Laying Fallow

Sometimes I get pulled away from what is important by stress, busyness, life in general and specific. I realized I needed to update this blog more than I needed to totally start from scratch!

Why? I am still a backyard hermit who ponders life from my deck for one thing. I miss my spiritual writing and observations for another.

I read today on the Seekerville blogspot about a writer who needed to take a break for a while and did so for two years. She discovered she was still a writer. Still a writer. That spoke to me in so many ways.

How I know I am still a writer:

• I thoughtfully consider my status updates on Facebook, looking for just the right turn of phrase.

• I appreciate the writing of others but often find myself saying, "I would have written it THIS way."

• I live to discover new words or to be reminded of words I once knew, loved, and used on a regular basis.

• I often prefer to write an email than pick up the phone just to see all the words in front of me.
  

• Yes, I can get long winded but I can also be pithy and to the point.

• Time flies when I write.

You get the point. More importantly, I get the point of writing daily so will be busy here. They say the blogosphere is almost overcrowded but we know, most of us, that we write from our hearts and for ourselves regardless of topic.

Change Agents

Things do not change; we change. ~Henry David Thoreau

What a year this has been with a campaign that spoke of change and an election that signaled not only the readiness for a change but simply caused a change by its very being! The economy is causing change of its own, from the adaptation of frugality by consumers to the way corporations are run. In this season of changing leaves, changing tides, changing habits, worries and anxiety tend to smother the sense of anticipation I love about times of change.

When change happens, we often tend to focus on what we may lose, not what we may gain. That sense of scarcity, that God will not provide or we are not worthy of what we have been given, well, it just creeps into our hearts and souls. With jobs lost, moves made, new family dynamics, different governance, even shifting seasons, we find ourselves struggling rather than seeing the good any given situation. No wonder when the time changes, people are affected emotionally.

As someone who never has done well during the time change, who finds herself affected by SADD, I have decided to adopt a new strategy this year. Instead of struggling with the feeling that I should stay up later and fight the habit of hibernating, I go to bed early and rejoice in getting up early to start my day. Instead of worrying about our office moving, I look to the advantages of the potential space and location. Instead of watching the stock market tank, I think about the fact that struggles often make us sterner stuff, able to handle more than we ever possibly could imagine.

Thoreau was right and to paraphrase Gandhi, we are the change in the world. There is something empowering about that. Bring change on, let us embrace it and the selves we become through it.

Peace, Julie

Spring Green

I thank you God for this most amazing day, for the leaping greenly spirits of trees, and for the blue dream of sky and for everything which is natural, which is infinite, which is yes. ~e.e. cummings

What do you look for in spring? Do you watch for dogwoods, the return of a certain bird, azaleas blooming? What is it about spring that makes you thank God?

I didn't realize, until the paint was on the wall, that the color I picked out for my redone laundry room is the same color as new leaves appearing on the deciduous trees in our area. There is something about that color that gets me every spring. Maybe because it appears on those dark limbs which had been bare all winter. Maybe because the color itself is so fleeting before the leaves turn darker as they manufacture more and more chlorophyll. Whatever the reason, I always look to those spring-dressed trees and say "I thank you God for this most amazing day."

I thank e.e. cummings for giving words to my praise. His poetry has always been a favorite of mine due to its style and whimsy. This particular work of his always lifts me up and makes me think about the God who is the Artist, the Fanciful One, the God of Good Humor and Beauty. With the past year of drought, it has been amazing that this spring is one of the most beautiful in recent memory. I find myself driving through subdivisions just to look at the tulips, dogwoods, redbud, hyacinths, and azaleas. Such a metaphor for times in our lives when we are dry, parched souls, and still beauty arises in our days. And again, I say, "I thank you God for this most amazing day."

My prayer for my friends, my family, myself: May we see the Spring in our own lives. May our bare spots be cloaked in the "leaping greenly spirit" of nature. May we will see the infinite nature of God, give thanks and let out a soul-stirring, "YES!" as our fists pump the air. Amen.

The Easter Egg Hunt

Quest by Quotation

Let the resurrection joy lift us from loneliness and weakness and despair to strength and beauty and happiness. ~Floyd W. Tomkins

In addition to strength, beauty, and happiness, what other "Easter eggs" would you like to find and put in your basket?

In designing my Easter card this year, I was reminded, we sometimes have to hunt for the promise of good things to come or lessons learned in dark times. I used a picture of a wooden cross on a hill overlooking a shrouded ocean on the coast of Hawaii. I took it last fall when I visited in the rainy season. On this northern part of the island, the climate mimicked early spring, before flowers bloom. On top of that, a barbed wire fence slashed across my view. The whole scene could easily have been a symbol of bleakness for me.

But it wasn't. I looked through my lens and saw my Easter card months down the line. I looked at the picture when I returned home and saw the promise of something inspiring and creative. I am normally not an optimistic person, even though I can see the good in situations. So I have to credit the promise of the Resurrection, with all its surprise, hope, peace, and joy, for my attitude.

There are "Easter eggs" I am looking for myself as Spring begins and Eastertide rolls in: purple perseverance, pink positive attitude, green gratitude, blue blessed assurance, orange optimism. I know I will find them, though some may be well hidden. God promised.

Taking a page from friends

Quest by Quotation

Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counselors, and the most patient of teachers. ~Charles W. Eliot

What books have been your friends, counselors and teachers?

Our book club met at my house this weekend. A good thing too. I was motivated to get my book read, even in the midst of having the latest "virus de jour." It also has given me the motivation to read because my job, with its work and commuting hours, eats into my reading time. Great job, just not enough time in the day anymore!

I can remember as a child diving into Little Women and All Creatures Great and Small when I needed solace. I found the same sense of peace, escape, advice, and enjoyment as an adult after my mother died. When I took a sabbatical, the world seemed to be a cruel place and I grieved the sudden loss of my mother and my vocation. I retreated to the world of books, as I had done as a child. After all, I hadn't read anything but non-fiction and theology for years.

Happy ever after fiction, comforting words from Henri Nouwen, craft books teaching me new skills all filled my too spacious days. These "friends...counselors...teachers" sustained me. Now, in the middle of another life transition, I miss the hours I spent gobbling up the pages but find the limited time with my books even more precious.

So what friends, counselors, and teachers are on your nightstand or coffee table...should you plan a visit with them?

Peace and happy reading.