Let's Start at the Very Beginning

  Nothing quite sets the tone for a book, like the beginning. An opening phrase that just grabs your attention and makes you want to immediately read the first couple of chapters is a thing of power. It is like that moment when you first step into a coffee shop and smell scent of coffee beans and hot milk. That moment when you step outside on a summer afternoon into the bright hot sunshine after being in the dim cool indoors. It is a prequel to what the book could be like, what imagery the author can conjecture with words whether it be humorous or imaginative. Admittedly, many very wonderful books have extremely boring first lines or in the case of some classic authors very boring beginning chapters! My love of amazing beginnings comes, like many of reading peculiarities, from my father. I remember way back as wee little thing, him quoting the first lines of "Tale of Two Cities" too us to prove how powerful words can be in setting the tone.
  All that being said, I still 'collect' good beginnings. These are by top five favorite of all time, not any sort of order though. Some being favorites since being said wee little thing and some as recently as last year. I hope you get the same enjoyment from them as I do!

1. "In the beginning, was the Word, and Word was with God, and the Word was God. All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it." John 1:1-5
2. "There once was boy named Eustace Clarence Scrubb and he almost deserved it." The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis
3. "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife."  Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
4. "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way- in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on it being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only."A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
5. "There is only one beginning. There is only one place and one moment where the world, life, and time itself began. There is only one Story. It began in the dark. It has many middles and many ends. You and I could chase it for lifetimes and only make it longer by our living. It is too sprawling for these pages and too big for this mouth."The Drowned Vault by N.D. Wilson

In other news...

My tshirt collection is growing... This shirt was too awesome not to get though. Princess Bride and The Incredibles mashup???

Whose Opinion Matters?

I, like everyone else who has friends, family, and coworkers, find that I constantly get forceful advice about how I should lead my life. Often times the advice is contradictory to advice/demands I got from someone else.
"You should move out- why is a grown women living with her family?"
"You should stay at home as long as you can, what a wonderful way to be close to your family."
"Why aren't you married?"
"You should get a real job."
"Are you going to do something with your life?"
"You should marry him."
"Oh don't even think of marrying that guy, I don't like him."
I know they are all well meaning, and are trying to help me; because they care, but sometimes hearing peoples opinions expressed forcefully really frustrates me. Why is my job not good enough if I am paid well, enjoy it and have a good position? What if the man I marries, annoys you and a lot of people, but is the man, God has for me?

Which, ultimately gets me to my point- in my life, I would love to be able to please all the people I care about. I would also love if they are thrilled about my decisions. But in the end the one whose opinion matters most? Is God. If I am following his will, well I'm sorry if you don't like my husband, I'm sorry if you don't like what I'm doing with my life. But what matters to him is more important to me. Which, I really hope everyone understands from feeling the same way about their life; because I really hope that they are putting him first.