Gratitude Day 4

Today, I am grateful for time spent reading with friends, napping, and starting to relax.

Gratitude Day 3

Today, I am grateful for Caleb, who remains very calm while I stress out about packing for our vacation.

See? Look how calm he is.

Gratitude Day 2

Today, I am grateful for an evening with no plans... For the first time in too long, we slowed down, caught up, slow-danced in our living room. Eating on the front porch, and a hot shower. And now, on to packing!

Tomorrow, the promise of sunshine and vacation...

Gratitude Day 1

Today, I am grateful for slow, sleepy rain that falls gently for hours, soaking the earth with life.

More tomorrow...

Words for a Saturday

After a very busy past two weeks that have really been the culmination of the past month and a half, I am spending today taking comfort in these words from Bishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador:

It helps, now and then, to step back and take a long view.

The kingdom is not only beyond our efforts,
it is even beyond our vision.

We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction
of the magnificent enterprise that is God's work.
Nothing we do is complete, which is a way of saying
that the kingdom always lies beyond us.
No statement says all that could be said.
No prayer fully expresses our faith.
No confession brings perfection.
No pastoral visit brings wholeness.
No program accomplishes the church's mission.
No set of goals and objectives includes everything.

This is what we are about.
We plant the seeds that one day will grow.
We water seeds already planted,
knowing that they hold future promise.

We lay foundations that will need further development.
We provide yeast that produces far beyond our capabilities.

We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation
in realizing that. This enables us to do something,
and to do it very well. It may be incomplete,
but it is a beginning, a step along the way,
an opportunity for the Lord's grace to enter and do the rest.

We may never see the end results, but that is the difference
between the master builder and the worker.

We are workers, not master builders; ministers, not messiahs.
We are prophets of a future not our own.
Amen.

10 gifts from creation

Challenge from Brian McLaren: For Earth Day, I encourage you to go outdoors. Find ten gifts of creation to enjoy. 
Here are mine:

1. Dandelion puff balls. Aren't they amazing and magical?
2. The way the sun on my back feels like a warm hug
3. How a spring leaf can be transparent and opaque, waxy and shiny, at the same time
4. Tulips sort of look like candy, don't they? Like popsicles. 
5. Each tree right now has it's own sort of blossom. The variety is stunning.
6. Have you ever noticed how persistent creation is? If you cover the earth with pavement, plants will still break through. It's a perfect allegory for divine love. 
7. Moss. Moss is one of my favorite plants. When I was little, I used to talk to it. Actually I used to talk to all the plants, but I had a special soft spot for moss. I would pet it and water it and sometimes transplant it. 
8. The color combination of red bud tree blossoms, new leaves, and the sky 
9. Taking a moment to notice and feel the ground beneath me is calming.
10. The exquisite silence that comes from being near trees in a park

What are yours? No problem if you didn't do it today! If ten feels daunting, try seven or five or even three! 

Directionally challenged

I've mentioned several times how I am directionally challenged. Actually, the one time I usually know right and left is when I'm in a yoga class and the teacher calls it the "brick wall" side or the "front door" side. Or something like that. I was recently in a yoga class where the teacher got the sides confused and let me tell you - I was very messed up. I did a body stutter or something like that.

I also know right and left when I am driving. Because right turns are the easiest turns. And left are not.

But tell me which side of my face has sauce on it and I am one confused girl.

Caleb thinks this is very strange. To him, left and right are as standard as up and down. To me THIS IS NOT THE SAME. Right and left have no gravitational impact. I can not stand with my feet "up" and my head "down".

I've been trying to help the kids I tutor to understand right and left. To make sure I don't make mistakes, we practice in the car. "WHICH WAY ARE WE TURNING?" I cry out with glee. I am pretty sure they are just guessing half the time, but it's okay. You can get through life without knowing right or left. I am proof.

Now I am curious... are you directionally challenged? Did you cheat in school when your teachers tried to teach right and left? (Sorry Mrs. Jamison!) I always closed one hand in a fist so I'd know which way was right or left when we had to turn away from the right and left signs. If you cheated, I want to know how! Or maybe you were never directionally challenged. How is this possible? Were you just born knowing right and left?

Until next time!