Numero Uno

Welcome to the Lovely Sudden Circus!

My name is Carrie-Christina and I'm living in a charming Southern city, soaking up the sweet tea and pretty accents until my husband and I inevitably move back to Ohio to be closer to family. Why don't ya'll sit on my porch for a while? I'll (try to...) bake some peach cobbler and we can chat about life. :)

That is precisely why I created this blog. I found a pretty little diamond ring on my finger much much sooner than my "Great Life Plan" intended, which meant bye bye creative writing grad school, hello itty bitty apartment, rash attempts at cooking, spiders being killed in my honor, and pouring my passion for the written word here online, for all of you lovely readers... and for my own sanity. All I hope to do is bring a conversation your way, about life, marriage, that mean person at the grocery store, and any other everyday occurrence.

About Me

I'm super goofy and I smile all the time. I love snuggling with my husband (Hi Dan!), I can eat my body weight in ice cream, and my life-long dream is to play with a baby tiger. 

Born and raised on a huge plot of land, I love the country and feel like a Southern girl at heart. My childhood consisted of frolicking through fields, hayrides at my uncle's house on Thanksgiving, swinging off rope swings into rivers, and everything else you could hear Tim McGraw singing about. Then in high school, I dove head first into art classes, soaking up every detail of art's beauty and grace. When I started college, I began trying to live clean, eat healthy, preserve the environment, and obsess over baby animals (doooh so cute!). Thus we have what my husband has dubbed: That Country-Artsy-Hippie thing.

But above all, I love Jesus, my Savior and Sustainer. May my everything sing His praises; may this blog, my marriage, my work, my art, and all of my life be a love song to Him. 

Why "Lovely Sudden Circus"?

Ever since getting married, I feel like Dan and I are holding hands, walking underneath a tent together into a vibrant, whimsical circus. As we meander through, we catch beautiful glimpses of the happenings around us-- bears dancing with men in red jackets, women floating from the ceiling with ribbons around their legs, people laughing in the crowd, musicians streaming out harmonies, and a young couple captivated, holding onto each other while they amble along. Some things are really hard to walk past and we cry. With others, we smile wide. But altogether, it's lovely.

And it's sudden. The Bible calls life ""fleeting" and says our time on earth is "a mere breath." Before we know it, Dan and I will be at the center ring, our children nearly grown, our hair turning grey, the chaos of  the performances around us momentarily muted, gazing behind and ahead at the life we've been blessed to live. Then, we'll take the first step forward, downward, to the tent's exit, sound rushing once again through our ears like a wave. At some point Dan will leave me, or I will leave him, but eventually we will each walk through the curtain one more time, exiting the dark pandemonium and entering a golden, radiant, blinding light. 

Circus. Because in some ways, we are all just performers here. Trying to show the world who we are. Trying to fulfill ourselves by employing our talents. Trying to live vibrantly. Colorfully. Trying to keep our act going before it's our turn to exit the tent. My act? I just want to leave Him behind. I want to spill words like grace, forgiveness, and love all over the ground around me so that when people trace over my steps, that's all they see. Not my bleak achievements. Not my feeble stories.

But the greatest story that has ever been told.


Welcome, again, to the Lovely Sudden Circus. I hope you feel at home here.

Agape,
Carrie-Christina