'être triste quand il y a tant de choses réjouissantes?

Why should you willingly choose to only see what is bad and false and uncomely and ignore what might be seen as good and wholesome and lovely?
Man was not made to be miserable. I don't believe that we were meant to only have hardships and suffering. It fills our world, but that doesn't mean that we are all only doomed to lives of toiling and suffering.
Dieu n'a pas créé l'homme pour être misérable. Je refuse de croire que nous sommes sensés n'avoir que des épreuves et des souffrances dans la vie. La misère remplit peut-être notre monde, mais cela ne signifie pas que nous sommes condamnés à une vie de souffrance.

You cannot ignore the hardships of life, but neither can you dwell on them to the extent that you don't see anything clearly anymore. Take what you can, leave nothing behind, and face whatever is in store for you next with a brave heart and a smile.
On ne peut pas ignorer les difficultés de la vie, mais on ne doit pas non plus s'y apesantir au point de ne plus voir les choses clairement. Observe tout ce que tu peux, ne néglige rien, et affronte ce qui t'attend avec un coeur courageux et le sourire aux lèvres.

Life is too short to spend it worrying and contemplating the million and one ways anything could go wrong.

There are some things we accept, others that we change, and still more that we must leave to something else to handle, because we can't even begin to know how to see them, much less what to do about them.

Live life in as much happiness as you can, choose roads that take you places, but make the journey down them memorable.

Don't worry as much about the look of the road as the songs that you will sing while walking down it. Enjoy the journey. If life was always meant to be a quest, with something to reach and have achieved by the end of it, then why does life always end in such a way as to make no more distinction between so many different lives, much in the same way as we are all born, the same fragile helpless beings as everyone else ever was. A life well lived is just that, well lived in the eyes of the one living it. What is the point of being remembered, by the next generation of helpless beings that enter this world, who will also one day have lived out their time and reach the same fate as you, if what you are remembered for neither enriches or blesses them? If you will give to others, let yourself give to what will better the life of someone else beside you now, because this life you live now will only be lived but once. Everyone else in the world living at this time will also expire and die as you will, and then what is left of your life? Can you one day look back and say, I lived life as I wanted to live, I enjoyed  every moment I could, what I did and gave was done and given to enrich in some way the lives of those around me,  the lives of those who have walked down the same years in which I have, and who will also be as unknown and dead and forgotten when they are gone, by the next generation. I lived life for what I saw in the world around me as the best way it seemed that my life could be lived. I didn't wander, wondering how I could make a mark that would be everlasting, and wondered if I was worth anything at all in the infinite space of things..among the hundreds and thousands that have lived before me and what use I shall have ever been to the world. I will not go out of life saying those things. I will live the time that I have allotted to me, for whatever reason, for whatever purpose, to use the life that I have given to me to its fullest. Why wonder about the philosophy and meaning of life in the bigger scheme of things, when the bigger picture is so infinitely vast that you only become overwhelmed by the scale of it. If we were meant to be small, our lives to be short, and unseeming of very great and celestial significance in this life, then why worry about it, and simply live it to the best of our abilities with what we have to fill it.
We are human, we cannot be more than we are...we are given life, and we are meant to make a use of it that will not harm or anguish the others in the world around us, because it is impossible ever to say 'I am alone in the universe'. Everything we do affects something else, and yet, our own importance is always less than we think.
Trapped in one mind, in one body of being, we cannot help only seeing the world around us through those eyes, only observing and finding what we are capable of seeing and knowing to look for.

No life is a waste if it in some way imparts happiness to the others it comes in contact with, because isn't that the highest emotion that we know to look for: simple peace and contentment that all is right with the world and that we are living the way that we should be? Some never find it, and that is a great loss, because you are only worth so much to anyone else as what you are capable of being worth to yourself. If you do not see life as joyous, how can you help others to find joy? If you don't see the purpose to care about where your life is taking you, how then can you see the importance of where anyone else is taking theirs? Everything affects the other, but you cannot live anyone else's lives for them. YOU can only make a mark on the lives of others around you, by the way you see and use your own.

Today is the most beautiful day of your life!

There is no right or wrong way to live.

It is vitally important not to believe people when they tell you something can't be done, or it will suddenly become true.

If every man listened to his neighbor, and did only what his neighbor said, then his mind would change every passing minute as his neighbor changed his. Live as you know, keep your convictions, and let noone tell you that something can't be done, that what you do is wrong, or that you should be anything other than what you are.

"A life without problems is a life unlived."


THOUGHTS ON CONGO

Um, so I’m going to write something now about my life in congo….right…ok first everyone, I would like to confirm that nothing that I say here can be used against me in a court of law or otherwise. Thank you.
First I want to say that I never intended to come here. In fact, I did everything in my power not to go. But once I made the decision that for better or for worse this was to be my home, it changed my life forever.
I love this place now, and I wouldn’t trade my experiences here for the world.
How can I complain of my life! I’ve had experiences that nobody else in the world has had. I’ve lived as nobody else has lived. There’s a rush to living here that cannot be found anywhere else.
People respect you for being who you are, a missionary. There is a special feeling of fulfilment at the end of the day that I have not found anywhere else.
Sure it’s tough! There’s no fellowship. But in a way it forces you to make friends with those outside of our little communities. I am closer to my Bible students. I have friends among our home’s contacts. I used to tend to shy away from anything other than a working level of interaction with those I met who were not in the Family. After saying our witness to someone, I would leave and pray to never see them again, and not want to have anything more to do with them.
The lack of fellowship here has helped me to broaden my perspectives and have more of an understanding for those people living ordinary lives. I’ve made friends outside of the Family, which I think has broadened my social skills.
You can’t avoid being who we are here! You can’t avoid getting involved in what is going on here!
I was prone to dislike witnessing activities, to dread going out tooling when I was in South Africa. But ever since I came here, I couldn’t help but getting involved. It's so much harder to rebel against feeding starving orphan children isn’t it! The other stuff comes, the love for witnessing, but first it is realising that I am helping other people, that I am making a difference in somebody’s life that has made me to want to do what we do!
I listened to people tell me for years about how great it was to be in the Family, but it wasn’t until I got here that I actually saw the sense and the point in what we do.
When you see people who are obviously in fear of their ancestors, who talk about demon possession as if it was common place, it makes you see why we have to go and tell them about Jesus, and make them see that Jesus is the only thing that they need, and they don’t have to stay with their old beliefs and superstitions any more! Most everyone here says that they are Christian, they respect you for giving out God’s word. But you still find those who also practice other things, and when you see that our witnessing and teaching is what is making a difference in these peoples lives, and it is what is freeing them from fear, that is what makes me want to keep on doing this!
Yes, I’m challenged, every day is a challenge, and I’m busy.
I’m by no means cooped up in the house all day. I go to visit our contacts, and friends.

I go to top restaurants when I go on outreach. We have friends and contacts with all of the top business people in our city.
I personally know people like the CEO of Vodacom for Congo, the manager of the biggest food chain store in the capital, a top guy from the biggest bread bakery in Kinshasa, the owner of the biggest Plastic factory in Kinshasa.
I am learning new things all of the time. One of our printing contacts is giving me photoshop classes whenever I go to see him, and I’m learning to cut hair from one of our friends who cuts all of our hair for free (I might also say that he is the best hairdresser in the country!)
We witness to everyone! The poor Congolese, the rich Congolese, the French, the Belgians, the germans, the portugese, the hesbolla, the Lebanese, the Greeks, the Christians, the Muslims, the atheists,…and it may be possible for you to witness to at least one of each all in a day!
I’ve had people literally almost grab activated magazines out of my hands! I’m a University teacher…hah hah…of our 12 Foundation Stones classes.
This is an amazing country with so much potential. Its not just “up in africa” in some God forsaken place. This is the literal heart of africa. And there is far too much to be done than we could ever hope to accomplish in any of our lifetimes. Everything makes a difference here. Everything counts.


MY AFRICAN PARADISE

africa
I see what I see, and I know what I know, all because I have lived in Africa.
What did I see in africa?

I saw a man beating another man today,
I heard a lie being told today
And I said nothing
Because this was Africa

I heard children crying in the streets today
One of them took another’s toy away
But when I saw the filth and the grime
That those little hands seemed to ignore in their minds
That was what made me realise
I was in africa

This is africa
The smelly market and sounds
Children huddled together
Men pushing each other
To get onto the next bus
Where they drive too fast, and walk too slow
Noone goes out in the rain
Everyone dances without any restrain
Only in africa

In the African winters where the burning sun is less strong
Where the scorching heat is replaced
By calm cooling chilled winds
I saw a boy in the hot sun with a scarf
It’s africa

Take me to africa
Where the children play
And the people faint
For lack of water
When the river runs right by their door

Take me to africa
Where the children run free
Without misery
Because they don’t know what they haven’t got any of
They only know that they run alone for lack of natural love

Thank me for my time in africa
Tell me I am free
When all that I can see
Is day to day useless plodding
As we drop in the well
Our stories to tell
And the people thank us all the same
For that one tiny drop of water
That doesn’t even begin to fill their need


Where children don’t cry
Where roads run safe
Where people are industrious
Where the river is clean
And the clothes have the sheen
That comes from being washed in water

Take me to this other africa
Where the fighting is dead
And the happy souls stand on their heads
Instead of robbing each other

Take me to another africa
That is still covered in plagues of elephants
And wild beasts roaring
And children fawning
To be with their mother

Take me to a different africa where the monkey is not meat
And the children are still sweet
And they don’t fight and steal from each other
For it is only that way that it could be
My African paradise

Scholarship Essay
When I was a little girl somebody asked me “What do you want to be when you grow up?” I answered without hesitation, a missionary. I had grown up in TFI where helping people was a part of everyday life, and I couldn’t think of anything else.
I got a little older and things changed. I questioned my beliefs, and for a time I stopped believing in God altogether. It’s enough to say that later on, I had a personal experience with Jesus that brought me back to believing, not as I once had, but more completely, as now it was something that I had found, and that was mine.
My choices when I was 16 to not just be in the Family, but to really be a part of the mission, too were my own. I wanted to help others know Jesus more completely as I had. I was happy, with the responsibilities I had found, knowing I was doing all I could to further the mission. I had experienced the joy and fulfillment this brought. I still had a desire to study, to learn and improve and expand my capabilities, but for the moment I had put that aside.
I had always been artistically inclined, and I used this in my work. I put up a website for our mission projects, created flyers and PR brochures, among other things. They had a really good impact, one example is someone who discovered us through the website, and pledged enough money to support some of our projects for a year! I decided that design is what I wanted to learn more about. I resolved that this was a way I could continue to help the work and countless other projects. Going to university would further my ability to contribute to the mission.
Around the time I had decided to study, I contracted a long illness. It forced me to leave the Congo that I had grown to love, and especially the people I worked with that had become my life. While getting treated in South Africa, I studied for my college entrance exams, and continued to help in my home as much as I could. I did finally get better for a time, and I moved to France last year to study.
How did my missionary service impact my life? I can’t see how it hasn’t.  Who I am today is a result in part of not only my upbringing, but the choices I made to make mission work my calling for the time that I did.
I know that in the university applications and interviews I did, I stood out with my well traveled childhood, and my humanitarian work. I wouldn’t have the focus in my passion for design that I have now, if I hadn’t seen its potential usefulness to humanitarian projects, which I want to always be in some way involved in.
Living in Congo also helped me to learn French, which has the invaluable benefit in my life now of me being able to study in France. This is going to cut extensive costs off my program of study. The school I decided to attend is really a good fit for me, as it offers the opportunity to take classes in English and French, and at a significantly lower cost than schools in the US.
Since being in Europe, I have seen some great humanitarian awareness design projects. My goal is to one day create things of that caliber that can truly make a difference in the world! I intend to use what I learn to raise awareness in future for missionary and humanitarian projects. This is really a skill that can enable me to contribute to the mission, from wherever I am. I hope to be able to find the necessary funding to fulfill my dreams.
Design fills me with so much joy, and knowing that there is the potential to use it in such a positive way to still make a difference in people’s lives makes it all the better.


THE PERSONAL STATEMENT (Essay for Parson-Paris School of Arts--2010)
“Leave the world a better place than how you found it.” This for me is the legacy of Leonardo da Vinci. Leonardo was more than an artist, designer, engineer, or scientist. He was an innovator, the father of design. He determined always to progress, even to the danger of entering the world of impossibility. I admire most in Leonardo that continual search for a challenge, a way to improve the world around him.
Leonardo exemplified determination to learn at all costs. Modern medicine has Leonardo’s perseverance to thank for the first accurate drawings of the human anatomy. Practice in observing and learning from the world around him resulted in fascinating discoveries. His unparalleled genius had so many ideas, that in order to express them he had to invent technical drawing. It was his interest in the latest technology that kept Leonardo always in demand, helping to elevate the role of artists of his day.
His different facets of knowledge went hand in hand—not just looking at the surface of nature, he penetrated into what makes nature work. This is a principle that I admire in any design—an advertisement that reflects an understanding of human psychology, results in a more effective design than something simply pretty. Knowledge of nature, combined with his artistic mind, gave Da Vinci the audacity to attempt the ridiculous project of a machine that would make men fly. He dared to design it 400 years before others had the courage to build it. “Knowledge empowered the dreamer to create the reality.” His work inspires me to become a designer who dreams the impossible, clarifies it, and lives to see those ideas made a reality for others.
My interest in design began when I saw the importance of a well designed and attractive presentation. During my work as a volunteer for an NGO in the DR Congo, I took up the role of a creative producer—creating flyers, visual appeals, project albums, and a website to attract support for our humanitarian projects. My appeals, by advertising what our organization did, have helped to find new sponsors that otherwise would not have even known we existed! While my original motive was helping the humanitarian project, I fell in love with creating itself. I realized the power design can have.
I've always wanted to affect what people see, make cheerful what was once drab, and add color to something plain, excitement to something ordinary! I love art. Yet my ideal art is something that fulfils a purpose. Communication design is without a doubt what I want to study. Through it, I believe I have found a way to make art a part of my life while pursuing something that can be of use. I find a joy in using innovative knowledge to make something that helps another. Motivated by Da Vinci’s legacy, I dream of leaving a mark on the world through my design. I want to learn to use my creativity to its full potential.



This is the essay I wrote in 2009 to apply to VCU (Graphic Design College in Virginia)
“Education and Life: A Personal Statement”
Why I want to Study Graphic Design
Where would we be without designers? Where would we be without those who designed stop lights, traffic signals, Sign Language for the deaf, who drew the human anatomy for the first time so doctors could learn about what really went on with our bodies; who designed shoes, sun-cream, houses? What about God, the greatest designer of all who designed the world?
Art makes the world beautiful. It transforms every-day necessities into something more pleasing to work with, to look at, to use.  Inspiration for any task can be drawn from our surroundings – or likewise one can be un-inspired very quickly by them. And art sometimes qualifies what those surroundings are like – it directly affects how our lives are influenced. There is something about our surroundings that affects our moods, our emotions. Certain colors are known to have an effect on the temperament of animals, and likewise of humans. Pleasant surroundings can make us happier, more productive individuals. And what fills our surroundings, but the bill boards we drive by, the furniture in our house, the pictures on the wall, the advertisements in the magazines, the stories on television, even the flowers in our garden – and all can be attributed to a form of art.
In a consumer society, everyone is constantly on the search for the more attractive, the superior design, and the most popular gadget. This is what makes design such an invaluable part of our ever developing world. The profession of design is a serious one, and it is one on which so many other professions and practices rely-- to make themselves known to the rest of the world and to compete for their place in it.
I want a career affecting what people see, and making cheerful what was once drab, adding color to something plain, excitement to something ordinary! I love creativity’s power. Not just to make and to shape new things, but to give a fresh take on something familiar and revive it!
I have seen the benefits of having a well designed and attractive presentation. In a fast paced world, first impressions are all most people have the time to go by, before making a decision to either want to find out more about what you’re offering or to move on in search of something else. This is where effective advertising and design become as important as the product or the service itself. If people don’t know that the product or service even exists, how is it of any good to anybody? Or if the product or service is known, but is not understood, or no one goes out of their way to see its usefulness because of its unattractive package – how then will it be of use to anyone?
Here is my story: After high school, I worked as a full-time volunteer for a non-profit NGO working with orphans in the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo. I helped in a variety of ways from your typical food distribution, aiding in teaching programs – to book-keeping and secretarial work. But I soon found something else to do that no one else was doing – creating flyers, posters, visual appeal letters, project albums, and then thank – you’s for the companies and individuals that made our work possible through their help. I also put up a website to attract more attention to our humanitarian work.
It is not easy to get sponsorship for orphans, much less for the volunteers that work with them. My appeals, by advertising what our organization did, have helped to find new sponsors that otherwise would not have even known we existed! It was then that I realized the power that design can have.
When I taught myself the computer programs to be able to create these visual appeals, my intent had mainly been to help our humanitarian project – but I soon fell in love with creating itself – and being able to be a help to others through it was just the marvelous incentive. In high school, I had always intended to pursue an art major, but finances not permitting, I worked instead as a volunteer – fulfilling my next great interest – to help people.
But now I think I have found a way to make art a part of my life while pursuing the knowledge and practice that will be useful to almost anyone – and help them find support for their goals. I find a joy in using innovative knowledge to build something that helps somebody else. Will you be the university that will enable me to learn the skills to use my creativity to its full potential?
Thank you and best regards,
Natalie Anne Volpe


Christmas (That's an article I wrote early 2004 when I was 13 for an Activated Magazine. It got published about a year later, on the back cover page of the magazine.)

“Hallelujah the bells do ring
Hallelujah the angels sing…”

“Girls and boys, leave your toys…”
Yes, this message is for all, whether you are a girl or a boy, a man or a woman. Toys can also mean worldly trappings or anything that encumbers your life or distracts you from the true meaning of Christmas.

“Make no noise…”
There is a lot of noise in the world today--noise of war, fear, bloodshed, inhumanity to man. I ask that you leave it all behind.

“Kneel at His crib and worship Him…”
I ask also that you would kneel before Me in submission--at My crib, a manger, a barn--not just a church anywhere.

“At Thy shrine, Child divine, we are Thine.”
Yes, you are all My children everywhere--regardless of color or creed. Think not of  “shrine” as meaning a church building, for I interpret “shrine” as being the temple of the Holy Ghost—meaning you (see 1 Cor. 6:19). You must begin the celebrations by checking your heart and asking the divine Child to come in.

“…Our Savior’s near…”
I am nigh unto those who have a broken heart, unto all those with a contrite spirit. (Psalm 34:18).
          Did you let My love come into your heart? Then you can truly sing, “Hallelujah the bells do ring in my heart! He has opened my spiritual eyes and ears and I can now see and hear the angels sing! Hallelujah for everything because, with my Savior, all will be right!”
* * *
Let us all draw near now to the Christ child, let us take this step of faith and adoration, that He may transform our hearts and fill us with the miracle of a new life.



The Ducklings and the Log (Here's a story I wrote in 1999 for children). 
 On the edge of a quiet pond, in a little nest a mother duck sat on her eggs. She waited for many days for her ducklings to hatch. When that day finally came, a cute, fuzzy little yellow duckling popped out of the egg. Then another little duckling hatched, and then another one. The mother duck was thrilled, she had three beautiful little ducklings!
 When the ducklings were old enough, the mother duck waddled off to the pond for a swim while her three ducklings followed her to the edge of the pond.
 SPLISH. The first little duckling jumped into the water.
 In went the next one with a SPLASH.
 And SPLOSH went the last one.
 The water was so nice and refreshing, and the ducklings splashed and paddled in the water, playing and having fun. Their mother watched them carefully, making sure they didn’t wander astray or get into trouble. They were good little ducklings at first, and they’d play games together. But soon they started to fight and argue with each other.
 One day, their mother caught a small fish for her ducklings. She said to them, “Please share this fish nicely. I am going over to visit one of the other ducks, so please divide it fairly, and leave a piece for me. I’ll be back soon.”
 “Alright, Mother,” the ducklings chorused. But as soon as she left they began to squabble.
 “I’m the oldest, I need the biggest piece,” one of the ducklings squawked, as she grabbed the fish in her beak.
 “No way!” piped up another duckling. “Mother gets the biggest piece, ‘cause she’s the biggest!”
 “I don’t think that’s fair,” the smallest of the ducklings said. “I’m the littlest and I need to grow more than you do. That’s why I need the biggest piece. Mother doesn’t need half as much as I do.”
 “No, I’m older than both of you, and the oldest gets the most,” maintained* the oldest duckling.
 “Well, Mother’s older,” retorted* one of the ducklings.
 “But she’s not a duckling,” came the reply.
 “Stop it, guys! We’re supposed to divide it equally,” cried the littlest duckling.
 But no one listened and soon the three ducklings began to fight-pulling and tugging at the fish-because each duckling wanted more than the other.
 When the mother duck came back she was very sad and disappointed that her ducklings couldn’t work things out nicely. “Oh dear. This makes me very sad!” she frowned. “I am not happy with this behavior.”
 “We’re sorry, Mother,” came their half-hearted apology.
 “Well, you’re just going to have to go without any dinner,” their mother decided. “Because I don’t like to see you squabbling when you could work things out nicely instead.”
 As the days went by, the three little ducklings didn’t learn their lesson, and they continued to fight and disobey. The poor mother duck didn’t know what to do anymore. Her once cute ducklings were now displaying the ugliest behavior she had ever seen! She began wondering if there was some way to teach them to be well-behaved and to stop fighting. It made her very sad to see them act the way they did, but she didn’t know what else to do, because the ducklings wouldn’t even listen to her. She hoped that they would learn their lesson without having to get hurt. And she worried for them.
 One bright and sunny day, the mother duck went with her ducklings to a nearby swamp. On the way there the ducklings argued about who was faster, who was smarter, which one could swim the best. On and on it went. Finally their mother’s patience had run out. She had told them countless times to stop arguing, but they did not listen.
 “Listen, you three,” she said in a stern voice. “You had all better stop your squabbling or that will be the end of this outing, and that’s final! This is not the safe pond that you’re used to playing in and I won’t have you bickering* all the time. It may be dangerous, because when you’re fighting you’re not listening to me. So either you stop, or we’re going back to the pond this instant.”
 The three were surprised to see their mother so upset, and so they quietly followed her down the winding path that led to the swamp. When they reached the swamp the little ducklings could hardly contain their excitement.
 “Oh, this is so fun!” one of them exclaimed.
 “Look at all those logs out in the water,” said the littlest duckling. “They’ll be so much fun to play on.”
 “I bet you couldn’t even get up on one of them,” snickered the duckling beside her. “You can hardly walk without tripping, you’re so clumsy.”
 “Well, don’t think you can do better,” muttered the other duckling.
 “Mother, can we go out to those logs?” one of the ducklings asked.
 “I’d prefer not,” was Mother’s response. “But come now, we need to cross the swamp, follow me.” And off she swam, avoiding the logs. One little duckling followed closely, and one lagged behind, but the littlest one decided that she was going to explore for herself.
 It’s so boring, she thought. I’m going to find some adventure myself, and those logs look so fun.
 She called the other little duckling that had lagged behind and the two of them made their way towards what they thought was a log. But when they got near the log it began to shift in the water.
 “Whoa,” cried one of the ducklings, “something’s not right!”
 “Oh, don’t be a scared ducky,” the other duckling said. “It’s just the water making it roll like that.”
 But she was wrong. Instead she came face to face with a mean-looking crocodile-a very angry one at that, because they had disturbed his sleep.
 “Oh, dear,” wailed the duckling. “Mother, Mother, save us!” And the two of them began swimming frantically towards the shore. They got out just in time before the crocodile had a chance to catch them. The crocodile turned slowly and made his way back to the swamp.
 When the mother duck found the two stray ducklings, they were still shaking from the experience. Their mother didn’t say anything, she just looked at both of them.
 “We’re sorry for wandering off,” the littlest one whimpered. “I should never have thought I knew best.”
 “Me too,” chimed the other one.
 Their mother responded, “I hope that will teach you to obey and listen next time, because it could have been worse, and I might have only had one duckling left in the end. And I would’ve been very sad.”
 “Yes, Mother,” chorused the ducklings. “We promise never to do that again.”
 And they didn’t. Instead they began to listen to their mother and to each other. They didn’t squabble, they learned to follow instructions, and because they did, they spent many happy days together, until they all grew up and taught their own ducklings the importance of obedience and not being argumentative as well.

 Moral: I bless obedience, because when you listen and obey, I can protect you from danger. So be loving and obedient, and you’ll have a much happier time, because you’re doing the right thing.-Jesus


Le Nid de l’Hirondelle

Voilà l’hirondelle qui s’envole et qui plane
Elle quitte ta cheminée vers les mers lointaines
Même mourante tu sais qu’elle partirait
Au delà des aulnes et au delà des chênes
Vers les terres mystiques du Sud où elle recueillera
Les enigmes de la bouche du Sphinx
Puis de retour à ta petite cheminée
Elle y fera son nid                   
Oui il en est ainsi
Et elle repart encore vers les mers lointaines
Peut-être bâtissant un nouvel abri dans un arbre étranger
Le nid est vide ; je sais maintenant
Qu’ils sont partis, ils se sont envolés
Les petits de la vieille hirondelle
Ils reviendront après les froidures
Volant tout le printemps, somnolant en été,
A l’automne les voilà repartis emportant avec eux
Un autre groupe d’hirondelles
Pour profiter ensemble du soleil avant le crépuscule
Le nid n’est jamais abandonné à jamais
Les hirondelles reviennent toujours quand la saison est bonne
Alors ouvre grand ta fenêtre à l’orée du printemps
Et les hirondelles avec elles amèneront
De bonnes nouvelles pour tous, des histoires merveilleuses
Du puits de Samarie.
(poem written for my grandmother's birthday in 2004)


Creative writing--
Exercise I: Write a short anecdote (300-500 words), with the title ‘Seen Through a Window’, describing what is seen and the feelings of the person looking.

Subject: A woman, looking in the window of a beach house where she spent the holidays once as a child. 


‘As Seen Through a Window’


  The rain sloshed against the wooden panels as I rubbed the glass and peered in my old summer home. My eyes lighted at the first on a familiar article. “The little kitchenette stove that we used to use outside! It’s still there, right in that corner by the closet”, I viewed excitedly. It was unreal, the furnishings, the decorations, the one crooked stair, all practically unchanged. My thoughts wandered as I daydreamed back to happier days, when I was just a little child, sitting on that window ledge surveying the scene around me just as I was now. “Except that now I am outside”, I recollected sadly, “And never likely to step inside the old house again.” “But I can still look, just one last time”, I told myself as I again focused on making out through the rain pelted window what the inside of that sitting room looked like again.

 “Here are the pink and orange lounge chairs that dad hated so much,” I laughed. “And they’re not likely to replace them either, their good condition is appalling for such an ugly build.” The white washed walls, the fraying blue carpet on the nice light cream tiled floor of the kitchen could just be seen protruding from the room beyond. I desperately sought again to the left, blast this rain, you could hardly see a thing, ah there, the little cupboard under the stairs. I used to hide there….. My eyes lingered on the spot, mentally opening the little door and ducking inside. I used to sit in there and tell the little wooden walls all my secrets, I had felt it was my little place to belong.

I knew all the rest by heart now, besides, I couldn’t see much more anyways. I knew Robert’s and Philly’s rooms were just down the hall, Mum and Dad had slept in the next one……..I had shared the tiny upstairs with  little Emily……Enough was enough, I closed my eyes to once again savor it all. I opened them again slowly, I was still facing the window, mentally unraveling the upholstery, trying to take it all with me. I sighed and pulled my gaze away.
 

Exercise II: Write an article of about 1,000 words on a subject of your choice (eh eh, here's my chance to pick my favorite subject!), having in mind a suitable market. 

A Christmas Carol

  What do you think of when you think of Christmas? Perhaps gifts, evergreen trees, lights, holly, good food, and the multitude of other symbols that have become associated with the Christmas tradition. The birth of the Christ child, the upcoming New Year, the end of the old, and yes, most probably for many, Mr. Scrooge.
The familiar tale of the old, bad-tempered, miserly Scrooge has not been lost through the many years since its first publication.  Made into several films, the story has become a symbol of Christmas, goodwill, and hope to all humankind. Yet while we remember the story and keep the saying ringing in our minds of “Don’t be an old Scrooge” whenever we see an act of hardness, stinginess, or greed, how often have we really thought about the actual lessons of the story itself in application to our own lives?
The story takes a rather overdone miser, and brings him through a dramatic change for the better, touching countless lives around him and bettering his life as a whole. He was, before his transformation, the opposite of all the good qualities that Christmas stands for of love, charity, goodwill, unselfishness, feeling, care for the fellow man. While Scrooge may be a rather extreme representation of the miserly features he represents, perhaps it is better to view him in that way, simply as a metaphor of all the misers, however small, that reside in all of us.  
Yes, there’s a little selfishness in all of us, isn’t there? Goals gone a little awry, did we begin our jobs with high ideals to serve others, but have forgotten and turned again to serving ourselves? Do we pass others by without a word or kind glance when they cross our path, being too caught up with ourselves to notice? We don’t have to wait until we become as extreme in our coldness and selfishness to others as Scrooge was before we decide to make a change.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if at every Christmas, we could take again an honest look at our lives, at the things of the past, what we are doing right now in the present and even at our goals for the future, and see what really has become most important to us? We may not feel selfish in comparison with the person beside us, but will Jesus look at how much better we were than our neighbor?
In the ultimate act of love and unselfishness, God gave Jesus to us on earth, to teach us His love, and then to die for us so that we could have eternal salvation. At Christmas, we celebrate the giving of this marvelous gift, so how much more fitting that we should remember what Jesus did for His fellow man just because He loved us.
We can never hope to pay Him back, but the Bible says that “...whatsoever you do to one of the least of these My brethren ye have done it unto Me (Jesus).” Every kind word and deed, done out of love, not because it’s logical or in our “best interests”, but because it will help someone else, will then, ultimately help us, most often in the way we were least expecting.
By taking Jesus as our model, we can only then hope to reflect some of those qualities that will keep us alive, happy, a blessing to those around us, and a better person in general.
Let us make it a goal then, to, and not only at Christmas time, step back a bit and reassess our life and values and discern what has been the driving force in all our actions. Let us savor ever moment while we have it, and make the most of every opportunity to help another human being, because in the end, out of all our best efforts, and all the work that we felt was so important, that’s all that’s going to matter anyway. We can pray then, to be more like Jesus, and have less of ourselves so that we can truly come alive and keep the Christmas spirit all year round.

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