Life. Death. Heaven. Happiness.

I don’t want to die; yet I do. I want to die because God says that heaven is amazing, and you are the happiest you have ever been. I could easily say, “Yeah, I’m happy.” But do we really know what happiness is? As long as there is evil in this world, we will never be truly happy. You can get to what you think is the happiest you can be. We all have a happy place. Mine is being creative like painting or photography, while its warm, in my bare feet listening to music. Other people can have a happy place like their room, or with their family. But that’s not really true happiness. I’m not sure what true happiness is, and I might not know until I get to heaven. I imagine true happiness coming from the inside, and shining through to the outside. True happiness is to be free from every worry, every fear, every problem, anything that’s holding you down. The closest we can get to that on earth is to smile from the inside, and that is even difficult to do sometimes. We walk around with almost a bubble of happiness. You think its real, but in reality its not. One wrong thing, and that bubble can pop. I imagine heaven being like a giant invincible bubble. Nothing, NOTHING can pop that bubble. NOTHING can ruin our true happiness we have. And yet, that sounds terrifying to me. Being in a world that is not the one I have grown to love, flaws and all? It is absolutely terrifying. Growing up, you have a feel of being infinite. You feel like nothing is going to happen. At this moment, I stop and realize the different steps of life, all leading up to heaven. You start out as a little egg in your mother’s womb and work your way up. Baby, toddler, child, teenager, adult, old person, then you just die. Like that. If you don’t do something with your life, your whole life was worth nothing. All those years, were worth nothing. They will be worth absolutely nothing. Why do so many people just sit there, for their entire life doing nothing? Because they feel infinite. They forget that they are going to die. They don’t realize that they are just wasting away. They don’t realize that they are going to leave this world without making a difference to it. Jude 1:22 says, “And of some have compassion, making a difference.” It’s saying, if you have compassion, you can make a difference. Those without compassion cannot make a difference. Matthew 5:16 says, “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” It means that you are a light! You were born a light, you were born to make a difference, and you were born to love life! But with that, you can either chose to hide your talents, and love of life, or you can choose to display it for everyone to see. You can choose to live a fulfilling life. But keep this in mind. Your life is to be fulfilling to God. Fulfilling to both of you, but you are suppose to live for God, not for yourself. Everyone wants to die remembered. Nobody wants to die and have nobody remember who they are. When celebrities die, they are remembered. They are remembered by many who think they know them, but very few who actually know them. Gandhi died and was, is, and will be remembered. He wasn’t famous for being a singer or actor. He was famous for the difference he made. He was famous for the words he spoke. He was famous because he put his heart on display. He put his heart out for everyone to see. He showed people his passions and how he felt about the world, how he felt about life. Some of my favorite quotes are, “Be the change that you wish to see in the world.” “Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.” “Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.” “Where there is love there is life.” “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.” “The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.” “The future depends on what you do today.” “Man often becomes what he believes himself to be. If I keep on saying to myself that I cannot do a certain thing, it is possible that I may end by really becoming incapable of doing it. On the contrary, if I have the belief that I can do it, I shall surely acquire the capacity to do it even if I may not have it at the beginning.” I am not really afraid of death. I am afraid of dying without making a difference in the world. I am afraid that I will die, and nobody will remember the difference I made. I do not want to be remembered for the differences I made. I want the differences to be remembered because it made the world a better place. I want to be remembered by the people I loved, because I want them to remember that I love them. I want my life to be a light for God. I want people to follow him because I nudged them toward him, and let God do the rest. I want to be able to display my heart for all to see. I want to love people as they have never been loved before. I want them to be loved in the deepest, most joyful way imaginable. I want to love because God first loved me.

Life.

I havent posted very much lately. Life has gotten pretty crazy. And when I say crazy, I mean CRAZY! So I guess I will start from the beginning. The last time I posted was in January, which is WAY too long. I guess I will just say some of the bigger things that happened. In the end of January my family and I went to Park City, Utah to go skiing. It was amazing! Sundance Film Festival was going on, so we got to go to that, and see some celebs, and crazy people. Some of the celebrities we saw were Paul Rudd, and Ashton Kutcher. We also saw a LOT of fur jackets. Don't wear fur jackets people. Its just not cool. In the beginning of February, I went on a retreat with my church, which was awesome. We went into inner city Philadelphia and volunteered at a couple different places. It was cool because my group actually went and volunteered at the same church that I volunteered at last summer. Not much actually happened in March, other than the fact that my little sister turned 12, and my dad turned 42. (I hope he isn't reading this.... he would probably kill me for telling you how old he is...). In the beginning of April, I went to my first Prom, and it was AWESOME. I had a GORGEOUS dress from ModCloth, I got to go with some of my amazing friends, and I actually kind of danced! Even though I cant dance..... In the middle of April, my friend Julia had her birthday party, and let me tell you, it was the coolest birthday party I have ever been to. Julia wants to be a detective, so the party was a Murder Mystery Party. Everyone got a character, and had to act like them the entire night. My character was Yune A. Varsity, a poor college student. It was really fun! On April 18, I turned 15!!!! Yay! In the beginning of May, I got a job!!!! Yay! I'm super excited! Not only because, I can finally start saving up for stuff, but because I actually have a responsibility now. And I love it too! Im actually working at a farmers market in New Castle, Delaware. So anyway, since I know you guys are DYING to know what I'm saving up for, the list will be at the end of this post. This weekend (tomorrow) My family, and our other really close friends, are all going camping up at Raystown Lake. Should be fun! I will take lots of pictures and will put them in a post when we get back. {Dreams/What I'm Saving Up For} ~MacBook Pro to edit pictures and stuff. ~iPhone. I need to get rid of my crappy phone that doesn't work. :P ~Canon 5d Mark ii ~Trip to Europe!!!!

Random Pictures......

Some of these are totally random pictures I took for fun, and others are pictures that I took in Colorado this past summer....

Christmas!

These were actually taken before Christmas, but they are Christmasy pictures so those still count.... right?

Miller Family Pictures

I recently took pictures of my friends the Millers. They are an amazing family that have been through so much. They are such a strong family. If you personally know them, then you know how strong they are. There are 8 people in their family, Kristi, Paul (the parents), then the older twins Aidan and Caleigh, then Julia, and then the other twins Jeremiah and Gage (Gage wasnt able to be there that day, so he isnt in these pictures. ) and last but not least, Eve. The three youngest are adopted and incredibly adorable. I am so thankful that I had the opportunity to take pictures of them. There might be a lot of pictures because I had so many favorites. We took the pictures at Rockford Plantation in Lancaster.

Welcome To My Blog!

Hi! My name is Madeline, and I love photography(obviously). I'm in highschool, and I'm homeschooled. I love my friends and family, and would do anything for them. I love photography because I love how you get the chance to show things in another point of view, and help people see things in a way that they dont normally get the chance to. I'm going to try to post pictures as much as possible, but life happens, and I get busy. Hopefully I will be posting a lot of Christmas pictures of the holiday season. Thanks for hopefully sticking by me on this crazy adventure.