A short collection of things I have found to be true

Anecdotes, directives, lessons (some deep, some not) and the like that I have found on life’s journey. It could also be called “A rip-off of some (only some) of my best FB stuff, repackaged on my blog.”

Every family is comprised of the members you introduce and the ones you “explain.”
 

If someone means something to you, tell them. Don’t give yourself the regret of never having said it, or deprive them the joy of hearing it. 

When choosing a fitness class, look for the instructor that is ripped... And preferably one that is x-military. Otherwise you might have someone who pulls out dusty moves such as the grapevine. If you want to change your life, you want the instructor who will make you beg for said life. Unless you don’t want to sweat. Or have your makeup run. In which case you need to go to MY bootcamp. (Say it with me...the gym is sacred ground. Don’t come unless you are serious.)
 
Don’t ask someone “Notice anything?” after finishing a project. Odds are good they will find five things you were not asking about while missing the issue of concern entirely. This is especially unwise if you, like me, belong to the perfectionist club.

Be advised that when someone asks you for spiritual accountability ultimately they are asking you if you are willing to sacrifice the friendship to deliver the truth. Because people want accountability until they don’t. It is always this moment where accountability is most needed and most critical.

There exists soiled diapers for which there is no strategy.

When you know someone really well, you can find yourself being mad at them for what you know for a fact they are thinking even when they haven’t said or done anything. One of life’s beauties. 

The middle lanes on the freeway are the suicide lanes. If something tragic happens, you have nowhere to go except into traffic. Best to stay far left or far right. ;) I am morbid enough to mull this fact over every time I find myself driving the middle.

Unless you are a gourmet cook or at least someone who loves cooking, it is best to limit your new recipe searches to those recipes that are a page or less. Anything more and you will want to use those kitchen utensils for purposes they were not intended.

If you’re not laughing, you’re crying. Okay, that one is my dad’s. Truest thing. Laughter has been our balm through some of the roughest times. You must also realize that being someone who believes this means you will often wear the mantle of irreverence. Welcome.

Even the most minor of damage to a car will not be cheap. You can not spit on a car for less than $100. If you don’t know this fact, God bless you, you lucky soul. (Better to read it in a stranger’s blog than live it.)

It is one thing to get something out of your life. The real work is getting it out of your head.

Age steadies instinct.

God did not give man the intelligence to invent cell phones so that you could talk on the phone while simultaneously being on the toilet. That is just messed up. ‘Nuff said.

 

to be continued...

Here, There, and all Points in Between (September Word Celebration)

 Here is where I am. 

There is where all my great plans are.

There is where I am hoping to go; 

yet often when I do, I find myself wishing again for here. 

Here is waiting. I am not so good at that.  

Here is where God teaches me trust.

Here time stands still. Here is certain.  

There often is a lane in two directions, paved with fear and regret.

Here is where joy can be found if only I could let my mind stay.

Here is oxygen.

Here is contentment.

One of these days I may learn how to appreciate here.

I may even stop worrying about getting there and realize here is not bad at all.

Here counts blessings.

Here exhales.

There can only truly be enjoyed when it is reached by stepping and standing on the rungs of here.

The Running Rx (September Word Celebration)

 

I love to run...

 

It is the place that my mind is the most quiet. 

It is my prayer time. 

 

My grateful time.

 

I run to find God...

 

It is a spiritual metaphor. The mind willing the body into submission, much like the war between the flesh and the spirit. (Galatians 5:17) 

 

Each step, a shedding of the day's griefs and struggles.

 

Every bead of sweat hitting the ground, telling a tale of determination, persistence, and triumph.

 

It is Victory.

 

It is Freedom.

 

It is *Peace*.

 

It is another mile when you think you can’t go on... *Life*

 

It changes the body.

 

And the mind.

 

It reveals what you are made of.

 

And what you can be.

 

It is raw Strength.

 

It is your heart thanking you.

It is...

...the stride pounding the pavement, perfect to the beat of the rhythm, against the will of the body, in the company of the Almighty

 

Bliss!

The Ten Cow Wife (September Word Celebration)

Years ago my Pastor included in one of his sermons the story of a man negotiating the procurement of a wife. The story originally ran in Readers Digest. Following is an excerpt:

...Five months ago, at festival time, Johnny came to Kiniwata and found himself a wife. He paid her father ten cows!

He spoke the last words with great solemnity and I knew enough about island customs to be thoroughly impressed. Two or three cows would buy a fair-to-middling wife, four or five a highly satisfactory one.
 

“Ten cows!” I said. “She must have been a beauty that takes your breath away.”

“That's why they laugh,” my guest said. “It would be kindness to call her plain. She was little and skinny with no--ah--endowments. She walked with her shoulders hunched and her head ducked, as if she was trying to hide behind herself. Her cheeks had no color, her eyes never opened beyond a slit and her hair was a tangled mop half over her face. She was scared of her own shadow, frightened by her own voice. She was afraid to laugh in public. She never romped with the girls, so how could she attract the boys?”

“But she attracted Johnny?”

“This is the story [told to me,” he said]:

All the way to the council tent the cousins were urging Sam to try for a good settlement. Ask for three cows, they told him, and hold out for two until you're sure he'll pay one. But Sam was in such a stew and so afraid there would be some slip in this marriage chance for Sarita that they knew he wouldn't hold out for anything. So while they waited they resigned themselves to accepting one cow, and thought, instead, of their luck in getting such a good husband for Sarita. Then Johnny came into the tent and, without waiting for a word from any of them, went straight up to Sam Karoo, grasped his hand and said, ‘Father of Sarita, I offer ten cows for your daughter.’ And he delivered the cows.
 

As soon as it was over Johnny took Sarita to the island of Cho for the first week of marriage. Then they went home to Narabundi and we haven't seen them since. Except at festival time, there's not much travel between the islands.

This story interested me so I decided to investigate.

The next day I reached the island where Johnny lived. When I met the slim, serious man, he welcomed me to his home with a grace that made me feel like the owner. I was glad that from his own people he had respect unmingled with mockery.

I told him that his people had told me about him.
 

‘They speak much of me on that island? What do they say?’

They say you are a sharp trader, I said. They also say the marriage settlement that you made for your wife was ten cows. I paused, then went on, coming as close to a direct question as I could. They wonder why.

‘They say that?’ His eyes lighted with pleasure. He seemed not to have noticed the question. ‘Everyone in Kiniwata knows about the ten cows?’

I nodded.

And in Narabundi everyone knows it, too. His chest expanded with satisfaction. Always and forever, when they speak of marriage settlements, it will be remembered that Johnny Lingo paid ten cows for Sarita.

So that's the answer, I thought with disappointment. All this mystery and wonder and the explanation's only vanity. It's not enough for his ego to be known as the smartest, the strongest, the quickest. He had to make himself famous for his way of buying a wife. I was tempted to deflate him by reporting that in Kiniwata he was laughed at for a fool.

And then I saw her. Through the glass-beaded portieres that simmered in the archway, I watched her enter the adjoining room to place a bowl of blossoms on the dining table. She stood still a moment to smile with sweet gravity at the young man beside me. Then she went swiftly out again. She was the most beautiful woman I have ever seen. Not with the beauty of the girl who carries fruit. That now seemed cheap, common, earthbound. This girl had an ethereal loveliness that was at the same time from the heart of nature. The dew-fresh flowers with which she'd pinned back her lustrous black hair accented the glow of her cheeks. The lift of her shoulders, the tilt of her chin, the sparkle of her eyes all spelled a pride to which no one could deny her the right. And as she turned to leave she moved with the grace that made her look like a queen who might, with enchantment, turn into a kitten.

When she was out of sight I turned back to Johnny Lingo and found him looking at me with eyes that reflected the pride of the girl's.

‘You admire her?’ he murmured.

She--she's glorious. Who is she?

‘My wife.’

I stared at him blankly. Was this some custom I had not heard about? Do they practice polygamy here? He, for his ten cows, bought both Sarita and this other? Before I could form a question he spoke again.

‘This is only one Sarita.’ His way of saying the words gave them a special significance. ‘Perhaps you wish to say she does not look the way they say she looked in Kiniwata.’

She doesn't. The impact of the girl's appearance made me forget tact. I heard she was homely, or at least nondescript. They all make fun of you because you let yourself by cheated by Sam Karoo.

‘You think he cheated me? You think ten cows were too many?’ A slow smile slid over his lips as I shook my head. ‘She can see her father and her friends again. And they can see her. Do you think anyone will make fun of us then? Much has happened to change her. Much in particular happened the day she went away.’

You mean she married you?

‘That, yes. But most of all, I mean the arrangements for the marriage.’

Arrangements?

‘Do you ever think,’ he asked reflectively, ‘what it does to a woman when she knows that the price her husband has paid is the lowest price for which she can be bought? And then later, when all the women talk, as women do, they boast of what their husbands paid for them. One says four cows, another maybe six. How does she feel--the woman who was sold for one or two? This could not happen to my Sarita.’

Then you paid that unprecedented number of cows just to make your wife happy?

“Happy?’ He seemed to turn the word over on his tongue, as if to test its meaning. ‘I wanted Sarita to be happy, yes, but I wanted more than that. You say she's different from the way they remember her in Kiniwata. This is true. Many things can change a woman. Things that happen inside, things that happen outside. But the thing that matters most is what she thinks about herself. In Kiniwata, Sarita believed she was worth nothing. Now she knows that she is worth more than any other woman on the islands.’

Then you wanted...

‘I wanted to marry Sarita. I loved her and no other woman.’

‘But--’ I was close to understanding.

‘But,’ he finished softly, ‘I wanted a ten-cow wife.’

I was in the midst of major healing in my life at the time of this sermon, so I knew before he even finished the story, the straight line my Pastor was drawing to the Cross. 

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. ”

So while we may not be ten cow wives, we are children of God, purchased with the blood of Jesus. There could be no greater worth than that.

September Word Celebration

Joy |joi|
noun
Intense and especially ecstatic or exultant happiness. 
The expression or manifestation of such feeling.
A source or an object of pleasure or satisfaction.

I have always felt there was a distinct difference between joy and happiness. 

Running after happiness seems to bring anything but.

Happiness is emotional. Fleeting. Temporal.

Joy is a foundation

Joy courses through your veins

Joy is a framework

Joy is eternal

It exists in the midst of suffering and trial

“Weeping may endure for a night, but Joy comes in the morning”

It is free

Found not in the “stuff” of life but rather in it’s moments. 

Often it is simple...

 A fresh breeze

A Baby's smile

A hug from the right person at the right time

The smell of Fall in the air

Coffee (or if you’re me and don’t like coffee, some other ridiculously overpriced beverage) with a trusted friend

Laughing at nothing at all

A steadfast love

*Rain*

Driving with the windows down and a content dog in the back seat 

Watching the movement of life with Classical music as the backdrop (I highly recommend this. I have found even the car wash is beautiful when the machinery appears to be moving with the music) 

The abiding love of God  

What brings you joy? 

30 Days of Words (or 23ish if you are like me and getting a late start..)

I have been inspired by K Mac's Journey of Words, a September blog event where every post centers around a specific word significant to one’s life. Her blog is filled with beautiful, poetic, pithy writings. You know, the kind of writer that makes it seems so easy, you leave thinking you can sit down and write just as brilliantly. (A college literature class also had me convinced I could write like Kerouac...) Anyway, I loved the idea and the wonderful writings that accompanied the idea, so I will attempt to follow suit in my own meager way.

 Call my first one a stream of consciousness....

want |wont, wawnt| 

verb

to wish, need, crave, demand, or desire

I want to be perfect

I want it to be okay that I am not

I want to spend at least one day not beating myself up

I want to remember who I am (Psalms 139:14)

I want to run through the fields of grace (Hebrews 12:1-2; 2 Corinthians 12:9)

I want to feast at the table (Psalms 23:5) 

I want to stand on the knowledge that whatever happens in this life

I. am. still. free. (Romans 8:34-39; Isaiah  53:5)

Like sands through the hourglass...

As I stated in my previous post, I am not patient. I am pretty sure that fact about myself was pretty high up on my list due (if you know me) to the obviousness of it's truth. 

My daughter is due Memorial Day. 

I am really not sure if she is aware...

That the weekend is perfect timing for all my friends to be able to visit me in the hospital...

That my first choice doctor is on call over the holiday weekend...

 That I have savored all there is to savor about pregnancy and I am ready for the ride to be over...


That I have already designed her birth announcement, her high school graduation announcement, and her wedding invitations in attempts to pass the time... 

That I just can't wait to meet her...

You see I am a planner and I have it all figured out...

Don't you hate that the most critical part of any plan (the actual implementation) is always in somebody else's hands?

I have become an expert at crafting (what can only be described as magnificent) plans and watching them turn to ash the minute they are handed off to a deciding body. (Could it be God is still trying to teach me patience? :-P )

Oh wait! My husband just called to inform me that he left his cell phone at home...thereby guaranteeing that she will come today.

I don't know whether to kill him or thank him.

Random facts about me

1. My face will always reveal my true feelings. I have no poker face.
2. Whenever I get takeout the first thing I always have to do, is "fix" my food. (E.g.: more of this condiment, less of that, removal of items it wasn't supposed to include, etc...)
3. You will never hear me claim to be patient. Ever. I prefer to label it "results driven."
4. I have champagne tastes and beer pockets.
5. I am extremely quick witted. I love watching peoples' heads spin while I knock 'em out rapid fire.
6. I am not stereotypically female except when it comes to changing flat tires and killing bugs. That's what men are for.
7. I am an efficiency expert. I should train others.
8. I hate the sound of dragging feet. If your shoes make it too hard for you to pick your feet up, you really need to wear something else. Do that for me, K?
9. Whenever I go to New York, I always treat myself to a ridiculously priced haircut at Frederic Fekkai. Love it!! (I swear the first time I went there, all the chi-chi's sounded an alarm that an intruder was present.)
10. You can snow me and make me believe in the magic of your product if you are shampoo or soap, but not if you are fitness products. I am a die-hard and cannot be lulled into believing in "magical, effortless" ways to lose weight.
11. I have loved God my whole life and cannot imagine my life without Him.
12. I am freakishly strong and equipped with incredible amounts of stamina. (When I am not pregnant...which is why I cannot wait for the descent back to normal...)
13. I have run and completed a marathon.
14. I have the most unruly eyebrows ever. I always say they look like an old man when they need plucking. Fortunately for me, I also have the best eyebrow artist ever in Leslie. She is on a New York playing field, but I am oh so glad she calls Michigan home. I am her best before and after photo.
15. I have a steel trap memory. I remember crazy things as far back as elementary school. I remember L. the kid who knocked down the concrete doll house my friend and I were building slowly over several recesses. Even remember what it looked like. Remembering conversations is a real strong point.
16. When I am in a garden store or nursery, I may as well be hypnotized.
17. You always know where you stand with me.
18. I am very people rich. God has blessed me my whole life with wise people. He has also given me the grace to listen to them, which has spared me an immense amount of drama.
19. I got sick on Chocolate Chip Cookie Crisp Cereal (do they still make it?) when I was five and have never recovered. I have hated cold cereals ever since. (I do like Oatmeal.)
20. When recounting the extensive locations I have traveled, I am more likely to tell you about the best food finds. Anything else will require your prodding.  This is a characteristic that runs throughout my family.

Too much?