Letter from a Birmingham Jail

One of most absolutely beautiful truths of a well-lived life in this letter for me:

 

...if I had been writing from a comfortable desk...

 

I thank God for my discomforts, knowing that they have given me an insight, a compassion, a true empathy that would have been otherwise impossible to gain in the life I now lead; one not without discomfort, but with so much risk of what King writes earlier - of complacency, of insensivity, of paternalism.

 

I humbly ask my Creator to place me in places of discomfort should I ever forget that I've been called to serve, to seek, to dream, and to invest. Thank you for the situations that inspire us to look to You.

Time to stay powerful

Happy Valentine's Day

Today is Valentine's Day, a day to celebrate love, as if other days were different.

I learned from Grams on Dawson's Creek that Saint Valentine was a martyr who was killed for his refusal to cease marrying Christian couples. In those days, in that place, Christians were not to be married, because they were cultural outsiders without that "civil right."

I pray that today, we look upon the human right to marry the person we love with an even closer lens, and that we stand with those currently considered outsiders in demanding equal rights for all, in every place.

This will be my first Valentine's Day in a long time as a single person. I haven't talked much here about being single, because I am still figuring it out. I also don't know that I have anything too profound to say. I still work too much, I still love the things I used to love to do and do them. I'm still me, maybe even more so.

I'm excited for Valentine's Day, precisely because it's a holiday about expressing love, a force I think runs deeper than any emotion, deeper than one relationship or another, and deep into what makes us human, happy and free.

So I am looking forward to today, and any mushiness I might be a witness to, even as my own kind of outsider. Other people's love is a beautiful thing, and my love for the world, my life and the people in it never ceases to be an amazing gift from God.

This week's dose of gratitude

Trust is the bridge from yesterday to tomorrow, built with planks of thanks.

- Ann Voskamp

Best of the blizzard

Looking at what's there

I have not ever been able to quiet my mind with seated meditation. Well, I've tried it, I've done it I guess, but the end result is me being exceedingly bored - a feeling I hate - and not really having said meditation achieve it's goals.

So I have been exploring other options. Vinyasa yoga is a really nice balance of focusing on the breath connected to simple movement and mindfulness. My mind is intense, really intense, and that's at the root of not being able to just shut it down - it needs a focus.

Another thing that's been working is an enhanced detail orientation. I'm starting to look at my world in layers, to pick it apart, but to start with something simple, so that meditation does not turn into a problem to solve or a mystery to unravel.

So this weekend I focused on this tree for a bit.

The way the light interacted with it. The way the wind blew its needles. The knots on it's trunk. It's distance from my location.

I think we all need different ways of centering, and in this slowed focus on what's already here, simple, and beautiful, I find a greater appreciation for the present moment.

How did it take me 27.9 years...

...to find this?

Happy Sunday, lovely people.

 

May your coffee and your faith be strong.