Showing posts with label Love. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Love. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

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...
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Tuesday, September 14, 2010

What is Love, Then? (September Word Celebration)



I wrote this for my husband, 
who was gracious enough to let me share it here. 
Call it a summary...



 What is Love, then?

It is moments, both quiet and loud. 
Whispers and screams. 
Mountains peaks and endless valleys.
The heartiest of laughter.
The bitterest of grief.
God in my pocket... God in my questions.
Beginnings and endings.
Holidays and everydays.
Bills and blessings.
In and out of control.
The fire of new challenge, the ashes of past hope.
Nose to the grindstone, head to the floor. 
Bounding and falling.
Times of Jesus.
Times of me.
Sprinting, crawling, Exhaling, gasping...
Sacrifice, bounty, projects, car accidents, vacations, cups of tea, mocha highs, career lows...
Trusting God.
Where is God?
Truth.
Shoulder taps from God.
Falling Christmas trees.
Desks as room dividers (my husband's first and last decorating suggestion).
Obsession, neurosis...
Sighing, laughing, breathing, walking, running....
A million moments weaved together by God, to be the most tremendous gift, sharing all of it with you.





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Thursday, June 10, 2010

All my little blessings

Let me say that God has answered every prayer request I have had in regard to my daughter, even the ones I did not voice out loud. 

~The pregnancy was smooth. 
~My daughter is beautifully healthy. 
~She came on Memorial weekend when friends and family could easily come visit.
~She came when my husband was at home and could easily get me to the hospital.
~My water broke with my not having had a single contraction, guaranteeing that they would keep me at the hospital. 
~I got the on-call doctor I wanted. 
~I had the best labor/delivery nurse. 
~And, relatively speaking, labor/delivery moved pretty quickly. 

Bearing all this in mind, I have graciously decided to cut God some slack on all the prayers about my school/career that He has not quite answered to my satisfaction. :) I am beginning to think that He may have known best... known how much she would change me... how instantly and intensely my heart would be knit to hers... how much she would heal me... how much I would want nothing more than to be with her...


I had a wonderful time (minus the pain) in the hospital and it truly was one of the best weeks of my life. Here are some of my favorite memories that I have packed away in my mental scrapbook:


~I was having a nice lunch with my friend and didn't think too much of the fact that I was "raining" in my seat the whole time... 'cos you know on TV it always comes on like a thunderstorm.


~When the contractions were the worst, C.(hubby) was whispering his favorite memories of our life together thus far into my ear.


~Ms. P and L. scouring the hospital cupboards like a couple of excited pirates making sure that I went home with a bounty of goodies for the baby. They both did it at the same time, with no cues from each other. Ah, genetics. :)


~The best kind of friends... for staying... with no regard to my puking, the lateness of the hour, the long wait or uncomfortable chairs. (Thanks, B, Ms.P and L!)


~Having my husband tell me what an amazingly strong person I was to go through all of that pain, and how proud he was of me. And for all the ways having a child together has deepened an already strong love.


~After the labor nurse gave me my first IV painkiller, she told me it would feel like drinking three Tequilas. When the drug hit my system, it confirmed for me why I made the right decision by never drinking. 


~In order to comfort me that the baby was coming soon (and faster than they expected) my labor nurse told me that the doctor was putting on her "ball gown."


~Nurse (after the baby came): "Congratulations, you just ran a marathon."
Me: "No. I have actually run a marathon and it was by far easier."


~The Oprah Effect 
After too many years of anxiety about the question of having children, and far too many episodes of Oprah listening to mothers who had formed no attachment to their children, I was amazed at my instant, immediate, intense love for my child.

~The knowledge that everything worth savoring in this life is sweeter, more exquisite with Jesus.

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Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Love at the finish line



It usually begins with an attraction. An infatuation even. The desire to know another and to be known. And left to continue on this path, usually culminates in a ceremony.

The middle is filled with jobs, mortgages, children, bills, packed schedules...and infatuation gives way to real life. Lots of people don't make it through this point, eager as they are to remain in the highs of emotional entanglement. Here is where real love takes root, and
you realize you have a stalwart partner with whom to navigate the bends and twists of life.

The end? Well, the end is an entirely different proposition....



I had the privilege, while working in home health care, of taking care of a couple that had been married for 60+ years. He was terminal with bone and lung cancer. She was showing early signs of dementia, but was otherwise physically healthy. When I first was assigned the case, it was to take care of the Mrs. while her husband was in the hospital undergoing tests to determine the cause of his pain. I was there to make sure she didn't burn the house down or get lost since her thoughts were something hard to hold on to these days. He came home from the hospital with singular focus, knowing he did not have long. He wanted to make sure that his beloved wife was taken care of, placed in a facility where she would have access to round-the-clock care, where his money would be enough to pave the last miles of her life.

After witnessing improvement in his pain level over a couple of weeks, I was surprised to show up for my shift one day and find him regressing. As it turns out, he had taken himself off his heavy narcotic pain relievers because he felt they were clouding his ability to make decisions concerning his wife's future care. Without his meds, just getting up to go the bathroom left him in excruciating pain. Amidst the hideous, unfair nature of his pain, I was so struck by the beauty of his sacrifice.

Whenever the pain became so great that he thought he was at the end, he would ask me to get his wife so he could sit in the silence and hold her hand.
No need to speak. They had fit in all their speaking and now they sat confident, knowing nothing had been left unsaid. Nothing left. Just the two of them. Pretty is gone. Busy is gone. Time races to the finish line. And you are left with whatever foundation you built it all on.

We are inundated with images of candlelight dinners and swooning hearts, but love is often it's most beautiful in the darkness. We of course see our first and most potent example of this kind of love through Jesus. Only God would birth salvation and love in the hideousness of the cross. It reminds me of a favorite song of mine from the late Rich Mullins:

"...And it's Wally and the Beaver, David and Jonathan
It's the love of Jesus puttin' on flesh and bone
And we both feel lost
But I remember what Susan said
How love is found in the things we've given up
More than in the things we have kept..."


Mr. passed away in December, right after he had finalized details for his wife. They moved into a facility together and then he was gone. I knew he would be. I knew he was only hanging on for her in the first place...





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