Life is for Celebrating

   
     Today is the anniversary of the passing of my Dad from this world. Eleven years ago was a very sad day, indeed. I deeply loved my Dad. He had a dry sense of humor. He loved to work, loved his kids and grandkids, and I'm sure he would have adored his great grandkids. Since his death, we have had several weddings in our family, and my Mom now has a dozen great grandchildren (with two more on the way).
     
                      So, today I am celebrating my Dad by enjoying my grand babies. 
     

     
     This morning, I was driving home with my littlest grandchild, Sam, in my car. He's my ten month-old bruiser who could be a clone of his Grandpa. He was blowing raspberries and singing his little baby songs along with the radio tunes. You talk about cute, well, he is way beyond that.

       And then we have Nathan. He's three years old but will be four on his pirate ship birthday which is in one month from today. This little guy is intense. Oh, did I tell you he's smart, too? He has shown me things on my Iphone that I didn't know about. Really, a three-year-old! He loves Veggie Tales, Angry Birds, playing his guitar, and singing.

     

     Elizabeth turned five years old in June with her twin sister. She is a tad shy with strangers. She's our songwriter. Well, she makes up songs all the time. She loves to set up scenarios in the pretend play of her and her siblings. I will say Lizzie is very creative and she is not afraid of using her imagination - or her vocabulary.

     Evelynn is the firstborn twin. She is our artist and dancer. She writes stories with pictures and will read the book to you if you'll sit and listen. She does a mean Bollywood dance. Evie likes to plan of all manner of activities and outings. Her smile is contagious.

      I know my Dad would have been extremely proud of all of his grandchildren and would have enjoyed his great grandchildren. He placed a high value on realizing growth and potential in children. I miss my Dad. In celebrating my kids and grandkids, I am celebrating the legacy that my parents have passed on down through generations. Thanks, Mom. Thanks, Dad.

Gifts

     I've been reading a book that is changing my life. I should say, God has been changing my life through practicing what this book proposes. Writing down the gifts that God gives ~ a thousand of them. It is Eucharisteo: thanks, grace, and joy. Now, I've always known that gratefulness is a good practice. I grew up singing "Count your many blessings, name them one by one". I have incorporated gratefulness in my life my whole life, really ~ but not as purposeful as this. A pastor of mine, when talking of communion (Eucharist) always described it as "grace flows". Flowing down like water ~ purifying water. The grace that is the everyday, where the rubber meets the road kind of getting through it grace.




Since my last blog, which was many months ago, God has blessed Bill and I with another grandchild. 

His name is Sam. Talk about gifts. He is amazing! 

I have known God's consistent, freeing grace in all my days. He is always Good!

     So I'm starting on this new journey. I'm chronicling the gifts that are mine everyday. I am being reminded how truly blessed I am and that this journey is exactly that - a journey. Traveling this road we call life on planet Earth. Oh, and pick up a copy of "One Thousand Gifts" by Ann Voskamp. You will be glad you did.

Jesus Calling

     Rev. 22:12-17   "Behold I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End. "Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city... I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you this testimony for the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, and the bright Morning Star." The Spirit and the bride say, "Come!" And let him who hears say, "Come!" Whoever is thrsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life.
     
    I am thirsty, I am thirsty for you. My thoughts are all in a tangled mess. I am thirsty for your presence in my life - in my moments, my hours, my days. The world is too much with me. Thank you for your invitation even in the last chapter of your Word, the end of the age. 
            I am so prone to wander.
     
    I am your wayward child. Forgive me for chasing whatever catches my fancy. All those philosophies and ideas that sound so exciting but ignore you - your grace and truth. 
    You are the First and the Last ~ the bright Morning Star. There you are, standing with your arms open. Welcoming, bidding me to come and drink of the free gift of the water of life.

Which Path?

      Sometimes it's difficult to make a life-changing decision. It would be so much easier to stay in the status-quo. 


     I have been waiting for a couple of years now for God to push me to go back to school to get my Master's degree in nursing ~ been planning on doing it since my graduation in '08. It's been easier to just, wait for the right time."

 Instead of a push, I've been getting little nudges. OK, I get it. Now is the right time. 
    
    I'm fifty three years old. 
In five years I'll be fifty-eight.
                                                                                                                                            
   What am I going be doing when I'm fifty-eight? It's totally up to me to choose. What path will I take? It's always easier to continue in the same direction than to change directions. Isn't that a law of physics? It takes more energy to choose a new path. 


             There might be many brambles and thorns, rocks jutting out of the earth, and 
                                      most likely I'll be climbing uphill the entire way.     
        
     I've sent in my application and I'm working on my writing sample for admissions in the Master's of Nursing in Education at Indiana Wesleyan University. 
                                 
                                                The first step has been taken.

Full Circle

     Today I have been perusing past journal entries. I am amazed how the same theme keeps popping up time and time again in my writings, in my thoughts and in my relationship with God. The theme is trust. I struggle with trying to figure things out and not living my life in my own power. This has been a struggle of mine since I was a teenager. All throughout my young adult years, the main subject I have dealt with has been trusting God. And now, in my "middle" adult years trust continues to be the subject of my heartcry. You'd think I might get it after all this time. I guess it's a process - like a potter making a useful vessel.

      The other part of the picture, which is totally related to trust, is faithfulness. God’s faithfulness. I can trust Him because He is faithful. He is always faithful. He always has seen me through. I have to laugh because the issues I was struggling with over a year ago related to my job, are the same issues that I am dealing with now and I have truly come full circle. It can be disconcerting to think that I have had three different jobs in the past year and now I am coming back to the exact same job that I left in December of 2009. In October of ’09 I journaled, “To stay in my position as circulator is so dead end. I just feel stagnant in my career and in my life. Why am I so dissatisfied?”

 It’s like God said, “OK, you want something different? Go for it.”

      

 I will have to say that I have met, and worked with a lot of different people that I wouldn’t have otherwise. I have seen many perspectives and broadened my horizons and realized that the grass is not always greener. The other thing that God has taught me through this is that maybe I’m not supposed to be getting “my fulfillment” through my career. Yes, I believe it is my ministry - my mission to care for, and learn from the people who God has placed in my life. But my fulfillment is to come from Him. He is the one who gives me my worth because He has created me in his image and has redeemed me.

Isaiah 31:3 ”I have loved you with an everlasting love, I have drawn you with loving- kindness.” 

 

     A good friend of mine told me of an experience she had going through a labyrinth. According to the Encarta World English Dictionary, a labyrinth is a place of crisscrossing tunnels, passages or paths where it would be easy to become lost. Something that is made up of many different parts that is complicated and hard to understand. Now, doesn't that sound like life? Anyway, after traveling through this labyrinth, she ended up where she started - at the beginning. She was disappointed and wondered what the purpose was. She realized that she didn't really end up where she started, because she had experienced the journey. I take heart in that and in knowing life is a journey. When we feel like we're not making much progress, let's just keep traveling the path that is set before us. We are on a journey and we have choices. If we follow a rabbit trail, God will bring us back around and we will be the better for it. That's the trip of life. It's an adventure - the adventure of life. 

My New Year's Resolution

     My New Year's resulution for 2011 - mindfulness. Mindfulness is a discipline. Our culture is vehemently against it. Our American society is all about getting in the fast lane, climbing the ladder of success, running, working, and striving for the goal. Well, my goal is mindfulness.  Mindfulness is finding joy in the little blessings God places in my path everyday. It's so easy to just pass those by without a single notice.  It could be a touch of beauty in a hard place, a hint of goodness in a not-so-favorite coworker, or a scent of something wonderful in a frenzy-paced moment. Those bits can only be captured at the moment they are offered. If I'm so engrossed in busyness that I fail to sense the joy, it is lost.
    So, this year I will be looking for...

                                                                         wild beauty

                                                                        solitude

                                                                         new life

                                          happiness and fulfillment in the present 

                                                                  sweet baby cheeks

fruitfulness

                                                                           simplicity

  wonderment and exploration

the time to ponder

  
     Yes, it is time for me to incorporate the discipline of mindfulness in my days. I must be alert and watching, for at any unexpected moment I could be passing up an opportunity for joy. I am going to capture those blessings and enjoy 2011.

      Well, another Christmas has come and gone. What an absolutely marvelous Christmas we had this year. We had great times of happy mayhem - wrapping paper flying, noise levels at very high decibels, and laughing and eating around a beautiful table. The most precious of all my memories is the sheer pleasure and pure joy in a two-year-old's eyes. Nathan, jumping up a down with arms flailing, "Oooh, ooh, ooh". He truly could not contain himself.    
     You know toys these days are so tightly secured, it almost takes a chain saw to get them out of their packaging. It took me about fifteen minutes to get four little train cars out of the box and into the hands of an excited toddler. He would get one train car, take to a safe place and come back for the next one. He was sure to get the entire gift.
     Nathan reminded me of the way that we should be when recieving what God wants to give us every day. He saves us not only so we can get to heaven, but so we can live in freedom and forgiveness and joy in this life. He bestows grace upon us so we can repent and be righteous and then he gives us more grace so we can work more repentence and righteousness into our lives. That's what living the Christian life is all about. That is what sanctification is all about.  I want to recieve from God all that He has for me - not material blessings so much, but the ability to forgive, the grace to live in freedom, and the joy that comes through obedience.