Sunday, December 31, 2006

Happy New Year!

Here we are: a brand new year. The old year dies and a new one is born from its ashes. The rollercoaster ride of 2006 is slowly pulling into the station and preparing for a new run in '07. Looking back, 2006 has been characterized for me by something my friend Pam said, "Failure is just a messy way of learning." Not to say that '06 was bad, I just learned a lot of hard lessons. I grew and changed so much over the last year. And I expect no less from '07. Learn and grow always.

May your new year be a blessed one, one of growth (even in the painful moments), of joy, of change.

Cheers!
Michael
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By the grace of God
Job.33.23-28

Wednesday, December 27, 2006

Happy (Belated) Christmas!!!

"On the Twelfth day of Christmas my true love gave to me/Twelve drummers drumming/Eleven pipers piping... [and all the rest]"

We are finally (past) there! I hope everyone had a holly, jolly Christmas; I certainly did. Anywho, let me finish this off so we can be done with it. Eleven pipers piping... aka the eleven FAITHFUL (12 - Judas) apostles. And twelve? The twelve points of doctorine in the Apostles Creed.

This year I didn't ask for many gifts. Getting gifts is something that is slowly waning in my life... it is really tough now to come up with things to ask for... But over my lifetime I have recieved so many gifts it is not even funny. But most important to me are the gifts that I have that are not material. Like my family. What can I say about my crazy family? I swear, every Foster has inherited some sort of gene that makes them crazy and wierd and however else you want to describe it. But no matter how zany my family is, when we get together we always have a good time. They are so special to me, and are the greatest gift I have recieved.

And then there are my friends...and what can I say about them? Guys, you have made such a huge impact on my life in so many different ways... and I thank God every day for blessing me with your friendship. Even when the F-gene comes out and I go off the wall. ESPECIALLY when that happens, lol. I don't have words to say how much you guys mean to me.

So, now comes the end. Unless something huge comes up, I'm probably not going to update 'till the New Year. So, until then, God Bless and I'll cya on MSN.

Michael
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By the grace of God
Job.33.23-28

Friday, December 22, 2006

The 10th Day...

"On the tenth day of Christmas my true love gave to me/Ten lords a leaping/Nine ladies dancing/Eight maids a milking..."

Don't hate me because I miscounted again... I should actually be on day nine, but seeing as I probably won't be updating for a good while yet, this will work. Man is it annoying when this happens... lol.

Catchup mode: The eight maids a milking are a reference to something which Catholics take great pains to teach in grade nine religion, but apparently get a wrong/incomplete meaning out of... the Beatitudes. The nine ladies dancing... hmm, for any of you who have team led at or been to a camp where they sing "The Banana Song," you should be able to get this one. For the rest of you, you're missing out. The Banana song rocks. However, the line of particular concern for this post goes something like "The Fruit of the Spirit/ From love to self control...". Yes folks, the nine ladies dancing are the nine parts of the Fruit of the Spirit. Numeros dix, the ten lords a leaping have to do with a bearded old man standing on a mountain and talking to God. Though that really doesn't help much I suppose... that could have been a couple other people as well. However, everyone should be able to guess what ten has to do with. The Ten Commandments. Fun fun.

Merry Christmas!

Michael
________________________________

By the grace of God
Job.33.23-28

Tuesday, December 19, 2006

Wherefore on the Day of the Seventh...


"On the seventh day of Christmas my true love gave to me/Seven swans a swimming..."

Day number seven...we seem to be going through these very swiftly.... Seven swans a swimming is not as obvious as many of the others have been. It makes reference to the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit. But I have no clue what those are exactly because there are over 20 odd listed in various places in the New Testament. FUN!

In other news, life right now is really lazy. Things are winding down before Christmas. There are three more school days before we go on break, and one is a write off (Christmas assembly, one of the major highlights of the school year). Actually, today was a write off as well. My school ran Participaction, a day where we (the school populace) get out and do some good physical activity, or in the case of many students, go Christmas shopping. *shakes head* I suppose some might consider that physical activity, BUT... I went skating for the first tome this year/in a year. I get a massive blister, but other than that it was ama-za-zing fun!!! Skating rocks!

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow... I white Christmases ROCK!

Michael
________________________________

By the grace of God
Job.33.23-28

Monday, December 18, 2006

Day the 6th

"On the sixth day of Christmas my true love gave to me/ Six geese a layin'..."

Six geese a layin'... bet you would have never guessed what this represents (unless you are a cheater and looked it up...lol). The six geese are the six days of creation. Not seven, six. Before you say I'm wacko, think about it. What did God do on the seventh day? He rested. SO, He only created for six days. Eh, eh... isn't that clever???

Only seven more days...

Mike

Sunday, December 17, 2006

Day 5/War of the Words

"On the fifth day of Christmas my true love gave to me/ Five golden rings.../four calling birds/ three French hens/ two turtle doves..."


So, if you do the math, you may be thinking to yourself "But wait, Mike started his count 6 days ago...why are we only on day five??" If you are thinking that, my head is screwed on properly, I just started my count a day early (and no one told me!!). So, today is actually the fifth day (depending on how you count...).

The gifts (in catch-up order): Two turtle doves are the old and new testaments; Three French hens are the three "Theological Values" (Faith, Hope and Charity), which I really don't understand... mebbe I'll Wiki it...; Four calling birds are the four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John; aaaaand the five golden rings are, to use some Christian terminology, the "Pentateuch," or for us normal people the first five books of the Bible (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy).


So things have been kinda crazy lately. I've really been struck by how much damage we do with our words. I know a couple of people who are practically at war with each other over a whole "he said, she said" issue. And it is driving me nuts, partially because it is over something totally meaningless and partially because there is nothing I can do about it. I find that when I get frustrated like that, writing helps. I actually wrote this a little while ago, but it really has a lot of meaning now. And yes, the title is a play on "The War of the Worlds." But no fear, Tom Cruise isn't in it ;D.


Oh the discord of argument
A bitter melody, cold fire
The breaking of the world
On the tongue of humanity
A scourge on the soul,
A deep bite forced by unruly emotion
Fighting as a release
Deep pain, shallow irritation
Personalities clashing
The battlefield erupts in flame
Bullets whizz overhead
Spit off the tongues of the spiteful
Dear Jesus, what have we done?
You tell us to love
To act as we would have on us
Instead we dig trenches
Lines in our brows that mar our face
We cry out to You "Holy!"
And tell You of our love
We cry to our brothers curses
And flail them with our words
This is our hipocracy
We need to find Your love


Michael
________________________________

By the grace of God
Job.33.23-28

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

1st Day

"On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me/ A partridge in a pear tree..."

Did you know that The Twelve Days of Christmas was created by Catholics to remind them of certain parts of their faith? Each number of gifts represents a different thing (note: the actual gift has nothing to do with it... just the number). So, as it IS only 12 days till Christmas, I'm going to feature a different gift from the song, as well as any other random thoughts/poems that come to mind :D.

(Note note: I am aware that this is in many ways considered to be mere legend. HOWEVER, the arguements against are not enough to dissuade the persuit of this topic.)

In the song, the part "my true love" refers to God the father. The first gift ("A partridge in a pear tree...") refers to Jesus. This is the easy one... :D


Ciao for now!
Michael
________________________________

By the grace of God
Job.33.23-28

Tuesday, December 05, 2006

Exegit Monumentum Aere Perennius

Exegit Monumentum Aere Perennius

It stands tall and bright
Gleaming in the sun
A true testament
To all that they've done

It stands on a hill
For all to see
The e'er lasting monument
So great and free

But not of gold so bright
Nor iron thats strong
Is this statue made
But what lasts long

For the things of this world
Will perish in time
But what lives on is
More precious than rhyme

The love that was shown
Led a soul to the Lamb
And for that great act
So thankful I am

And 'tis in that thought
This tower is meant
A monument of souls
Lasting longer than time spent

Michael
________________________________

By the grace of God
Job.33.23-28

Sunday, December 03, 2006

Weekend(ers)


So, this weekend was the weekend of birthday parties. I went to two of them, back to back. It was fun, albeit sometimes random... I love parties. I can't lie. There is something in the infectious-ly energetic and excited atmosphere that just makes me go nuts. I THRIVE on that kind of energy... but it is also that I just love hanging out with my friends. They are really one of the most important groups in my life.

Party no. 1: HAPPY BIRTHDAY EMILY!!!

So I was very excited for this birthday party, esp. seeing as I hadn’t seen/hung out with Emily in, oh, almost a year (if you don’t count maybe five minutes in the summer…). Note: it isn’t such a hot idea to not hang with people for that long. So it was very fun, tho a bit chaotic… and I showed up on time (aka a half hour late…). We made cookies, which was über fun and watched Tomb Raider (avert your eyes boys!!! lol Sarah). Certain people played “connect-the-freckles” on my arms (*cough cough Seana and Bethany, cough cough*), WHICH by the way took 20 minutes to get off… and I saved Seana from bigger people (again lol). It was just overall a blast. I love these guys and it is always fun to hang with them.

Party no. 2: HAPPY BIRTHDAY PETER!!!

I knew even before I showed up that this party was going to be a riot. And I wasn’t disappointed. From playing keep-it-up with a balloon (200 odd hits, and there were some intense saves due to challenging obstacles…) to punching bags (and punching Brocks) to some very cool conversations with Brock, it was F-U-N. And we played that most Canadian game in the most Canadian way possible: Road hockey in the dark with three hockey sticks, two goalie sticks, a broom and a rake. Oh yeah, is that dedication to the game or what?? That was quickly followed up with a game of basket ball (in which the Holy Cross bwoyz were flattened…lol) and then hot chocolate and marshmallows by the fire. We had some neat conversation there on the topic of religion. Brock was the only one there who wasn’t a Christian, but he had some very interesting things to say. It was good, and most importantly, it wasn’t a hostile, shove-our-faith-down-your-throat kind of talk. I can only hope that we in some way managed to plant some kind of seed.

I would post pics, but my camera is severely lacking in the department of batteries, so I don’t have any.

Ciao for now!

Michael
________________________________

By the grace of God
Job.33.23-28