Saturday, October 23, 2010

Sporadic


As for this, it's the antithesis of my life......
 Hello everyone! I just wanted to tell you that my blog writing may be a bit sporadic over the next month or so. My life is piling up on me and I have a gig that I am preparing for too. Between driving Elle to dance practice and swimming lessons, speaking in church, teaching a class at the Jr. High School, practicing for the gig, cooking, cleaning, laundry, being a wife, a mom, and friend I'm getting stretched. Life really is happening and I may not have time to write about it. I'm sure that I'll have things to tell you all when I have a few moments. Thank you for reading faithfully anyway...I really appreciate you all. Something to look forward to... a short story (something different for me!) that will have a few installments.

So for today, a quote to think about by one of my favorite authors, Donald Miller. " Our lives set the moral compass of the people around us. If it weren't for some of the stories my friends are telling with their lives, I'd have no guidelines for my own, no moral or creative reference with which to tell my story to God and to the world. I know that our stories matter and if they didn't, God wouldn't have placed us into the epic."

Enjoy today and live your part of the EPIC.......

Saturday, October 16, 2010

What makes you bloom?

I just witnessed an incredible thing. Yeast blooming. Yeast is an amazing thing to me. It is a living organism that seems to come alive when it is warm and has something to eat; sugar. When the conditions are right it blooms. It takes some time to wake up but when it does, wow! I don't know if you are catching my awe in all of this, but I feel like a little kid every time I watch it magically do it's thing. I think that you all should go to your pantry and try it....seriously.

Watching the yeast made me wonder what makes me bloom. What does it take for me to become alive and full of energy and passion? I think that I actually know. It's taken me a long time, years in fact, for me to realize what truly makes me tick, what makes my heart beat faster. It's knowing that I have something that could potentially impact the world and it's just because of who I was created to be. I'm not unique in this way either, each of us has this inside of us and for most of us it has been sleeping for a a long time or is just starting to wake up. Specifically, I use words to inspire and impact through writing and speaking. How that thing blooms in each of us is different and we all live it out in our own unique way.

Sometimes, like the yeast, our blooming requires a specific environment that is conducive to it actually happening. We need to feel like we are believed in. We need to feel like we have something to offer. We need to feel like we have people on our team. We need to feel like we can try and fail. We need to feel like our role is vital and irreplaceable. From experience, I know that these things definitely don't always line up at the same time in most cases but every little thing helps give us the courage needed to take steps toward blooming.

I know that there are days, even seasons, when I don't feel like I'm blooming at all or I feel that I have nothing to offer. I feel exhausted, drained and uninspired. I feel alone and even lost. This is when I know that I need community. People who encourage me. People who believe in me. People who care what I become in life. People that need me. People that I need. The very essence of each of us wants to be apart of community and I believe we truly become who we are meant to be in the environment of community. When you have people in your life that need what only you have and vice versa, it creates a desire to truly be the best version of yourself. It requires work (energy) to bloom, but it doesn't even feel like it sometimes because the blooming is so fun and the result is beauty.

Do you know what makes you bloom?

Monday, October 11, 2010

Thankful With a Twist

Last week I went through a lot of our stuff to take to Goodwill. Whenever I pack up the back of the car with stuff to give away, I feel like a little bit of weight is lifted off of me. I realize every time that I drop off our unused and unwanted stuff that things are just that, things. I often give away things that we don't use or wear anymore, but I asked myself, what if I gave away things that I really liked, my favorite even. Would I miss those things or would I go on living as I had before? I would like to think that I could be happy without my favorite things.

Bono sings these lyrics, "Where you live should not decide whether you live or whether you die." He is talking to us, with much stuff. We live in riches, we have more than enough food, we are warm and sheltered from the elements, we have access to safe drinking water, we have more than one of something (most things), so many that we have favorites. He is challenging us to look at our stuff and how it has ultimately blinded our eyes to the rest of the world that is dying. These people are not dying because there is a lack of stuff in the world but because there is an inequality in how resources like food and water have been shared. I know that there are lots of reasons for this inequality and many of you reading will think about corruption in governments, and how sometimes poverty is a result of poor choices. These reasons, to me, do not change the fact that people are poor and that they are dying. These reasons also do not negate the need for people to help change both the circumstances and the results of poverty.

I read a story recently about Mother Theresa that I would like to share with you. It's  from a book called 'Irrisistible Revolution' by Shane Claiborne. Claiborne spent a summer in Calcutta with Mother Theresa and this is what he writes, "Mother Theresa was one of those people who sacrificed great privilege because she encountered such great need. People often ask me what Mother Theresa was like. Sometimes it's like they wonder if she glowed in the dark or had a halo. She is short, wrinkled, and precious, maybe even a little bit ornery, like a beautiful, wise old granny. But there is one thing I will never forget - her feet. Her feet were deformed. Each morning in Mass, I would stare at them. I wondered if she had contracted leprosy. But I wasn't going to ask, of course. "Hey Mother, what's wrong with your feet?" One day a sister said to us, "Have you noticed her feet?" We nodded, curious. She said, "Her feet are deformed because we get just enough donated shoes for everyone, and Mother does not want anyone to get stuck with the worst pair, so she digs through and finds them. And years of doing that have deformed her feet." Years of loving her neighbor as herself deformed her feet."

This story impacted me in two ways. First, that my castoffs, the things that I give away out of my abundance can end up deforming some one's feet. Second, that Mother Theresa didn't want someone else to suffer so she suffered in their place, out of love. I ask myself again why I give "the crumbs from my table", to quote Bono again, when the poor deserve dignity, respect and the best of everything, just like I do. The poor don't need to become like us (we don't need to be like us either, if you really thing about it), but they do need to be taken care of, known, suffered with, and fought for.

I don't know what you will do with these thoughts today on Thanksgiving, but my hope is that you will give thanks and also be inspired to give out of your abundance and blessing, your very best, not the crumbs or the castoffs. Dream about what you can do to take care of, know, suffer with, and fight for the poor. They are all around us.

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Rarity

One thing that I've discovered is that whenever Jeremy and I are in a car for a long period of time, great conversations just happen. We solve the world's problems, discuss art and music, dream about what the future looks like and even sometimes our relationship gets mulled over. We laugh, tease and sing badly, making the kids laugh in the back seat. I enjoy being with him in the car, the hours seem to fly by. Sometimes I think we need to be in the car to reconnect. It's kind of strange but that's just us, I guess. It's a shame that these car dates are so rare.

For any of you that have small children, I am sure that you can relate when I say that you should go on a date whenever you possibly can...even if your kids are sitting in the back seat. Times of meaningful conversation are few and far between. Sometimes, you have to be creative when it comes to the time and place for dates. I've been working on a song for a few weeks that talks about this whole thing, how rare it is to just be in the same place as your spouse and just "be". Thought I would share the lyrics with you all today....

Rarity

No stars are out tonight
But there's a glow in spite
It's rarity
My head is on your chest
Take a moment to ingest
This charity

No radio or telephone
Just you and I
On our own

This fragment of our life
You're the husband, I'm the wife
It's intricate
Details, colours, brush in hand
Drawing sketches where we stand
So delicate

No radio or telephone
Just you and I
On our own

(That's what I got so far, hope to finish soon....time seems to be so fleeting lately....)