Some Thoughts on Marriage

Processing new things can have an interesting impact on my thinking and exploration of these "new things" bring new insight that I appreciate. As I have been in London with my family and now studying, I have been experiencing so much. Unlike the previous times I have been over here, I feel I am more conscious and aware of things and checking my reaction to things.

Now going back to my previous blog about my cousin's wedding, and never have been to a civil ceremony I want to dig through what I noticed. Before going to the wedding I had talked to my Nana about how civil ceremonies can have absolutely no religious reference or affiliation at all. Or else it must be stopped and can not continue. Initially I was absolutely shocked by this and will admit that at first I was somewhat upset. My thoughts were how in the world could a wedding be stopped if something like this happened? That is a pretty drastic reaction. What about people who are consider themselves kind of religious? Where do same sex couple fit into to marriage in the UK? Many questions began to swim in my brain, let me tell you! After taking some time to think about it, I realized I needed to think more, and not have such an emotional response. Being a Christian and someone who receives my identity in my faith as opposed to worldly things, and a person who incorporates my faith into all areas of my life, I have honestly never thought about marriage outside of a religious context. As someone whose faith and my belief in God and Jesus Christ is the most important thing to me, I began to think about marriage outside of a religious context. Bare with me here... What I am saying is that I have never really stopped to think about marriage from a civil ceremony standpoint before. I am glad that my cousins beautiful and lovely wedding was the spark that ignited my mental flame.

So with my interest in their civil ceremony I hit the web and did some searching of my own. Here is the official info I got straight from the UK marriage website. Since I assume anyone who actually maybe possibly kinda reads or skims this is American like me, I will share my findings:

Check the website out for yourself @ ---> http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Governmentcitizensandrights/Registeringlifeevents/Marriagesandcivilpartnerships/DG_175715

OR here are some of the highlights I found:

Civil marriages and civil partnerships

A civil marriage ceremony or civil partnership can take place in any register office in England or Wales, or at any venue approved by the local authority.  These include stately homes and other prestigious buildings, hotels and restaurants.

You will first need to formally give notice of marriage or notice of civil partnership.

On the day of your marriage or civil partnership, you will need to bring at least two other people who can sign as witnesses.

A civil marriage ceremony cannot have any religious content, but you may be able to arrange for individual touches such as non-religious music and readings to be added to the legal wording, and for the ceremony to be videoed. The register office where you intend to marry will be able to tell you more about the options available.

A Civil Partnership is legally formed by the signing of the civil partnership schedule. Like a civil marriage, this is also non-religious, but couples who wish to arrange for a ceremony should discuss this with the registration officials.

Welsh speaking marriages and civil partnerships
You can marry or form a civil partnership in Welsh in any place in which the Welsh language is commonly used. Both yourselves, your witnesses and the person conducting the marriage should be able to understand what is being said. You don’t have to have given notice in Welsh.

Religious marriages

If you wish to be married in the Church of England or Church in Wales, speak to the vicar of the church in which you wish to marry. There is usually no need to involve your local register office.

If you wish to have a religious ceremony other than in the Church of England or Church in Wales, you should usually:

• first arrange to see the person in charge of marriages at the building
• normally live in the same district as the church or religious building
• give formal notice to the superintendent registrar at your local register office unless one of you is subject to immigration control

You will need to bring at least two other people who can sign as witnesses at your wedding.

Civil partnership

Same-sex couples can have their relationships legally recognised as 'civil partnerships'.

Civil partners must be treated the same as married couples on a wide range of legal matters, including:

• tax, including Inheritance Tax
• employment benefits
• most state and occupational pension benefits
• income-related benefits, tax credits and child support
• their duty to provide reasonable maintenance for their civil partner and any children of the family
• ability to apply for parental responsibility for their civil partner's child
• inheritance of tenancy agreements
• protection from domestic violence
• immigration and nationality purposes

If you want to learn more about a wedding in the Church of England here's the link for that---> http://www.yourchurchwedding.org/

Do I think marriage is supposed to be between a man and a woman? Yes I do. I think marriage is a covenant made by a man and woman before God.

Do I think the government should be able to control who gets married? Heterosexual, homosexual, transgendered, etc? No, I do not. The government should not be able to control such a thing.
Do I think benefit and health care policies should only be for a heterosexual couple? No, I don't. Again, the government should not be able to control such things.
I may not agree with gay marriage personally, but that does not mean I do not support, care and love people with different sexual preferences than me. Trust me, I crazy love many people with different sexual preferences than me. I believe we are called to love everyone. If society and people place so much concern and in my opinion "hot air" arguing about these issues, I feel like we just end up not loving people, same sex couples or people that are different than we are. Discrimination is a wicked thing. Loving people who you don't agree with can be hard at times, we all know this. But think about how lovely it would be if we did just that  ---> L. O. V. E.

As I listened to what was being said at my cousin's wedding they talked about love, commitment, respect, honor, care, celebration, and many other special things. All things I have heard included in every Christian wedding I have been to, yet this time no mention of God. No prayers, no hymns, no blessing from a pastor. While I did feel it was weird at first to have this government lady (registrar) announcing everything that was going on in such a legal way, I began to really try to focus on what was being said. But after thinking about it, a pastor does something similar talking about the covenant of marriage. I can't even express how lovely, wonderful, happy, enchanting and amazing their wedding was!!! Seriously, it was great, I can't say enough good things. I had the best time!

As a result of this wonderful experience and thinking about these things for a day shy of a full week, I gained so much personal confirmation. I was confirmed in what marriage means to me personally in a big way and what I want to be included in my marriage. This was MY personal realization, through MY observations, and MY heart searching, not because of anyone else. I know every person and every couple entering into marriage is different, but I am so appreciative to experience this different marriage. Even though it is in the future, I very much look forward to my marriage one day down the road. I am genuinely excited, not in some obsessive marriage crazy kind of way, but in its own sweet timing, kind of excited way. Marriage is beautiful and such a gift. I look forward to being a wife one day.

Here is a BEAUTIFUL video I came across awhile back. It is wonderful no matter what you think about marriage. Watch it. It's worth it!!     (The article is great too, but if you want to cut to the chase, the video is at the end)

http://www.desiringgod.org/blog/posts/the-story-of-ian-larissa

Always feel free to comment on a post! Thanks for reading! Happy thoughts :)   You are great!

Here and There

As I sit here in London at my homestay family's house and see the clock reads 12:47 am (my time) I am reminded how tired I am. But I have been feeling for a few days how I am in a blog withdrawal. I have been seeing and experiencing some great stuff and want to share. Writing in a journal just is not exactly the same. Since I have journeyed across the pond and my feet it the ground at Heathrow airport I feel like I haven't stopped moving. While I may be tired, I can not complain one bit. I love being active, I love to keep a move on, and more than anything I love spending time with family.

I have not been blogging as frequent as I would of liked, but now that I am settled that should change. I have been busy doing lots of things. Some of them included...
 --Spending some much needed time with Amber. And going into central London a the day. My favorite part of that excursion was travelling in with no agenda and seeing where the day took us. As we walked out the doors of  Waterloo Station, looked at each other and asked "Where to now?" My response few out of my mouth with a "Well, it looks like a lot of people are going this way (as I point down the road). Why don't we follow them?" Amber responds with a smile and off we go! We went all over, but my favorite part was our time in St. Margaret's Chapel which is a small chapel outside of Westminster Abbey followed by eating a a tavern called St. Stephen's Tavern directly across from the Abbey.

 -- Another enjoyable part of the first 10 days was going up to Potters Bar with Amber to her Auntie Pam and Uncle Al's house. I can honestly say they are two of the sweetest, loveliest people ever! I loved being with them and spending time with Amber and her family. We chatted a lot and talked about life, which was great. I said goodbye to Amber for the longest time we have ever been away from each other since we have become friends!!! Yikes! This was a big step for us. Haha. I look forward to meeting up with her again in Paris in July!

 -- I got to spend a good amount of time with my family and catching up. We had long dinners, talks on the deck, magic shows (or Uncle Ian making me feel absolutely clueless!), grocery store and errand outings, and relaxing. All of which was so good to do with the people I love dearly and do not get to see as often as I would like.

--Then there was a beautiful and enchanting wedding! Anthony and Michelle got married and became Mr. and Mrs. Osborne!!! It was such a beautiful day weather-wise accompanied with a day filled with joy, celebration, love, dancing, fireworks, and so much more. It was a fantastic day on many levels. One thing I want to note now and will talk about in a later blog is marriage ceremonies. First off, I have never been to a wedding in another country before. Secondly I have never been to a non-religious wedding. In England they call the civil ceremonies. I know their are civil marriages in America, but I have never heard of such a ceremony like the one Anthony and Michelle had. It was interesting and beautiful all in a way I had never experienced before. (I plan on exploring this further later)

--I moved out of living with my family and moved into my homestay family's house with my roommate Elizabeth. After looking forward to this Study Abroad Maymester (which basically takes place in all of June) for so long it was great to finally meet my homestay parents and start this new journey and new exploration of London like I have never experienced previously. My homestay parents are extremely kind, considerate and caring. They have treated us like their own family and have been welcoming, warm, inviting and sweet. It will be fun getting to know them as I get to live with them.

--I have begun to meet more of my classmates on a personal level and look forward to our excursions together and to get to know them deeper. Today we had fun during the day then this evening many of us went to the coolest pub I have ever seen, heard of, or been in!! It is about a 15 minute walk up a massive hill ,(the largest/ tallest natural place in London) past the Alexandra Palace, and through a park. Quite a lovely walk. The pub is called O'Neils and it is an old church that has been converted into a pub! Interesting... was my first thought. Elizabeth and I had heard about the place from our homestay parents, but I had no idea what to expect. Let me tell you it look exactly like some beautiful old church you would see in central London. It had a massive steeple, arch and very high ceilings, and upstairs, and great stained glass windows. I thought the place was great. I am going to definitely go back several times, take pictures and a video for sure.

It is an exciting and busy time to be in London! As Queen Elizabeth's Diamond Jubilee approaches this coming weekend (June 2-4th) and the country has a 2 day back holiday, it is England and Queen Elizabeth pride galore! Lots of parties and celebrations are starting and it will be crazy this coming weekend with endless festivities. I am looking forward to experiencing them. And the London Olympics and Para-Olympics will be here in the end of July so there is lots of preparation for that. Lots of buzz, hustle and bustle and tourists!

Here is an interesting article I found on TIME about 86 things you may not know about the Queen.  

86 Surprising Facts About Queen Elizabeth II. Check it out! I thought it was pretty cool. 

My favorites were #20 The Queen is the only person in Britain who can drive without a license or number plate on her state car. #42 Queen Elizabeth has 30 godchildren. (how does she keep them all straight?!) #81 She once demoted a footman for giving her corgis whiskey. (haha)

Well I am fading fast and will be up and running again soon. I will post again tomorrow (Wednesday) evening.

Thanks for reading! Happy thoughts :)

Dr. Pepper

Recently while watching TV with my brother and his girlfriend, a Dr. Pepper 10 commercial came on. To be honest, when I first saw it I thought it was funny. At the same time it did not sit well with me. After watching the commercial the three of us had a similar reaction of "Wow, really?!" I didn't know that Dr. Pepper has had this advertising style or similar group of commercials for a little while (I rarely watch TV, so this was all new to me).

Don't get me wrong, I realize stereotyping and what society deems as "typical gender role" commercials are everywhere. I was surprised at how many stereotypes this commercial was filled with. You should try to count them, how many do you find? I get what Dr. Pepper is trying to do here, make women frustrated and want to drink the drink even more. Also it gets people talking that's for sure.

I posted this video on my Facebook and some of my friends had interesting things to say. Hmmm.

Here's the commercial I am referring to...

Thanks for reading. Happy thoughts :)

Adventures Await, Awaiting the Adventures

Now that my semester has officially come to a close, I feel like I can wholeheartedly look forward to all that awaits ahead of me in the more immediate future. This summer has been dreamed, planned, discussed, talked about, prayed over and thought about a lot, and it hasn't even started yet. As my departure draws near, several things have been sticking with or randomly surprising me as I get ready to leave. I didn't expect some, and others are a more familiar feeling that's for sure. So as I get ready to leave Austin and head home for a few days I'm taking a moment to check where I'm at as I go.

• I'm really bad at goodbyes. As in I don't like them, I get all teary eyed and whatnot. I know this is a trait of mine and have learned to train myself to not say goodbye, but simply "Until next time"
• As I leave Austin and say goodbye to friends that are graduating and moving away, this has become more real to me. It is exciting to hear the places they are heading and the plans in these new destinations.
• With this excitement and sadness of parting ways for awhile I also begin to look forward to the next time I see them and hear all that has gone on with them.
• The thought of leaving a place I love so much for awhile makes me realize the things and people I will miss. As college has creeped by I have realized how important my community is to me, but it has started to mean something completely different when I think about leaving it for a but.
• Packing is a great time to de-clutter and simplify. Why have things I don't need or use? It's silly. Give them to people who need them and could use them. Note to self: I need to de-clutter more often.
• As much as I try to organize and plan things, nothing will always go according to planned. It's a fact, and for some reason I think it will be different. I have been reminded my plans are not always the best plans, and trusting in His plan for me is the only thing I need to be concerned about.
•  "Que sera sera, life goes on. Whatever's meant to be will always be. And baby what don't kill you will make you strong. Just love the journey that you're on. In all you do I'll pray for you"
            -Sara Evans, Pray For You (One of my favorite song lyrics)
• Spiritual planning and preparation is important. I have come to see this and have been experiencing the importance first hand more recently.
• Hakuna matata my friends, no worries.

So long for now Austin, homeward bound I go.

It's Only the Beginning

Classmates who I would like to call friends I want you all to know how wonderful it has been being able to live life and learn with you this past semester. This Social Justice class has become a community and and environment that I have enjoyed sharing with and learning with. It is always insightful to hear your thoughts and opinions and everyone brings so much to the table. I have loved getting to hear who you are and what your passions are. It excites me to think that all of you (many of you) want to be social workers. As cheesy or corny as this may sound, let's change the world. Seriously, we can do it!

Some of the highlights for me have been the discussions we have had all throughout the year. In those moments I feel like get a better glimpse inside your brain and you heart. The moments of rawness and vulnerability have allowed us as a class and a people group to get in touch with our own perceptions, beliefs, stereotypes, and thoughts. Thanks for being inspiring and people who share.

Some of my favorite topics this semester were:  (I mean let's be honest here, I loved them all!)
-Racism
-Sexism
-Classism
- The entire Zinn book. It was soooooo good.
- Exploring the world of Op-Eds
-Reading the articles and link Professor G sent us.

Blogging is something I never had any interest in, but now I like it a lot. Exploring your blogs and hearing a more personal reaction to the readings, discussions, and topics in class has been a joy. Sometimes when I read y'alls blogs I have those moments of "Wow, that was so profound" or "Huh, I never thought about it that way". Because of your ideas and openness I feel like my curiosity and intrigue has continued to increase. So thanks for that.

Professor G, you have been a lovely professor and mentor throughout this entire semester. Thank you for continuing to encourage us to invest in things and go deeper. Your nudging and gentle encouragement has meant a lot. I also have enjoyed hearing your perspective on things. You did it in a way that was open and honest, yet not forceful or scary. I have learned a lot through you! Thanks for your feedback and investment in all of. You're great!

In closing, I am not going to stop blogging. No way, no how. This class was only the beginning of a lot of things for me. This summer will be taking me all over and literally in many different directions. I can't wait and am excited to do these things and get to blog about them!!

Here are some random/ fun videos you should take a looksy at in celebration of being done!

Thanks for reading! Happy thoughts :)

TED Talks!

As classes have slowly but surely come to a close, many of my professors have shared some really great videos with us. Of course they have come from the awesome TED talks series, which I particularly am found of. I enjoyed them a lot, so I wanted to share them with you!

This one is called Nature. Beauty. Gratitude. I loved it!

This one is called How to Start a Movement. The key I got here is you need two!

 "The first follow is who transforms the lone nut into a leader." 

"Three is a crowd and a crowd is news."

Here is one about how art can change the world. Very interesting. My favorite part is the Israeli and Palestinian faces project.

Check them out! They are interesting!

Thanks for reading, or in this case watching. Happy thoughts :)