So sit at the feet of the wise

Passion without wisdom to give it shape and direction is as empty as wisdom without passion to give it power and purpose - F. Buechner.

Another confession of mine today from this weekend's mind journey: I love AngelinaJolie. She's the only part of hollywood I want to read about. Yesterday I saw her at the cover of Esquire and I read the entire thing. This is embarrassing, but I admit it anyway because I did read the whole thing. She does what she can with what she has and I believe that with that amount of sacrifice in her life despite the criticism and all the cynical writings about why she does what she does, she is a good person with a good will. One of the part of the article that cling in my mind was that, the writer told that she does what she does, continue to adopt kids from other parts of the world, developing villages, conserving wildlife, and visiting the forgotten parts of the world to point attention to them, was because she is empty and she wanted to fill up herself. Ah, I thought that was just a sentence from a jealous writer. I think she is a good person with a good will; to me she's like mother teresa with a human face. Mother Teresa was like an angel; I've never heard anything wrong that she did. What I learned from her, is, her persistence; that she's continue doing what she thought was right regardless what other people said about it. She could care less about the media or whatever else everyone said about her. Yes, she made mistake, and yes, not everything she does in her life was as perfect as Mother Teresa, but none of us is like her either.

I know what's missing from all the things Angelina is doing, the core part of what's she's doing and her motivation, was still, not like saint Bono, but still, I want to thank her for what she's doing with her life. For the many turned heads to the refugee camps, for the raising numbers of adoptions in Ethiopia, Cambodia and Vietnam, for the many news made of the places she visited and thus, made people think, at least one more time, before having a dinner feast, for putting faces on numbers, and for the love she invested with the forgotten people.

These past three days, I've been working on preparing the wall for the mural project. God had taught me things: to be patient is one of them, but also, the most important thing, is to put wisdom with my passion. No matter how excited I am with the project and how I wanted to do everything right, I've never budgeted the time needed to work on it. I am not being unrealistic, but I am just being me, an overachiever self. But when the project include other people, I need to put them in equation to. Not "How much can we accomplish" but "How realistic can it be accomplish" that will make life a little easier with less stress. I am just grateful that God is using me in an area I am passionate about for His glory. AngelinaJolie said, "No, I am just lucky to have a fun job," and I would like to say the same. That's what passion is, when the deepest need of the world hunger met with the core of our satisfaction in doing what we do. But as Buechner said, passion without wisdom as empty as wisdom without passion. So I pray for God to give me wisdom.

Everything else in my life is shut off for the mural project this next week. That's what I am going to spend my time outside work, is for the mural project. I am not worried about the exhibit I am having next month and am not going to sweat about it. I will take a break right before the beginning of SOS to go to the first opera this season, but that's all the break I want. This is way more important than MY exhibit. I hope and pray that God will help me so that this project will bless the people at the two sites, the students at SOS, and everyone else involved in it, including me. I hope and pray that God will give me wisdom to make a quick decision, to stop being an over-achiever, and to give me wisdom to make everything works well. If God can use the flowers and the bees, He can use me for His glory, when I allowed Him to.