Picture's!

What is it they say about good intentions? And who is "they"?

Sorry about it being almost a month since last I wrote with you in mind, but it has been flat out crazy around here. Or maybe I'm the crazy one.

I'm going to post some pic's in order to share with you what in the sam hill has been going on around here.

I've been seeing my fair share of these. That's the sun coming up behind Burger King, which is across the street from work. BTW, I won't be using the name of the company I work for because I don't want them to know about me cuz they will stock me. They have moved open time to 4:00 am. This pic was taken around 7:00 am. 

We have been having some of these here, what I like to call, a controlled burn.

This is what I get to drive into in the mornings. It's our main street and there are snow flakes that line both sides of the street. When I see this, I almost forget how crabby people can be.

This is Gracie with her stick. I know, it does look a little big for her, and she's a big dog. We have burned all the small sticks so she has been forced to pull up small trees and smack us in the back of the knee caps as she runs by. Dang Huskies!

This is our wild and crazy Christmas tree. I believe in forcing branches to loosen up by placing heavy ornaments on them. Yes, I do know that there is no topper. I'm looking for a new one. See Santa in the corner?

Here's Santa! We got our yearly gift from Maker's Mark and this year it's a "Deck the neck" scarf. The gift's are meant to to go on a bottle and to be given as a gift. Not happen, just saying.

There's Preacher man, hanging lights! After he finished, he got sick and has been sick for 4 day's now. 

I just wanted to say Hi, before the season got away from me. Thinking about you and wishing you Burger King sun rises and really big sticks to play with!

Peace Out!

Back

Last Wednesday made a month since I've posted anything on this blog. What can I say, life has been kicking my butt, or at least trying.

In the past month I quit the soup kitchen gig

, and started at a gas station; lost a dear friend to suicide and felt the scariness of not knowing Jesus; celebrated with my sister at her wedding and saw the passion of ministry in my husbands eyes again; graduated with my certification as a spiritual director and started back at running. 

Life has been trying to kick my butt, but the cool part of it is I am getting those Ah-ha moments, and I gotta tell ya, I feel like I'm starting to come back into my own skin. Or at least, I'm starting to breath again. So there is an urge to write. 

So I write and I think. 

Sometimes life is just flat out hard people! Not just for me, but for us all!  

Allow the Holy Spirit to lead you today and see what happens. 

Awareness

I'm finding it hard to get this started for some reason. It's not that I have a lack of things to write about it, it's just figuring out what I want to open up to. 

At times, our life moves at worp speed. I mean so much is going on that if you aren't in contact with us daily, you are behind. We walk around singing Deep and Wide and we add in Fast! 

Then there are the times when life is like a slow float down the river. Moving at a speed that allows us to take in the sights and sounds. The trick for me is to bring the speed down so I can really see what's happening in the deep and wide.

I found these five questions from Mary Oliver help me to be aware of God in my life.

1. What do I notice?
2. What do I hear?
3. What is most wonderful?
4. What is most tender?
5. What astonishes me?

For me, anytime is a good time to ask these questions. I have found that doing them once a day, say at the end of the day before bed time, isn't the best time, as much as it is the default time. You know, Oh I forgot to be intentional about my questions at some point today, so I'll be aware of them now. My issue with this is; we focus on one thing as wonderful when there could have been 16. Tenderness could have surrounded us in so many different ways but we just didn't notice.

So here's my suggestion or maybe I should say confession: At the top of each hour, answer the 5 questions. If you do this for a while, you'll start doing it without even really having to think about it. The next thing you know, BAM! you'll be giving glory to God, cuz you're noticing God in your life.

Give it a try, what do you have to loose? Give me a holler if you want to talk about it.  
    

Habit

Why is it that we fall out of habit's that are good for us faster and farther than habit's that are bad? Is it something just made into us? Do we yearn to be disobedient? Is it the rebel wanting to yell in us all?

Billy Idol, Rebel Yell!

I have a list as long as my arm to be done! Some of those things have to happen, some are need, and then there is the MY list that mostly are wants. In all honesty, I'm pretty tired of lists and letting them rule my life. I also know what happens without them, nothing!

We all go through times when we are more on the ball than others, and sadly we waste time beating ourselves up about it when we could just get back into the swing of things. 

I think, this is something I need to talk to my spiritual director about, that will help me get back on tract! However, with me and my director, I already know what he's going to say. Get back at it, now. 

So I listened to what he would say, if I were to ask, and this is what I got this morning:

The world cannot be discovered by a journey of miles, 

no matter how long,

but only by a spiritual journey,

a journey of one inch, very arduous and humbling

and JOYFUL, by which we arrive at the ground

at out own feet and learn

to be at home. 

~ Wendell Berry

So today, I encourage you to get back at your spiritual journey. To do your inch today and let God take care of the miles!

Emptiness!

I've been somewhat sick for about a week. It's hard for me to be sick, I'm sure you have no idea what I'm talking about, so let me explain! I have stuff to do... important stuff to do! I get paid for a few of these things that I do, but mainly it's just stuff, my stuff. Working out is a good example of some of my stuff, blogging is another. Anyway, all I've been able to do for a week is sit around and try to breath! OK, your right, I did work the Arkansas Flower and Garden show last week, went to dinner with my parents for my birthday, rang handbells in church, got my hair done, had spiritual direction, went to vision cafe, centering prayer and got finger printed for concealed hand gun license. Maybe if I had sat around and tried to breath I would have gotten well sooner, you think?

We are afraid of emptiness. Flat out scared to have space in our lives! This, that I just shared with you, is a perfect example of how fearful we are of empty space! We like to occupy-fill up-every empty time and space that we might have in our life. Look at your calendar if you think I'm making this up! We have filled our empty spaces before we even get to them!  

I'm going on a silent directed retreat this weekend at the beloved St. Scholastica, where I will try to allow emptiness to exist in my life. Emptiness requires a willingness not to be in control, a willingness to let something new and unexpected happen. It requires trust, surrender, and openness to guidance.

God wants to dwell in our emptiness. But as long as we are afraid of God and God's actions in our lives, it's unlikely that we will offer our emptiness to God. 

Come Lord Jesus, and fill our emptiness with you.

Fear!

You know when that feeling of unrest comes over you and you being to feel the anxious knots start to gather around you? What do you do? 

Maybe it's not so much unrest as it is restlessness, but is there really a difference between the two? I am finding that we all think we are the only ones going through such things. No one would understand what I'm going through, in fact, they will think I'm losing my mind! 

All of our fears, are not just our fears. People have been having those same fears for a long time now. People have been ignoring them and stuffing them down for a long time too. Staying busy is one of the best ways to push fear down. If I stay busy enough, I won't have time to think about being afraid! But then again, we all go to sleep, or at least try. Isn't that when our mind is the busiest, right when your trying to rest that busy body?! 

Here's a thought: Face your fear straight on. (I know that feeling, it's like something is trying to chock you from the inside of your body!) With ruthless moral honesty, and with God's grace, confront that fear, no matter how deep down it goes. Acknowledge it to yourself and to someone else. Some problems can never be solved until you confess them to others. It's the idea of bringing it out into the light. If we listen to the fear, and keep it locked deep down inside where no light can get it to, it will just grow and fester. Confess your fault one to another, and pray one for another, that you may be healed. James 5:16 

It take courage to speak of our fears, it's exposing our underbellies, it's trusting in someone other than ourselves. Do you know what it brings about? Freedom. There really is nothing as sweet on the lips as freedom!

Too Busy!

I just love it when the weather changes everything! It goes to show who is married to their schedules and who goes with the flow.

We had over an inch of sleet/ice yesterday that started about 10 am, just in time for our Bible study. Instead of 13 we had 8 and God rocked the house, or at least the room we were meeting in. I didn't make it to weight in at weight watchers, nor did I make it to the Master Gardeners meeting over in LR. However, I did get to help Preacher man in the office and Lord knows he needs it!

One of the things that was brought up yesterday in class was how busy people are and there just isn't time to come together for prayer meetings and such. Now, this was said as we were watch hundreds assemble at 5:00 to a church that didn't even start the prayer meeting until 7:00. So I don't think those people, who live in Brooklyn, and I'm sure are just as busy as people living in NLR, weren't busy. What I think is they made time for whats important in their lives.

Preacher man said the whole busy excuses is a ruse, something that people hide behind. So I got to thinking about it and I'd like to add something to it. Not only do we blame busy for keeping people out of our churches and prayer meetings, we also blame young people. What I find interesting is it's the older folks that are doing this blaming. So, this ruse, which means a trick, stratagem or artifice, is being used by people who don't want anyone to look at them.

Here's the deal: Stop worrying about everybody else being too busy, and start looking at your schedule . When was the last time you showed up for something that you were too busy to go to? Or something that someone thought you would either enjoy or might stretch you spiritually? Here's a good question: When was the last time you went to more than just church? 

If you want to invest in soccer, football, yoga, and book of the month club, that's all well and good, but don't be telling me that every bodies too busy for more Jesus, cuz I'm going to look at you and wonder why your trying to ruse me.