New Beginnings I love the fresh start of a new year. The exciting opportunities full of potential - I call it God’s adventure waiting for me. We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called “Opportunity” and its first chapter is New Year’s Day. Edith L. Pierce I will spend part of today prayerfully rereading my journal entries from 2012, summarizing highlights (events, quotes, images, experiences, verses, prayers). Ahh, new beginnings. Then I will write out my hopes and dreams and what I think I hear as God’s invitations for the coming year. When I revisit this list in 12 months, I always am surprised. Amazed at what God spoke to me in January that threaded its presence throughout the year. This process reminds once again to let go of the expectations I thought I had written so beautifully and perfected that never blossomed. After all God is in charge not me. And always surprised … [Read more...]
Advent: the Gift of Time in Present Tense
The gift of time. December blew in with a chilly and crystal clear star- shimmering night this week in Ohio. I gazed out my back window into the darkness. The light from the brilliant half moon and the twinkling of a million heavenly lights captivated my being. I paused and embraced that one moment. How are You preparing my heart for Christmas, Lord? How will I be transformed by Your coming? Advent is an in-between time. A time of waiting. A time of reading the old stories. A time of anticipating what will come. Time of preparing my heart to receive the good news. Advent - the interval between stuffed grateful Thanksgiving and joyous, noisy, family filled Christmas. We wait impatiently for family to arrive. We live in expectation of the future. We ignore the present. Somehow I don’t think God wants our Advent time to be this … [Read more...]
Writing – A Spiritual Practice
Putting my hopes, dreams, fears, prayers into words often connects with God. I love words and taking letters and sentences and putting them into meaningful sentences helps me grow spiritually.Writing is a spiritual practice for many of us. I pay attention to more details when I attempt to find words to describe where I am and what I am experiencing. I hear God clearer when I write. To paraphrase the line from the movie, Chariots of Fire: “When I write, I feel His pleasure.”Writing most often takes form for me in journals, but what many of you may not know besides this blog, I write for our local newspaper, magazines, and even have been in books.My good friend and writing buddy, Johnnie Donley, asked me to participate in a blog hop originated by agent Linda Glaz and promoted by another writer friend, Karen Wingate.The purpose of this blog hop is to talk about what I’m working on at the moment as a writer. And heeerrreee we go!What am I working on as a writer right now? I have two more … [Read more...]
Why a Can of Green Beans Brought Me to Tears on Thanksgiving
Ok, I am supposed to be grateful, right?Count those blessings.Make that list of 1000+ reasons to give thanks. (Thanks Ann Voskamp and your wonderful book, 1000 Gifts) Work on the spiritual disciple of gratitude.Embrace Thanksgiving as THEday to share what we are thankful for with the family - the perfect family smiling around the dinner table with halos abounding and hearts full of love. Yeah, right.My Thanksgiving expectations: Norman Rockwell.My reality: Kitchen Nightmare or Lethal Cooking.To be honest, last Thursday was not THAT bad, but by midmorning, by myself, preparing all the food, I sipped on a mug of self-pity. I wanted to make a huge Thanksgiving meal. My family insists that every year I cook for an army. So I set myself up for this annual why-me-scenario. I do it to myself!The green bean casserole broke me.You know the concoction - heavy laden with calories and memories. Green beans, those yummy eat from the can onion rings and cream of mushroom soup. I have tried lighter … [Read more...]
Ten Inspirational Quotes to Bless Your Thanksgiving Day
It’s Thanksgiving here in the USA and I know not all of you are from this country but each day can be a day of thanks if we intentionally seek to be live gratefully. I am thankful for each of you reading this post today. May each path you travel be filled with thankfulness.Here is some inspiration for you today:If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, "thank you," that would suffice. ~Meister Eckhart (one of my favorites!)Thanksgiving Day comes, by statute, once a year; to the honest man it comes as frequently as the heart of gratitude will allow. ~Edward Sandford Martin We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures. ~Thornton WilderGive thanks for unknown blessings already on their way. ~Native American SayingGratitude ... goes beyond the "mine" and "thine" and claims the truth that all of life is a pure gift. In the past I always thought of gratitude as a spontaneous response to the awareness of gifts received, but … [Read more...]
Iona: A Thin Place
What was wrong with me? Here I walked on the remote island of Iona where for thousands of years, Christians experienced God and I felt nothing.I was disappointed. What was I missing?I wrote in my journal that last full day on Iona: “Thank you Lord for this walk on ‘ancient paths.’ The beautiful hikes have physically blessed me and I felt joy with the wonderful discussions filled with laughter among friends. But spiritually something is missing. What does my soul need from this sacred time here on Iona?I know I felt a ‘quickening’ of my spirit, the touch of your hand, the closeness of your breath when I saw the Scottish landscape, the villages and people. I experienced your presence in the Edinburgh Castle and my surprise discovery of the Writers Museum. But Iona remains bare. I don’t want to miss it, ignore You nor do I want to demand its arrival either. Help me see the gift you have for me here on Iona.”On our pilgrimage to Scotland and England we spent two full days on the Island … [Read more...]
Pay Attention – Lectio Divina
We must pay the most careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away.Hebrews 2:1Pay AttentionOK, Lord, I hear You.Everywhere I turn I read the words, “Pay Attention.”I hear them in sermons and notice them in conversations.The letters jump out from the Scriptures into my heart during my devotions.Friends write about taking notice in their blogs.Speakers mention being aware in their presentations.Pay attention. "Pay the most careful attention." I hear You, Lord. But to what?You gently answer, “Pay attention to what is right in front of you.”Pausing I look around me with unshielded eyes and an open heart. May I be more mindful when You speak to me in nature. Your love beams from the bright orange and yellow colors of fall. Your voice calls me in the crunch of fall leaves. I feel your smile as the squirrels scurry along the tree branches, busy with their autumn preparations.May I fully notice the people You bring to me: the unnamed, smile-less store clerk … [Read more...]
Back to Basics – Loving the Daily Working
This Ignatius Life is one of my favorite blogs to read. I enjoy their world view and challenging posts.Last week the post titled “The Daily Working” by Michelle Franci-Donnay resonated with me. Here is a portion of what she wrote:“You have to love the daily working,” suggested choreographer Merce Cunningham. He was talking about what it took to be a dancer — not a teacher, researcher, writer, mother or contemplative, or in my case, all those things tangled into a single day. He meant you have to enjoy being crammed into a studio taking class with forty other students, that you have to delight in the doing of the hundred-thousandth plie. You have to be willing to lovingly and gratefully return to the basics each and every day, even — and perhaps most particularly — in the midst of chaos, or you cannot dance.”Dancing in the everyday nitty-gritty of life. For me this means finding the joy in the sometimes-tedious details of the life of a writer, a speaker, a retreat leader, a mother, a … [Read more...]