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I'm still alive!

Although I doubt that I have any regular readers, if there are any they will surely have noticed the inactivity here of late. The simple truth is that it takes time to be a full-time university student, and very little time is left for other activities such as blogging. That is not to say that I do not have anything to write about–I have seen and thought about many blogworthy things, and I have only to take time to write them down and share them here at Ziphen Central.

So henceforth I will try to get back into the blogging routine, and I plan to pick up my Hymn of the Week and Ailenroc’s Book series as well. If you are new here, I hope you’ll come back! If you have read this blog in the past, I hope you will continue to do so! My goal is to present things that are interesting and worth thinking about–things that bring one’s mind to greater wisdom and sublimity.

Life and Death United

Ziphen Central – Seeking Wisdom and Sublimity

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These morning glories are growing on a trellis on our back porch, where hangs a ram skull. We were delighted this morning to find that one of the blooms had found its way through the skull’s eye, and I thought it humorous and interesting to see how the flowers bring new life to a dead thing.

Thanks to Nione for taking the picture!

Words of Wisdom from Lemony Snicket

I am and will be quite busy riding the rapids of the end of the semester, so I am not likely to be blogging much in the next fortnight. However, I did want to share with you a bit of wisdom from Lemony Snicket’s witty book Horseradish, which you should definitely check out if you haven’t already.

Wishing, like sipping a glass of punch, or pulling aside a bearskin rug in order to access a hidden trapdoor in the floor, is merely a quiet way to spend one’s time before the candles are extinguished on one’s birthday cake.

First Impressions

In my Bible study this morning I came across a memory verse from my early childhood, I Samuel 16:7, in which Samuel is to anoint the next king of Israel after Saul’s disappointing failure. Looking at David’s older brothers (Eliab in this case) Samuel was certain that one of them would be the one.

But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”聽 (NASB)

Our first impressions of people, whether positive or negative, can often be deceitful. I have found this out repeatedly when meeting new people on the college campus here, since often after hastily forming an opinion of a person, I have come to know them better and appreciate them for who they really are.

Here is a short poem that I wrote not long ago that deals with this very topic:

Charm is deceitful and beauty is vain;
Loveliness blooms for a day.
Don’t ever judge any book by its cover,
Examine its pages one after another:
Know it by what it may say.

“By their fruit you will know them,” the holy book says,
Don’t look at the form, but the heart.
Befriend and discover, love and reveal,
Don’t be afraid to find out what is real.
Appearance is but a small part.