Contemplation

In a book I am reading, the author points out that we are perhaps to come to faith as a child, because children live in God's presense - the current moment - all the time, and have security in it, gratitude for it.

The author points out that to a very small child, everything is a surprise, a treat, a wonder.

I find that the more tuned in to the present moment I am, the more treats I find. Even with all the junk on the internet, I find something like this:

Nothing I've never seen before, but look at it! God created that, and the stars, and our fingernails, and trees and water and air and all the chemicals, and feelings.

There's so much *muchness* everywhere when we look for it. There are so many surprises inside of our mundane lives, if we would just crack them open and live them in the moment.

Thank you for the present moment, God. Thanks for letting me live it in a creation with so many, and so much. This is a wonderful life.

Birthday weekend in pictures

 

 

Thought Provoking Question: 1 of 25

This is a fun question to be answering as I sit here and write on my 28th birthday (a few days from when I'm scheduling this post). How old would I be if I didn't know how old I was. I think 35.

I feel like I have lived through some stuff. I'm mature-ish. I'm doing laundry, listening to gospel, and last night I added my windshield wiper fluid to my car. These are all things relatively mature people do, I am guessing.

I've completed enough schooling, I've advanced fairly sufficiently in a career, and I know what I am looking for in my relationships. I know what my hobbies are, I know what my strengths are, and increasingly, my weaknesses too.

I love to laugh, and I am learning to find more shades and undulations of funny out there every day.

I am ready for the next thing, but know each day will only unveil itself moment y moment.

So I feel 35. I feel ready to run a marathon, sail a Cape Cod Mercury, to date, to learn new stuff, and to take care of myself this year. I feel ready to give more generously, because I know more of what I have to offer.

I feel ready to throw back my head, look at the sky, and laugh for the perfection of it all (attribution to the Buddha and crazy people everywhere).

Maybe in a few years, I'll look back at this post and laugh. Maybe I'll have aged or Benjamin Button'ed by then. But I will be grateful for here, now, at 35 and 28 all at once.

Beauty

This is so beautiful. It is so real. And I really struggle to think about how I feel about it.

In the 7th grade I was bullied by a girl who was my friend. Well, she's still my friend...on Facebook.

But she, and I believe unwittingly, took the one thing I was hanging onto and rubbed it in my face. She took the chip on my shoulder, my badge of pride, and reduced it to a taunt. She didn't know that it was all that I felt I had.

I hesitate to talk about bullying sometimes, because I didn't have it as bad as others. But when it happened, it felt like the end of the world, and because I was one of those cool kids, pretty kids, smart kids who were supposed to be immune to it, I had no recourse. I wonder how many other little girls and boys felt like they couldn't allow themselves to feel the embarrassment of bullying because they had to pretend they weren't hurt by it, that they were stronger than it, that they were above it.

I would like to say I was above it, and yet I remember so clearly, how I was dealing with situations far beyond my maturity, but not yet old enough to know how to hold my ground, to be myself, to admit that I wasn't perfect.

So this film is what it is - a work of art, and a message to many more of us than we would care to believe. We have one another and we have love. Our stories are about balancing beauty.

This is not the funniest thing in the world

But it's Sunday. Take a chill pill, look out the window, smile and enjoy the silliness.

Today, I celebrate

I am 28 years old today. That is old. To me. Older than I've ever been, younger than I'll ever be again.

It is a brand new day.

I will be going here:

Then here:

 

 

I hope you have a wonderful Saturday!

Blog Challenge: 500 Words on 25 Questions

A question that makes you think is worth asking…

 

So that I might  routinize myself a bit more, I will be attempting (I know Yoda, do or do not do) to answer a question a week from the following list, starting next week:

 

http://www.marcandangel.com/2010/03/29/25-beautifully-illustrated-thought-provoking-questions/

 

 I hope you come along for the journey with me!

 

And happy weekend!!!