friday june 10.

Notice. The. Stories. Around. You.

i'm making this my new motto in life.

this is where i live. a few paces from my front gates and you see this. beautiful houses and the beautiful city of jerusalem. the stories that are going on here i try my hardest to observe everyday.

two men on a curb at the bottom of Mount Scopus. each content with the quiet lack of conversation. perhaps they have been best friends for years. simply know everything about each other and don't need to say much. i love those kind of friends. the kind where even the silence is beautiful.

little kids fascinate me here. (as you will soon see with the rest of my post) I couldn't imagine growing up in this intriguing city. kids here work their parents shops as soon as they can walk it seems. their imaginations are very creative as i see them make games out of the most interesting circumstances. these two boys were bringing a load of goods to the old city walls. wonder if their parent's pay them or if they are just expected to help?

these two boys are just gleefully playing in the trashed vacant dirt lot outside of the city walls of Herod gate. I wonder if they play cops and robbers here, cowboys and indians, or perhaps even israelis and arabs? drawing in the sand with sticks and stones, maybe they try to dig to other side of the world. i wonder if our similarities outweigh our differences. until i can figure that out though, i am increasingly amazed.

This cute boy waited for his little sister to get out of her house and then grabbed her small hand in his to walk down the road with her. maybe they are going to futbol practice? a trip? running away from home? an adventure? picnic? that bag could be full of all sorts of things. reminds me of my big brother Josh. i'm so grateful for all the times we would play together as kids. the kind pure love of a brother is one i believe can never be matched.

i observed these gents as we sat for dinner at an Armenian restaurant. These two men were talking with their hands. i love it when people use their hands in conversation, weird quirks like that are so wonderful to me. Makes me happy to see how different we all are in this world. I think the two men worked at the restaurant. perhaps, the cooks who stepped out of the kitchen for a nice chat on the steps. what i wouldn't give to understand arabic and hebrew, i'd love to see what was all the hand motioning about as they talked back and forth. it seems like it was something rather enjoyable.

This little girl was eyeballing the popsicles, switching between the inside freezer and the outside freezer. oh, the indecisiveness of a child. where one seemingly small choice seems like aHUGE deal. chocolate or vanilla? strawberry or lemon? i feel like indecisiveness is something most people grow out of, whereas i think i got more of it as time went on.

These cute boys love each other. i bet they will be best friends for life. the one will be the best man for the other and vice versa. they will probably have a few disagreements like crushing on the same girls, one being a better soccer player than the other, etc. but i hope their friendship holds true to the end and they turn into the cute old chaps on the side of the road talking about the good ol' days with their wrinkly eyes and fingers trying to recover all the memories crammed into their wise brains. maybe these two boys will live til this city of unrest finally finds peace. maybe these boys will tell stories as old men to little children about how life here use to be difficult. How the Israeli's and the Arabs use to not fancy each other.

this boy was watching the city pass by below him as he watched from the top of a stairway. i wonder what is going through his mind right now. maybe he's looking for someone? Maybe he's just people watching like i usually am. content with seeing the world pass around him and observing every inch of it.

cheese puffs!!!!! is it bad that i was tempted to ask this boy for one? even if his little greasy fingers full of dirt and little boy germs were holding them almost entirely? i must admit after i snapped this photo the little boy freaked out at me jumping up and down and screaming in arabic. geez-la-weez little boy. i just wanted to show everyone how cute you were. i'm sorry for making you freak out. i didn't mean to offend you.

every boy here has a bike. interestingly i haven't seen many if any girls ride on them. it's amazing when i see them maneuver on such uneven surfaces, even more amazing when they have an extra passenger. i can only imagine the little boy's mom saying he can't go out and play today unless he brings his little brother... so he throws him on the back of his bike and they're off.

this is one of my favorite pictures of being here. i wish you could see the expression on the little boy riding in the carts face in real life. if i could figure out how to make the pictures on blogger bigger, i would! all i know is if i could choose anyone's life to change into for a few minutes, this little boy would be in the top 10. his eyes were huge and his smile was even bigger.

like look how cute this face is:

"The universe is the mirror in which we can contemplate only what we have learned to know in ourselves." -Mr. Palomar

life is always trying to teach you something. people are constantly showing you insights into interesting paths for thought. are you noticing?

it is written.