when pigs fly

I’ve noticed that some people are very self-motivated while others need a little jump start.  I am self-motivated with certain things and with other things (such as cleaning my home) I need that jump start.  Usually it is the dog toy stuffing strewn across the living room again or the weeds in the garden looking just as healthy as my vegetables.  There is another sort of motivation that I experience, though, that only besets me when someone looks me in the eyes and say, “That’s not possible.” or “When pigs fly.”

You see, when I hear those things, I immediately assess the situation to determine the validity of the statement.  Not to prove myself right, but to see what kind of work needs to be done to meet the goal.  My parents raised me while saying, “Nothing is impossible.  You can do what it is you set your mind to doing.”  and I took that way serious.  I try to live it and instill that value into the young people that I am so lucky to get to hang with and share life.

Things that seem impossible are only difficult to achieve in a lot of circumstances.  These things take hard work, dedication, and stick-to-it-ness.  Many times it takes other people believing in you, supporting you, and letting you try.  Mistakes are just proof that you are trying.  Trying is proof that you are dedicated.  Dedication is proof that you can overcome challenges.  Overcoming challenges means that you have history – which means that you are living – trying things – experiencing new places, people, and adventures.

I want to be the person that says, “You can if you try hard enough, but only you can do the work – I can support you and guide you, though, and I will be there for you whether you fall or you fly.”

 

 

balance being a delicate thing

The funny thing about balance is that if you focus too much on it, something else goes haywire and you’re left stewing over the fact that things have gone wonky.  I’ve been giving this much thought over the past few weeks as I’ve been preparing for the time that I spend with a quite awesome bunch of teenagers.  Fun, games, down time, learning, fellowship, relationship, mediation, plus a thousand other things are all important and one cannot fit them all in an hour and a half and feel as though you made the most of your time.  At least I can’t.  If you can, well, props to you.

In this process of balance, it has become clear to me that I cannot force this on my young friends, but I can make it part of what our group is.  In doing so, not only am I facilitating this balance during our time together, but they are learning to model balance in one aspect of their lives.  What excites me is that modeling leads to understanding and understanding leads to applying.  My hope is that our group will grow into a new understanding of what it means to be together and what it means to make the most of our short time together every week.  I also hope that as they grow together into this ministry of balance, they grow individually as people who know how to enjoy what the moment holds and not focus too much upon what the next will reveal.

 

While balance is always necessary – spontaneity is equally necessary and always delightful.  May we remember to allow for the unexpected!!

 

 

such a mother as this

 

 

I’m always looking to grow – to learn something new or to relearn something that I’ve forgotten – and growing is a funny thing.  Sometimes you don’t know that you are growing or have grown, but you wake up one day and you are a different person and can’t quite figure out how you got there.  Sometimes you try so hard to grow through an experience and feel as if you are going backwards and then all of the sudden you take a giant leap forward.

Here is the part where I tell you that I like to watch other people grow.  It is easier to see when it is not yourself because we are not near as critical of others most of the time as we are of ourselves.  Over the years I have watched my mother grow.  I have been watching and Noticing for quite a few years now.  Mainly small things – the way she encourages others – the way she helps out my sisters with their kids – the way she helps me when I’ll let her (mainly with words as I am a solitary/loaner kinda daughter).

I invited her to go along with my youth group, other church members, and myself on a learning trip to Cherokee, N.C. and delighted in her presence all week long.  She is the kind of mom that you know is there and you know loves you and you know she loves others and is helpful and independent in her work.  We would not have been so successful in relating to some of the kids that we worked with if it wasn’t for my mom.

She has chosen a path of love and a life of giving to others and delights in the joy of others and loves to be involved in her loved ones’ lives.  I am proud to have such a mother as this.  I am uplifted by her joy and encouragement.  I am filled with joy as she walks along side me in this crazy life that I live.  Most of all – I am so glad and thankful that she is my friend.

So, mom.  It was so good to spend a week with you and have you alongside me working, laughing, learning, and loving.  It was good to have your hugs and your sense of humor and your go-along-with-it attitude.  You are an exceptional person and I admire you and love you very much.  Essentially – you rock 🙂

Love,

Daughter #2

a parable of sorts

So I’m talking to my husband last night about all manner of things and we get around to “Jesus Stuff” as I call it and he says this to me:

“The way I see it is this, baby.

You go out there in the world and you get knocked down four or five times.

When you get back up, you usually decide what kind of person you want to be.

A knocker-downer or a builder-upper.”

It kills me that he can say stuff like that in three sentences.  I love him anyway, though.

 

May we build up with love and we help each other not to fall along the way.  I pray that the sun in the bright, blue sky shines through the shadows of your life and sunbeams dance on your shoulders while you travel in this world.

 

you can fly

I see a butterfly that is a cloud that is not a butterfly at all, but it is still flying.  🙂

 

 

Just a reminder that you can fly.  No one will do it for you and a lot of people will tell you that you can’t, but you can.  You can fly and you can sing and you can dance and be silly.  You can hike into the mountains and stroll into the valleys.  You can decide to be ok just as well as you can decide to be miserable.  You can make the best of the worst and, of course, the worst of the best, but please don’t ruin a great moment just to prove that you can!

You can smile and laugh and love and live with intent and you can come alongside someone who appears to be going through their own sort of hell.  You can rhyme and you can hope for the best even if it seems impossible.  You can pray and have faith that God works in your life – you can stumble and fall and get up better for the tumble.  You can encourage others just for the sake of encouraging them and you can go to bed exhausted from living a day.

You can Love.  Give it a try – it feels like flying.

Just thought I’d give you a little reminder…

always a light

I have been reminding myself lately that there is always a light at the end of the tunnel.  I like short tunnels because you see them coming and the light at the other side all at once.  Long tunnels scare me a little bit because even if they don’t sneak up on you, you know that you are going to be heading into the unknown only knowing that at some point you will see this pinprick of light and it will grow and grow and grow and grow and the more it grows, the more you hope and the more you hope, the faster you go and the faster you go, the sooner you are standing in the light that at one time, was just a presence in your head.

I do not mean for this to be a “Suzy Sunshine” post.  I know that some people go through battles and either lose sight of the light at the end and consider themselves hopeless.  Others know with great strength and noble sadness that the light they’ll see when they get to the end may well be the light of every star in the sky rejoicing in the homecoming of a well loved soul.  I know that some people live in their tunnels either unable to see the light at the end or unwilling.  I also know that some people venture into the tunnels of other people’s lives to remind them of the light at the end.

so remember:

May you remember that there is light.  Search it out and bloom strong into the day so that others may follow your journey and be filled with gladness or hope or maybe less weariness or pain.  May we all strive to be lights for those who can’t search or forget to search.  May we love each other with ferocity and hope.

all we have is time

What is your journey?  Do you know?  Are you lost?  Found?  Somewhere in between?  Wherever you are is where you are and there is a peace in that.  There is also peace in deciding to head a certain direction.  The farther you go, the farther you get.  All we have is time!!  Here’s to making the most of it.  🙂

Present Tense

So I’m walking down the road with Henry the boxer,  Audrey (one of my many sweet sisters), her Copper the boxer, Roxy (a tiny corgie/chihuahua mix), and Zoe (a dog, pyrenees/collie mix, that once lived at our house and then moved to the big city to live with my father-in-law).  We’re a hot mess that day – every car in the neighborhood decides to drive down the road – the dogs on leashes are trying to chase the dogs off the leashes and we just about cut the walk short, but then the stars seem to align just right and we manage to continue in a somewhat organized fashion.  I use the term “somewhat organized” VERY loosely here, folks.

We walk and talk.  The sun tries to reach through the canopy of leaves over the road, but fails mostly and we continue on through dappled shade and the occaisional sunny spot.  Funny the things you talk about when you walk.  Sometimes very serious things that are easier to talk about while you’re doing something else.  Sometimes silly things to fill the space.  Sometimes observations on the things you see around you as you exercise your mind, body, and spirit.  Sometimes, on particular days when you feel hope, you dare to dream with the person you are walking with.

On the way back, Audrey (Miss Attention to Detail) points out this beautiful blue egg.   The most perfect aqua, sea blue egg and it lay on the ground among the leaves and the gravel seeming to know that it wasn’t going to reach its full potential, but it was just going to lay there and be beautiful anyway.  I feel sorry for the bird-that-never-gets-to-Be in that egg – it’s a slight pull in my chest, a regret for something that will never learn to fly.  Some may argue that maybe the inside of that egg never actually became a bird – maybe it got knocked out or something like that, but I argue back that eggs make birds and birds learn to fly.  In my heart, this is an inarguable truth and in my head, all the rationalizing and logic in the world can never convince me not to feel sorry for the bird-that-never-gets-to-Be.

I immediately wish for a camera.  Mine is at home as is Audrey’s phone.  I contain my dismay and we continue on home and through the day and I still keep thinking about that egg – how pretty it was – all blue in a sea of brown, surrounded by clover and gravel.  Just laying there in an elegance that humans cannot reproduce though we try and try.

The next day, I set out on my walk with Henry and my camera and search for the egg and find it there in the same place, the same aqua, sea blue, the same feeling of sadness overcomes me, and my dog is staring at my like I’ve lost my mind.  I snap a few pictures and then continue on with my walk still thinking about that dang bird-that-never-gets-to-Be.  Can’t get it out of my head – just the image mostly – as I go through my day.  So here is what I do when I get home:

Always know that you are deeply loved and that you are a bird-that-gets-to-Be.  Always know that even in the fierce battles of life, there is a calm, quiet strength that, should we choose to lean upon it, makes us soar like eagles – even if we came out of the tiniest of perfect, aqua, sea blue shells.

Don’t forget to fly!!!