Dobson does a 180!

Update: okay - I might be the most gullible - but I still can't believe that would pen someone's repentance letter - I know it's the Door - but still. Just to show that I'm not totally vapid I did catch the Google April Fool's joke (took me a sec, but this one slipped right by me....) I still can't comfirm or deny it - but assume since it is the 1st that they got me - I still think it was in bad taste to have him "repent" as a joke.

I received this in an email from the Wittenburg Door this morning and I honestly couldn't be more stunned. As one who has grown up through this similar ugly form of Dispensationalism I must say that I applaud Dr. Dobson and am so proud of him for his public repentance:

We have tweaked our friend the Rev. James Dobson pretty regularly in the past, particular for his involvement in politics. And when Dr. Dobson called for the resignation of the Rev. Richard Cizik, president for the National Association of Evangelicals because he believed that Cizik was spending too much time worrying about global warming and not enough time spent on “core” Religious Right issues, such as abortion and same-sex marriages, we gigged him pretty hard then, too.

However, we received this e-mail this morning from Dobson’s Focus on the Family ministry and we think it is a remarkable document. It is probably the most honest, most revealing statement ever made by the normally carefully controlled Dobson.

So, in the spirit of Christian reconciliation, we’re making available Dr. Dobson’s complete statement, without editorial comment. (If you would like to send Dr. Dobson an e-mail of support for his courageous reassessment, we’ve kept his contact information at the end of his statement.)

Perhaps he should rename it FICUS on the Family

– Robert Darden, Senior Editor

Colorado Springs, CO – Dear friends and supporters:

Since my ill-advised attack on my dear friend Dick Cizik a few days ago, I have had an extraordinary week of reflection and spiritual enlightenment.

Through the counsel of godly men, such as the Rev. Dr. Jack Hayford, the Rev. Rick Warren, Richard Stearns (President, World Vision), David Neff (Editor, Christianity Today) and other members of The Evangelical Climate Initiative (www.Christiansandclimate.org), I’ve come to see that my assessment of Dick’s motives and, in fact, “global warming,” have been in error as well.

I have been guilty of a particularly pernicious form of short-sighted Dispensationalism, believing that since the earth has no future with the blessed Second Coming nigh, we, as Christians, have no responsibility to care for Creation.

Through loving testimony, instruction and careful study of the Bible with these and other mentors, I no longer believe that Dick is – as I said earlier, much to my regret -- guilty of a “relentless campaign” to save the planet at the expense of what I called more “serious” issues, such as same-sex marriage. I see now that I have strictly exploited those issues and others like them to manipulate my audience and as a calculated and callous form of fund-raising.

As part of my penance for my unmerited attacks on a courageous, godly man, I have initiated contact with both the Rev. Jerry Falwell and Don Wildmon, with the earnest desire to convince them of the error of their ways as well. While both continue to condemn what they call “earthism worship,” I will continue to pray that this revelation will be made available to them as well.

As for the rest of my penance, I will devote the rest of my career – however long the Lord sees fit to continue in this capacity – to working with my Christian brothers and sisters to insure that all life on the planet, God’s first and greatest gift to us, is protected and cherished.

God bless you all,

Jim Dobson
Focus on the Family
8605 Explorer Drive
Colorado Springs, CO 80995
1-800-232-6459
www.family.org

96 year old author

Macleans.ca - Canada - National | 96 Year Old Author: "96-year-old author proves it's never too late to write that book"

Please vote for a really good cause!

We have attended the National Youth Workers Convention for the past 10 years and have loved it so much. New this year there will be a Canadian Youth Workers Conference in Vancouver in December. It's really exciting to see that Canada is finding it's own unique thumb print on ministry and I'm excited to see it come together. To that end Vancouver is quite a distance for many youth workers to travel - so they are getting creative - using these new web 2.0 fund raising websites to raise awareness and harness some of the monies available to them.

The need 100 votes before April 15th - can you help please? No money necessary - just register at Give Meaning and vote please:

VOTE HERE!

My Unique Brokenness

This is beautiful:

Our brokenness reveals something about who we are. Our sufferings and pains are not simply bothersome interruptions of our lives; rather, they touch us in our uniqueness and our most intimate individuality. The way I am broken tells you something unique about me. The way you are broken tells me something unique about you. That is the reason for my feeling very privileged when you freely share some of your deep pain with me, and that is why it is an expression of my trust in you when I disclose to you something of my vulnerable side. Our brokenness is always lived and experienced as highly personal, intimate and unique. I am deeply convinced that each human being suffers in a way no other human being suffers... In fact, I am more grateful for a person who can acknowledge that I am very alone in my pain than for someone who tries to tell me that there are many others who have a similar or a worse pain.

Henri J. M. Nouwen, Life of the Beloved

via inward/outward

Tired of dried spit

This Desert Land

I said
this desert land is barren
void of life and beauty.
I drive for miles
see nothing
only sand and sage
feel nothing
only wind and heat
taste nothing
but spit dried spit.
He said
have you ever driven
in spring
through this same desert
seen blossoms flower
gorgeous wild?
It's all a thing of timing.
Seeds of beauty
are there now hidden
waiting fall of rain
to bring them life.
Lord send rain
upon my world
my life
I'm tired of dried spit.

Source: "A Psalm in Mojave Desert" from Psalms of My Life, Joseph Bayly

via inward/outward

Imagini - Visual DNA

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

Getting to know the Spirit

I was raised with a very limited pneumatology - the Holy Spirit was basically there to convict you of sin and to illuminate "the scriptures" - very little else was ever taught or expanded upon. I think it is one of the greatest losses to much of the evangelical church. We are now in a beautiful place where the Trinity is fully embraced and I am finding great joy in getting to know "the breath of God" more fully. This quote from Nouwen today is fascinating, I need to soak in it more to get a better understanding, so I'm putting it here so I don't forget:

The Spirit of Jesus Listening in us

Listening in the spiritual life is much more than a psychological strategy to help others discover themselves. In the spiritual life the listener is not the ego, which would like to speak but is trained to restrain itself, but the Spirit of God within us. When we are baptised in the Spirit - that is, when we have received the Spirit of Jesus as the breath of God breathing within us - that Spirit creates in us a sacred space where the other can be received and listened to. The Spirit of Jesus prays in us and listens in us to all who come to us with their sufferings and pains.

When we dare to fully trust in the power of God's Spirit listening in us, we will see true healing occur.

Henri Nouwen

The book opened -- a gust of wind

I'm passionate about juvenile fiction - it's the genre I hope to write in one day. Coming of age stories move me like little else and the journey from childhood to adulthood is fascinating to me. I think it probably has something to do with the fact that my own was so awkward and confusing and my love for tweens and teens that ties these together.

I am currently reading a novel by Marcus Zusak called "The Book Thief" about a young German girl coming of age during WWII. It's different, engaging and has some of the most extraordinary prose I've encountered. It is books like this that keep me from beginning my own, they are so intimidating I could only dream of one day penning such depth.

I remembered that I had documented the quotes I loved from "The Princess and the Goblin" here and so I thought I'd do the same with these.

The title of this post is the first quote - short, but so incredible in the way it captures how I feel when reading a story - "the book opened - a gust of wind". This is how story engages my soul. I literally feel my hair blow back when I pick up a good novel. This idea is so rich, I instantly fell in love with it.

The next quote is in reference to the main character, Liesel, who is struggling with reading and constantly mocked for her disability.

"She was the book thief without the words.

Trust me, though, the words were on their way. And when they arrived, Liesel would hold them in her hands like the clouds, and she would wring them out like the rain."

The words were on their way. For as intimidating as the first quote was, this one gave me hope. The words were on their way. Beautiful.

The picture of wringing words from the clouds like rain - this is what a good novel does for me. It deepens the pool of my soul. Wonderful, wonderful.

Thank you Mr. Zusak.

A different take on one day at a time

My friend Cheryl found this the other day and sent it to me:

"Be where you are. Otherwise you will miss your life"

~Budda

Franciscan Benediction

May God bless you with discomfort,
At easy answers, half-truths, and superficial relationships,
So that you may live deep within your heart.

May God bless you with anger,
At injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people,
So that you may work for justice, freedom, and peace.

May God bless you with tears,
To shed for those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation, and war,
So that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and turn their pain to joy.

And may God bless you with enough foolishness,
To believe that you can make a difference in this world,
So that you can do what others claim cannot be done.

Amen.

Converted every day

I LOVE this:

Be converted to love every day.
Change all your energies,
all your potential,
into selfless gifts for the other person.
Then you yourself will be changed from within
and through you
God's kingdom will break into the world.

Anonymous - Source: Rule for a New Brother

via inward/outward

I woke up to this in my inbox this morning. In recovery I choose to live "one day at a time". How better to do that than to make a choice to be converted to love every new day? One day at a time. Beautiful.

Thy kingdom come.

Story of the Day

This made me smile today:

Today's Mental Checklist
1. Things I know for sure - quite a few
2. Things I don't know for sure - quite a few more
3. Things I'll discover I don't know as I go along (only a rough estimate) - about as much as things I currently don't know
4. Things I tell my children that I don't believe myself - lots, but now they're older I tell them I'm making it up & they can believe it at their own risk
5. Things that make sense if you stop to think about it
a. in daylight - lot unless there's media or government involved
b. late at night - almost nothing, so it's better to just go back to sleep
6. Things I believe that people a thousand years ago believed, too - quite a few but I lived in L.A. when I was younger, so I have a good excuse

from the Story People

Of Shepherds and Sheep

Peter spoke last weekend on asking God to heal the places in our minds where we might believe untruths about God. He used a story of a woman honestly admitting that when she thought about Jesus he was across a wide canyon with his face turned away from her. Her counselor took her through a process of working with the image and helping her find healing as she took the truth she knew to be true in her head and apply it to the image. She received much healing through the process and Peter encouraged us to admit our own realities and questions about God to ourselves so that we can understand them more fully and allow God to step into them and bring healing.

As I sat yesterday with my questions and a desire to establish some direction for this year I came up with my theme word for the year "CENTERED" - I know that the place I am in my recovery is being stalled by my body image, not fully understanding and embracing what it means to be a woman and my fears about these things.

I have also been trying to find a theme verse for this year. Peter challenged us the first Sunday in January to find one to grow into this year. I remembered that he had the power point from this teaching on the website and I clicked on it to remind myself of the verses he had suggested as a jumping off point.

I had remembered one that resonated with me, but I hadn't taken good notes that day and wanted to find it. It was John 10:10 -

The Message - "A thief is only there to steal and kill and destroy. I came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of."

NASB - "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly."

I decided that it would be my theme verse for this year. It seemed to go hand-in-hand with my theme word "CENTERED". I decided to spend some time reading the whole of John 10 so that I could see if anything helped me apply this more largely to my life.

The context is of a story Jesus is telling to the Pharisees about caring for his sheep - hearing God's voice, knowing the difference between the thief and the shepherd. I sat with these verses and let them wash over me. I asked God to give me a picture of the way I truly believe in my heart about being a sheep and about how I am shepherded.

God began to remind me of some my own real-life experiences with sheep.

You see our family had a short stint in shepherding. One of the elders from our church was a sheep farmer and as we lived in the country and had some outbuildings we thought it would be romantic to have two bouncy little sheep grazing in our field. My sister Denise and I each got to pick out one. Instantly they went from cute little fluffy animals to stinky smelling, lanolin covered, pee machines that we had to hold on our laps all the way home. Our farming foray was short lived indeed. My father bore the brunt of our rash decision. Each day he would go to the door of the shed, call for them and they would come and wait while he leashed them together and they would wander the fields "mowing our grass".

That was until we went on vacation. My Uncle Bud became the fill-in shepherd for the week and those sheep did not know his voice and they did not follow him. In a very sheep-like manner they did not come to the door and they did not know him. I'm sure in his frustration he had a schedule to keep and found that dragging the sheep outside for their own good was far better for them than leaving them locked in their shed all day.

We returned to find that our father's well trained sheep were now afraid of any shepherds voice. Instead of coming to the door and waiting to be leashed together they bolted out the door and began to run for their lives. I can remember my mother giggling at the kitchen window. It soon was loud enough that it called my sister and I to come investigate. I have vivid memories of the three of us standing at the window and laughing ourselves silly.

My father on the other hand was becoming increasingly hostile toward those cute, bounding balls of fluff. I can still see him in his suit, getting later and later for work as he tried to coerce those sheep into letting him get close enough to tie them up. He would slowly inch closer and closer. Each step allowed by the sheep until BOING, BOING, BOING... Off they'd prance. This choreographed ballet kept repeating itself over and over.

My father was raised on a farm and has grown up as a hunting man. I know that the thought of finding his shotgun to end this dance went through his mind that morning. But I know he knew we were there watching "our pets" get the better of him. In one brilliant move my father walked as close to one as he was allowed and got down on all fours and stayed stock still. The curiosity of the sheep was so profound that it wandered over to him and he lunged and captured it, grabbing it around it's middle in a great big bear hug. The second sheep was just as curious and soon they were both tethered and back to their normal grazing.

The hysterics in the kitchen had reached a fevered pitch. But it only took one look, one finger pointed and a "not another word" to quiet us down to shoulder-shaking, muffled snorts. His suit and clothes were covered in stinky lanolin and his hands and knees dirty from the grass. He was so late for his commute to the office and yet after he changed he was able to find the humor in his morning promenade.

I was brought back to the present as I sat in my living room and allowed that story to work it's way into my theology. What a beautiful picture I was given of a father's faithful love, a shepherd's persistent care and a sheep's knowing intuition. So many connections fired through my brain I can hardly remember them all as I type. How many times have I felt like that sheep dragged by someone who I didn't really trust away from the safety of my shed. The shepherd down on all fours to show the sheep that she is safe. And the beauty of the abundant life the shepherd wants for the sheep.

"I have come that they might have life, more abundant life than they can imagine."

A new twist on an old item

Aren't these brilliant? Looks like a gate, it's really a radiator!

You can see more of her designs here: Lucy Merchant

Two Angry Moms

New documentary alert:

Are you sick and tired of packing your kids’ lunch box everyday because the cafeteria food is unfit for human consumption? Do you feel guilty when your kids “buy”? Are you annoyed at all the junk being handed out and sold at school? Are you angry enough to do something about it? We are!

Two Angry Moms is a documentary work-in-progress that asks the question: What happens when two “fed-up” moms try to change the school lunch program?

If this strikes a note with you click here:

Two Angry Moms

ht to the Becoming Fearless

Theology Meme??

Okay, I give. My Anj has tagged me for the meme that has been floating through the blogosphere and I have avoided up to this point. It is a theology meme - what are the best 3 books of theology published in the past 25 years???

Sigh. I wasted my young, brilliant brain on really bad theology, so I have avoided it henceforth (or is it forthwith?) Needless to say I have found that the "having all the answers and everything all figured out" that finds it way into theology books seems to makes me itch lately.

I do tend to be a practical woman, and practical theology has changed my life. I believe that what we truly believe, not what we say we believe, shows up in the choices we make, the ways we live our lives and how we treat those around us. Most Christian leaders today look very little like Jesus, and so I don't trust a lot of what they write.

I also seem to have lost my brain somewhere along the mommy-train. Sitting down to actually read NT Wright or Miroslav Volf sounds dreamy and intellectual, but in reality I doubt I would truly get very far these days. Maybe I'm selling myself short, but I find that I can devour good fiction, but non-fiction is slow going as I really sit with the ideas, contemplate them and allow them to change me. Reading good non-fiction quickly makes me feel like a glutton.

So, coming up with three books that a) I have actually read and b) I would consider "best" and c) are actual theology books made me realize that 1) this is my list, and 2) if it changes the way I look at the church and God it becomes a theology book to me, right? So here is my list:

1) Life of Pi - Yann Martel - "I have a story that will make you believe in God"

It did.

2) My Name is Asher Lev - Chaim Potek - "If You don't want me to use the gift, why did You give it to me?"

I felt like this through my whole life in wondering why God made me a woman in love with theology and the church and called me when I didn't have the "right plumbing" or chromosomes? Watching Asher Lev struggle with the God-given gifts that his faith culture told him he was sinful to use changed my life and my understanding of God. Maybe it wasn't God that was the problem???

3) Letters to a Young Poet - Rainer Maria Rilke - “Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions”

I had always been shamed by and ashamed of my questions. The fear that runs rampant in the church when it comes to mystery was stifling to me. Not being afraid of the questions anymore gave me my mind back. It opened the door to all of the wonder and mystery that is God.

So that's my list. These are some of the books that have shaped my theology in the past few years. I know they aren't strictly "theology books" and it will shock anyone from my old life to see that I'm learning more through story than I am through "scripture" lately. But the surprising thing is that story is giving me scripture back.

I should also mention that there are many theologians that I read in snips and bits and they have helped me to rearrange the furniture on my theological landscape. Those mentioned above have helped restore my passion for theology. Others who are helping are Brian McLaren, Phillip Yancy, Parker Palmer, Scot McKnight and even my own pastor Peter Fitch. Maybe one day I'll get my brain back and begin again to be passionate about theology books and doctrine, but right now I find the outworking of that theology to be much more giving of life and hope.


If you haven't done this meme yet and want to play along, consider yourself tagged.

Lifting the Mask

Entering Community

When people enter community, especially from a place of loneliness in a big city or from a place of aggression and rejection, they find the warmth and the love exhilarating. This permits them to start lifting their masks and barriers and to become vulnerable. They may enter into a time of communion and great joy.

But then too, as they lift their masks and become vulnerable, they discover that community can be a terrible place, because it is a place of relationship; it is the revelation of our wounded emotions and of how painful it can be to live with others, especially with some people. It is so much easier to live with books and objects, television, or dogs and cats! It is so much easier to live alone and just do things for others, when one feels like it.

Source: Jean Vanier, Community and Growth

via: Inward/Outward

It's Alive!

The lesson that I taught back in November is finally in a place where I can link to it permanently, so here it is:

A Hidden Wholeness - Heidi Turner, November , 2006

More Scot McKnight

Scot has written a balanced treatment of the Emergent Church in Christianity Today, and it would be a great primer for those wondering what all the fuss is about:

Five Streams of the Emerging Church

Again, you can find his blog here: Jesus Creed

Six degrees of separation...

Okay, follow me here - I will try to explain this strange path that has just made my world smaller.

Scot McKnight, the web's most prolific blogger (Jesus Creed) is one of my favorite reads. Every week he places wonderful links to all of the fun and interesting sites he and his wife Kris find all over the web. So, today, taking a small break from supper prep I read this post:

Weekly Meanderings

I click on #7 -

7. The Radical Pastor can paint, too. No wonder he’s been slow on posting.

and notice in the sidebar my pastor & his wife's name - of course this is strange, because this blog is in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

I read it and see that Peter & Mary Ellen have just visited Radical Pastor and are very good friends. What a small, small world!

From New Brunswick, to Chicago, to Michigan and back to New Brunswick - what an incredible kingdom we are part of, eh?

Curt Cloninger

One of my favorite actors I have had the opportunity to see live is Curt Cloninger. He moves me and engages my emotions like few others ever have.

I received his newsletter today and wanted to highlight some of it here.

Fifteen different babies. Every one of them Jesus. Almost every night in December I performed my Christmas show, and held a different, unpredictable baby Jesus. The variety was delightful. Some of the babies were black, some were white, some were Hispanic. Some were tiny. Some were huge. (One was eight months old. I felt like we should be shaking hands). Some cried. Some cooed. Some were silent. But every night, every one of those babies reminded me (and the audience) that this was how God showed up on the planet ... small and unpredictable, a mystery appearing in the slip stream of history. God showed up to recapture the hearts of women and men, some who saw more than a baby, and some who didn't have a clue.

I liked the December reminder, because, so often I live in quiet despair, convinced God is not "showing up" for me in the painful places of my life. Or, I think I can easily manipulate God, keeping Him in some manger, or Blackberry, just like all my other manageable appointments. Just like some of those people in the early story, often I don't have a clue.

This year I want to recognize God as He shows up in the slip stream of my history. I want Him to recapture my heart. I want to let Him out of my Blackberry. I want to be awed by the mystery of His coming ... to me. I don't want to wait until next Christmas for that to happen ... because there's no telling what the babies will be like then!

If you are interesting in getting to know, or book Curt you can find his website here:

Curt Cloninger

Robinhood Fund

Cool, new to me, website that puts it's money where it's mouth is. I found this via the king of blogging, Jeremy Wright in a post about some other very good friends here in St. Stephen.

Jeff & Carol have big dreams - and this community wants to support them in those dreams. They, and other friends from our church are going to build an orphanage in Mozambique. You can help them, really.

If you would could you please click through here, read about their dream and vote for them? The Robinhood Fund forwards their gifts via votes - so the more votes, the higher the possibility that they can fulfill their dream. Would you also consider blogging about it? Some viral-blogging could really put them over the top.

The community they are going to in Mozambique is so stripped of any resources and the children really need this.

Thanks so much for your help!

UPDATE: four days left to vote - and Jeff & Carole are at #4 in the standings - please, if you could - go and vote, vote, vote!!!

UPDATE #2: THEY WON! Very, very cool! The Robinhood Fund flew Jeff to Toronto to hand him the $10,000 check! Thanks so much for voting!!

Make Affluence History!

Make Affluence History - geez magazine has designed this 'sponsor a child' program for rich kids.

From the website:

It's not their fault

It's just not fair. Average children in North
America will grow up taking more than their
share of the earth's wealth.

These are caring kids who never intended
to be far richer than most of humanity.
It just happened.

But it doesn't have to be this way.

Our new wealth-reduction program can help.
In this first-of-its-kind sponsorship program,
we're inviting poorer families to sponsor a
child that's well off.

Benefits for the child:
-hope for a less-cluttered, more grounded life
-new friends from other income brackets
-join the movement to Make Affluence History
-discover a cheaper way to happiness (and maybe heaven!)

It's brilliant - I love it. I'm signing Ali & Jake up today.

Thanks to Bart for the head's up!

The better we will want to live them

I have begun reading my dear friend Connie's book "Dawsonwood Diaries" and she begins her first reflection with this Nouwen quote that I just had to put here so I don't forget it:

We have to trust that our stories deserve to be told. We may discover that the better we tell our stories the better we will want to live them."

Thank you Connie - I needed that reminder today!

We must not give up

oh my!



thank you for the link david!

Resolution 2007 - Write a better story

Don Miller wrote this on his web site:

"In the new year, I’ve resolved to write a better story.
By better story, I don’t mean the kind you write on paper,
I mean the kind you write by walking and talking and breathing."

Walking, talking & breathing - that I can do.

Thanks Gary!

My Mistakes Will Make Me Strong!

Emotional Armor - oh how I LOVE these t-shirts!

Thanks for the link Jen!

Two Quotes about Story

Loved these and wanted to save them:

The shortest distance
between
a human being
and truth
is a story.
Anthony de Mello

All personal theology
should begin
with the words:
'Let me tell you a story.'
Sue Monk Kidd

thank you Gary!

St. Stephens Day Wishes

I found this wonderful blessing on the blog of a kindred spirit this morning. Thank you Andrea, it's exactly what I needed:

May today there be peace within
May you trust God that you are exactly where you are meant to be
May you not forget the infinite possibilities that are born of faith
May you use those gifts that you have received
and pass on the love that has been given to you
May you be content knowing you are a child of God
let this presence settle into your bones
and allow your soul the freedom to
sing
dance
praise
and love
It is there for each and every one of us.

Saint Therese of Lisieux

I have big dreams for 2007, it's good to know I'm were I am supposed to be and that I can rest in that today. Infinite possibilities are born of faith. God please make it so.

Merry Chrismtas!

Redeeming the time

Ole Henri does it again:

The Fullness of time

Jesus came in the fullness of time. He will come again in the fullness of time. Wherever Jesus, the Christ, is the time is brought to its fullness.

We often experience our time as empty. We hope that tomorrow, next week, next month or next year the real things will happen. But sometimes we experience the fullness of time. That is when it seems that time stands still, that past, present, and future become one; that everything is present where we are; and that God, we, and all that is have come together in total unity. This is the experience of God's time. "When the completion of the time came [that is: in the fullness of time], God sent his Son, born of a woman" (Galatians 4:4), and in the fullness of time God will "bring everything together under Christ, as head, everything in the heavens and everything on earth" (Ephesians 1:10). It is in the fullness of time that we meet God.

Henri Nouwen

Like to get daily meditations?

Moonstruck

I thought finally I had found something beautiful (and round) that I could afford - but I guess Austrian art lamps run big money these days!

Isn't this beautiful? By using a clear light bulb in the orb you can scatter the patterns over your walls. Opaque bulbs change to just enjoying the design on the lamp.

Moonstruck indeed!

via

Merry Christmas from Sufjan!

Don't forget to call your Grandma!

A Christmas Letter from Jesus

Wow - let's get this circulating around the internet (and put it into practice in our own lives too):

Jesus Enters the War on Christmas

Also, Keith has done a great post on similar thoughts, art included:

Merry Debtmas

Drop by and show him some love!

Hat tip to Will & Lisa

Some things are worth fighting for

Shari MacDonald Strong has a new article up at Literary Mama that speaks my heart well"

No Guts, No Glory

How to Publish Your Own Books!

Oh this thrills my book-loving heart!!

Cool Tools has researched and self-published their way through the least expensive, highest quality options out there and this is what they've found:

Blurb * LuLu

Life just gets more accessible every day doesn't it?

And I'm not really into shoes

Oh my goodness - look at this thing! I must have a passion for round things as I've blogged on a round bed and a round kitchen - this is just brilliant!

Many, many years ago I used to manage a closet store called "The Closet Wizard" in Hamilton, Ontario - we would have never been able to keep this thing in stock!

It's brilliant! A little ferris wheel for your shoes! I want one!!

Rakku - The Future of Shoe Storage

ht to ready made blog

Teach our children well

Jenell Paris has some incredible insight into the Ted Haggard issue, the Christianity Today article on the same, and raising our children to be truth tellers. Woo Hoo!

The Last Thing

O Christmas Tree...

We continued the Turner Family Tradition today and went and chopped down our Christmas tree. I tried to suggest borrowing a fake one this year but Ali & Jake would have NONE of that.

So we bundled up and braved the freezing cold (but sunny) day and found the "perfect" one to grace our flat. I'll post some "after" pictures once we've decorated it too. Hope you had a wonderful weekend!

my new hair

made using the warholizer

We Are The People We've Been Waiting For!

World Aids Day, 2006

Mike at Waving or Drowning has been a prophet for me on God's heart for the world. His passion for social justice and change isn't just words. He and his wife Sue live out redemption in very practical, beautiful ways.

One of those ways is a project he and a friend Robert have created called (Red)emption. I know I've blogged about it here before - but want to remind you as the project goal of 1000 participants is lagging behind at 401. I know we can do this people. It's just $10.00.

If you've already given how about your spouse, children or good friends? Spread the love around.

Mike and Robert have decided to close the project at the end of the year. I think it would be amazing if we could help them reach their goal. Stephen Lewis is putting help in the hands of the people, instead of the programs - this is where the difference is made. We really are the people we've been waiting for!

eve.harmony.com

funny!



thanks paul!

It's alive! (well, live)

Yippee! My first sermon is live online. It was such a wonderful opportunity to share with my community about the things that really matter to me. I loved it. You can hear how nervous I am (I'm sure, I haven't even listened to it yet, but I know my voice cracked and my hands shook), but it was a wonderful experience and I was bathed in love and support.

Make sure you listen to Peter afterward, he prays for me and it was probably the most moving part of the morning (for me at least). He, Walter & Dan are truly the first pastors I've ever had. It's fun to be in a church where everybody gets to play!

A Hidden Wholeness

Please listen and I'd LOVE your feedback!!

p.s. - You can also view my power point slides, there are some amazing quotes I've used that are included.

New Blog Alert - Beloved Lily

One of my bestest friends in the whole entire world is blogging now and I'd love it if you'd give her some new blogger mojo and welcome her to the blogosphere. You can find her here:

Beloved Lily

One last campaign ad

thanks julie!

Grace Filled response to the Ted Haggard Story

Jason Clark has an introspective post up regarding the Ted Haggard story:

What sort of church am I projecting/perpetuating/participating in: reflections on Ted Haggard, me and all of our church families

Story People

Center on Wheels

I spent a long time
trying to find my center
until I looked closely
one night & found
it had wheels
& moved easily
in the slightest breeze,
so now I spend less
time sitting and
more time sailing.


I have recently found the Story People and just love the art, stories and vivid imagination. No one in Iowa was this cool when I lived there!

Christian no more?

These are brilliant!







thanks marko!

Thin

Upcoming documentary airing on HBO in November - Dying to be Thin

I think this will be very important. Wish we had access to HBO up here.

What have you done?

Amy at Amy Loves Books just posted this list, and I fell in love with it - it puts changing a baby's diaper on the level of climbing all of the stairs in the Tower of Pisa - it brought back so many memories of things I've done - I'd love to read yours too!

What have you done? (things I've done are in bold)

01. Bought everyone in the bar a drink
02. Swam with wild dolphins
03. Climbed a mountain
04. Taken a Ferrari for a test drive (well, it was my boss's Maserati)
05. Been inside the Great Pyramid
06. Held a tarantula
07. Taken a candlelit bath with someone
08. Said “I love you” and meant it
09. Hugged a tree
10. Bungee jumped
11. Visited Paris
12. Watched a lightning storm at sea
13. Stayed up all night long and saw the sun rise
14. Seen the Northern Lights
15. Gone to a huge sports game (and survived the crush afterwards)
16. Walked the stairs to the top of the leaning Tower of Pisa
17. Grown and eaten your own vegetables
18. Touched an iceberg
19. Slept under the stars
20. Changed a baby’s diaper
21. Taken a trip in a hot air balloon
22. Watched a meteor shower
23. Gotten drunk on champagne
24. Given more than you can afford to charity
25. Looked up at the night sky through a telescope
26. Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment
27. Had a food fight
28. Bet on a winning horse
29. Asked out a stranger
30. Had a snowball fight
31. Screamed as loudly as you possibly can
32. Held a lamb
33. Seen a total eclipse
34. Ridden a roller coaster
35. Hit a home run
36. Danced like a fool and not cared who was looking
37. Adopted an accent for an entire day
38. Actually felt happy about your life, even for just a moment
39. Had two hard drives for your computer
40. Visited all 50 states
41. Taken care of someone who was drunk.
42. Had amazing friends
43. Danced with a stranger in a foreign country
44. Watched wild whales
45. Stolen a sign
46. Backpacked in Europe.
47. Taken a road-trip
48. Gone rock climbing
49. Midnight walk on the beach
50. Gone sky diving
51. Visited Ireland
52. Been heartbroken longer than you were actually in love
53. In a restaurant, sat at a stranger’s table and had a meal with them
54. Visited Japan
55. Milked a cow
56. Alphabetized your CDs
57. Pretended to be a superhero
58. Sung karaoke
59. Lounged around in bed all day
60. Played touch football
61. Gone scuba diving
62. Kissed in the rain
63. Played in the mud
64. Played in the rain
65. Gone to a drive-in theater
66. Visited the Great Wall of China
67. Started a business
68. Fallen in love and not had your heart broken
69. Toured ancient sites
70. Taken a martial arts class
71. Played D&D for more than 6 hours straight
72. Gotten married
73. Been in a movie
74. Crashed a party
75. Gotten divorced
76. Gone without food for 5 days
77. Made cookies from scratch
78. Won first prize in a costume contest
79. Ridden a gondola in Venice
80. Gotten a tattoo
81. Rafted the Snake River
82. Been on television news programs as an “expert”
83. Got flowers for no reason
84. Performed on stage
85. Been to Las Vegas
86. Recorded music
87. Eaten shark
88. Kissed on the first date
89. Gone to Thailand
90. Bought a house
91. Been in a combat zone
92. Buried one/both of your parents
93. Been on a cruise ship
94. Spoken more than one language fluently
95. Performed in Rocky Horror
96. Raised children
97. Followed your favorite band/singer on tour
99. Taken an exotic bicycle tour in a foreign country
100. Picked up and moved to another city to just start over
101. Walked the Golden Gate Bridge
102. Sang loudly in the car, and didn’t stop when you knew someone was looking
103. Had plastic surgery
104. Survived an accident that you shouldn’t have survived
105. Wrote articles for a large publication
106. Lost over 100 pounds
107. Held someone while they were having a flashback
108. Piloted an airplane
109. Touched a stingray
110. Broken someone’s heart
111. Helped an animal give birth
112. Won money on a T.V. game show
113. Broken a bone
114. Gone on an African photo safari
115. Had a facial part pierced other than your ears
116. Fired a rifle, shotgun, or pistol
117. Eaten mushrooms that were gathered in the wild
118. Ridden a horse
119. Had major surgery
120. Had a snake as a pet
121. Hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon
122. Slept for more than 30 hours over the course of 48 hours
123. Visited more foreign countries than U.S. states
124. Visited all 7 continents
125. Taken a canoe trip that lasted more than 2 days
126. Eaten kangaroo meat
127. Eaten sushi
128. Had your picture in the newspaper
129. Changed someone’s mind about something you care deeply about
130. Gone back to school
131. Parasailed
132. Touched a cockroach
133. Eaten fried green tomatoes
134. Read The Iliad - and the Odyssey
135. Selected one “important” author who you missed in school, and read
136. Killed and prepared an animal for eating - never killed - but prepared... ick!
137. Skipped all your school reunions
138. Communicated with someone without sharing a common spoken language
139. Been elected to public office
140. Written your own computer language
141. Thought to yourself that you’re living your dream
142. Had to put someone you love into hospice care
143. Built your own PC from parts
144. Sold your own artwork to someone who didn’t know you
145. Had a booth at a street fair
146. Dyed your hair
147. Been a DJ
148. Shaved your head
149. Caused a car accident
150. Saved someone’s life - tried, but he drown...

Vanna needs some bling!

Our '87 Volvo Vanna (called that because I constantly referred to the "van" we used to drive instead of the station wagon we now drive) is in need of some serious car bling. Aren't these incredible???

Blik Autographic

(Red)emption Junkie??

My good friend Mike @ Waving Or Drowning and virtual friend Robert have a brilliant idea that thrills this junkie's soul!!

The RED concept from Bono is a brilliant way to introduce the consumer driven world to the good that small amounts of money can do in the world - but Mike & Robert want to take out the middle man:

I’ve come to the conclusion that I love this program. And I hate it. Let me try to explain why.

The love part is easy. I love it because it will provide funds for saving lives. What’s not to love about that?

Here’s the part with which I’m having trouble. I hate it because it’s a sad commentary, a mirror if you will, reflecting the reality of our culture back to us. The currency of the Kingdom is love. The currency of this material, self-centered culture is “stuff.” Bono is brilliant as he has realized this, and knows we will not give out of love. HIV/AIDS is killing people in numbers too horrible to give voice to. And while this troubles us, it apparently doesn’t trouble us enough to give out of love. The brilliance of Product (Red) is that it will get the money out of us anyway. No love? Fine, then we’ll appeal to your need for the other currency, for stuff. Want a new Gap shirt, and a trendy one at that? Great. Here you go, and by the way, a couple of bucks will go to life-saving drugs.

In short, I long for a world that operates on Kingdom currency. It’s coming… just not fast enough. In the meantime, I will grit my teeth, smile, and promote the Product (RED) campaign. Heck, I’ll probably end up wearing a red t-shirt. Hypocritical? Maybe. Paradoxical? Definitely.

Now for the challenge. Robert and I have been discussing for some time the need for us to start another campaign to raise some funds here at WorD.

We’ve been looking at the (RED) iPod specifically. When you spend $200 US on the iPod, Apple will contribute $10 to the Global Fund. (Robert has changed his mind about Christmas, BTW, so don’t bother emailing his wife.)

I don’t have a clue what the profit margins are like on the iPod, but $10 doesn’t strike me as a lot of money. Let’s be realistic. It’s not. Here’s the choice: You can lay out $200, get a new iPod, and contribute $10 to a good cause. Or, you can just contribute the $10. We believe we can get 1000 people to donate $10 each. We’d like $10 from everyone in the developed world, but we’ll settle for you, and everyone you know. And when we’re done, we’ll pass the money--all of it--along to the Stephen Lewis Foundation.

Donation $10.00 CDN HERE

East Coasters Watch the sky tonight!

I just received this in an email and thought if you're on the east coast you might benefit from this too:

A Natural Wonder: Tuesday, October 24, at twilight--about 30 minutes after sunset, scan the southwest horizon for Mercury and Jupiter to the right of the thin waxing crescent Moon, and the star, Antares to the left of the moon and slightly above. Quite an arrangement. (Binoculars helpful!)

Color Like No Other

I personally liked the first video much better (the one with the balls flying down the hills of San Francisco) but this one is still incredible:

Sony Bravia - Color Like No Other

Not your mother's pyrex bowl set!

Aren't these breath-takingly beautiful?? How simple yet so dramatic.

Conjunction Junction How's that Function??

Next to Mr. Rogers & Sesame Street the School House Rock singers were the most formative influences of my childhood. No, seriously. Pretty sad, eh?

I loved this article tracking down where they are now.

Why is it I can't remember ten things from four years of a pretty good liberal arts college, but I can recite every word of the preamble? A degree in Anthropology (don't laugh) and I still get the Incas mixed up with the Aztecs, but I know all there is to know about naughty, nasty, mean old number nine. I mean...how sad is that?

It was home schooling before it became the in thing to do. Because my Saturday morning were spent glued to a television, I now know that and, but and or will get me pretty far, and that interjections are generally set apart from a sentence by an exclamation point, or by a comma when the feeling's not as strong. So, all things considered, I think I came out ahead.

So, who do I have to thank for this wealth of information. Who are the people attached to these voices inside my head, and are they still around today? Turns out, they are. And they're all still singing away. There are four main singers (jazz musicians, actually)responsible for almost all of the Schoolhouse Rock videos, with a few guest appearances here and there (Verb! That's what's happening!) So, let's take a look at some heroes from my youth...the Schoolhouse Rock Singers.

You can read the rest of the article here: Where Are They Now - The Schoolhouse Rock Singers

I'm getting older too...

This time of year makes me very nostalgic. Fall has a way of slowing me down inside, pondering, reflecting and watching. It's also a time of celebration. Thanksgivings - both of them, Canadian & American bring tucking in times with family and friends. It's also the season I grow up. This birthday is bringing much emotion and internalization this year. 41. Wow. 41.

40 didn't phase really me - I looked at it like I was beginning something new - and that is still here, but this feels different somehow. It's not the age or getting old part of this I feel, this just that 41 feels so real somehow. 41.

My mother Bobbie died at 43, so much of life left unlived somehow. 2 years. I can't imagine what that would mean to me to only have two years left. To struggle with sickness, facing death and separation from Keith and my children. Two years? I know that's not reality, but most children who's parents die young face this benchmark with a bit of fear and loathing. There is still so much left I long to do.

My father didn't think he'd live past his father's age when he died. The celebration that marked that year he did was great. I know that pretending I don't feel it at all doesn't make it go away. So being present to the emotion it brings up within me is something I can learn from, something that can bring life, instead of death.

October 13th is my birthday, but I also celebrate the 14th as it marks an anniversary of my abstinence and recovery. It has been 7 years of one day at a time linked together to bring me to where I am today. For that I am truly grateful and hopeful and filled with wonder.

Seven years ago today my life was at it's lowest place possible. It seems like two lifetimes ago. It really was somehow.

One of the gifts that I've been given this past week is the lyrics to a song that was important to me long ago. I was searching iTunes for Songbird, by Fleetwood Mac and remembered Landslide - I'm sorry, but the Dixie Chicks version was nice, but not nearly as moving as the original. While looking I saw that Stevie released a later acoustic version on AOL Sessions in 2003 and her voice is gritty and aged and it's richer and deeper and speaks to the journey I have been on too since that song originally touched my heart.

The imagery in the lyrics means so much more now - the child within, the ocean tides, the seasons of my life. Each of those speaks to where I have come the farthest on this 40 year journey called my life. What a gift. As I cooked turkey and chopped potatos this weekend I just kept listening to a short playlist I had put together, tears streaming down my face. Feeling the deep emotion that this season of my life is brining up within me. Yes, I'm getting older too.


Landslide, Stevie Nicks

I took my love, I took it down
Climbed a mountain and I turned around
I saw my reflection in the snow covered hills
till the landslide brought me down

Oh, mirror in the sky
What is love
Can the child within my heart rise above
Can I sail thru the changing ocean tides
Can I handle the seasons of my life

Well, I've been afraid of changing
cause I've built my life around you
But time makes you bolder
Children get older
I'm getting older too

Oh, take my love, take it down
Climb a mountain and turn around
If you see my reflection in the snow covered hills
Well the landslide will bring it down

If you see my reflection in the snow covered hills
Well maybe the landslide will bring it down

Giving Thanks

This being Thanksgiving weekend in Canada my good friend Dan Wilt is one thing I'm giving thanks for. He's posted a sneak peek to the talk he's preparing for church tomorrow.

I promise I'll post the link here when they upload it - but here is some of the beauty:

“Sweet flower” is what her name means. Grandma also told us it was the name of an ancient Armenian princess. Grandma’s first name was Siranouche. My wife’s middle name is Siranouche. My daughter’s middle name is Siranouche. “Sweet flower.” So appropriate in each life it adorns.

As my children encircled her feet, Grandma would tell the old stories. On one occasion, I taped an hour of those stories, and the harder questions were asked. “Grandma,” queried my daughter, “How did your mommy and daddy die?” I interrupted, telling Grandma she didn’t need to answer that question if she didn’t want to. Her response was matter-of-fact. “They must know, honey. They must know such things.”

At 95 years old, Siranouche was one of the last living survivors of the Armenian death marches under the Ottoman Turks at the turn of the 20th century. A mass genocide that the world ignored, Adolph Hitler is infamous for a statement made to a German commander: “Who remembers the Armenians; who will remember the Jews?”

Siranouche and her family lived in a small Armenian village called Orphah. She recalls the beauty that was once her family’s estate. “I remember playing among the fruit trees in the orchard,” she says with a smile. At 14, young Siranouche and her family were awakened in the middle of the night by Turkish soldiers. She, her mother and siblings stood and watched as the fathers and husbands were huddled into their small Armenian churches – which were then burned to the ground. The screams still haunted her now aged mind.

She remembers the death marches through the Syrian Desert. How her mother would spread her skirt over her five children in the desert’s cool, night air to keep them warm as they slept. She remembers the Syrian women lining the march, hoping to help save some of the children by taking them as their own. Though the youngest died along the march, Siranouche’s mother (my wife’s great grandmother) gave away the rest of her children in one day – such a horrible joy for her – to know they might live, but that she would die soon, far away from her precious jewels.

Her new Syrian family treated her well, though she was a servant. One night, she had a dream. In her dream, Jesus came to her with outstretched arms. Using no words, she could see in his eyes that everything would be alright. From that point on, she knew she worshipped a different God than those around her, and she knew that someone was taking care of her.

Despite her life of hardship, Grandma ‘Anouche was known to her family as one of the most grateful human beings they had ever known. It seemed as though every breath she took marked another moment to be celebrated. Her great pain as a young girl had taught her the “art of appreciation” – the capacity to look deep into every moment, person, place or thing she encountered, and to find something worthy of celebration.

You can read the rest of the post here: Cultivating A Grateful Heart

Moby - Everything is Complicated Podcast

sojo has a brilliant interview with moby

Everything Is Complicated

The View Out My Kitchen Window

Isn't this lovely? It's the view out my kitchen window. Far better than the next door neighbor's kitchen I used to see in Pennsylvania! I remember she used to hang a light up Santa Claus in her window from November 1st - January 1st - this is much better!

We're high enough up here to see the clouds and the spire of the Catholic church just two doors down. Much better motivation to do those dishes!

Marko is a marketing genius!

Did you ever play the "ungame" as a kid? That quasi-christian, quasi-counselling kind of game where you had to answer deep, meaningful question with your parent? It was so 70's.

Marko has a very funny post on his favorite versions of wanna-be christian games here:

Christian Board Games You've Missed

Stephen Wiltshire - The Human Camera

This is absolutely incredible - God bless the people who gave this young man a pencil and honored his gift:



ht to DRAWN!

Spiritual Chatter and Pious Words

From today's Inward & Outward

Many people are looking for an ear that will listen. They do not find it among Christians, because these Christians are talking where they should be listening. But he who can no longer listen to his brother will soon be no longer listening to God either; he will be doing nothing but prattle in the presence of God too. This is the beginning of the death of the spiritual life, and in the end there is nothing left but spiritual chatter and clerical condescension arrayed in pious words.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

One Giant Leap for BlogHer-kind!

very cool!

Anousheh Ansari Space Blog

If I had a Million Dollars!

5th grade project in full swing here. Alinea is spending $1,000,000,000 for math class - so we're all sitting here listening to the Barenaked Ladies song and printing out lots of really cool things for her to buy. This is quite the project in dreaming - but I tell you what - I wouldn't trade one moment of THIS for one dollar of THAT!

Happy 19th Anniversary Keith!

 

19 years! It's hard to believe. It feels like yesterday and forever all wrapped together. The path we have walked together has knit our hearts tight. The good, the bad, and the ugly - we have shared it all. I am amazed we made it through. I am thrilled we made it through.

Our marriage has been the hardest, most rewarding work of my life. Look at us - we're doing it - together.

I love you dear husband. No one stirs my passionate heart like you. Thank you for being my best friend. Thank you for these 19 years! 

Much bewildered, sore afraid

At church Walter has been teaching on fear. This post by Darren at The Alternative Hymnal brings the subject of fear to Jesus' ministry. Overcoming fear is a constant obstacle for me. He writes:

"When I started to think about it the words “Do not be afraid” kept on coming to mind, in particular how the Gospel story seems to start with the words “Do not be afraid” (in Matthew) and, in the same book ends with the same words as Jesus and the angel appears to the women after the resurrection, it’s the same words Jesus uses on the mountain after the Transfiguration and the same words he uses as he calls the fishermen to follow him on his journey, it’s also the same words used as he walks on water and frightens the disciples and when the Synagogue leader is told that his daughter has died."

Fear of rejection, fear of failure, fear of being known - all of those things rear their ugly heads in my life and I am tempted to isolate. To hide, to withdraw and to stop engaging in the community I so long for and need. I found this post a real reminder that most of life is really about overcoming our fears. All of us. Not just me.

I wonder what it would be like to sit together in a safe community and share our fears. Talk about them, say them out loud. Realize how very much alike we really are to the people sitting to our right and our left. I know that most would bristle at the thought. Few would show up, and fewer still would probably feel safe enough to share. But what could be overcome if we spoke our deepest fears into community and we were heard and not alone?

I have come face to face with some of my greatest fears in this past year. I am now in a community that embraces me - will allow me to use my gifts and participate as I am. Not as who I have to construct myself into to be acceptable.

This is terrifying to me.

What if I am judged as unacceptable. What if I stand and don't deliver? What if I can't live up to all that I so long to be? What if I'm all talk and no action?

That would be one of my greatest fears realized.

Do you ever just pick up a book at THE RIGHT TIME to read a line that HITS HOME, square, right between your eyes? I did that this morning. A Christmas devotional by Calvin Miller was calling to me today, "Pick me up" it said. This page opened and I read this prayer:

"Lord, may I quit trying to figure out the mathematics of grace. You have chosen me because it is Your nature to use the bewildered. And that is enough for me. What would you have me to do?"

The bewildered. The afraid. The lost and confused. That hit me square between the eyes. Okay. Today I will own my bewilderedness and do it bewildered. Here I am God, send this bewildered one.

You can read the rest of Darren's post here:

The Alternative Hymnal Faithless - Mass Destruction - P*Nut and Sister Bliss Mix

Finding My Voice

I have started a Vox blog today because I like the features it has for private posting and releasing things to only family or friends.

Pretty cool format too. Check it out:

Finding My Voice

McSweeney's Internet Tendency: American Girl Dolls Write to President Bush.

This is so sly!

McSweeney's Internet Tendency: American Girl Dolls Write to President Bush.

Thanks Bob!

I've been everywhere man

I have lived in many different places - a lot with very distinguishable language systems (Pittsburgh especially) and it seems not to have affected my home-grown, midwestern roots.

We escaped Pennsylvania without the dreaded silent "l" of swimming in the "poo" after we go "dahn tahn" to pick up groceries from "Giant Ego". It seems that here we must be aware here of that pesky "a" for "o" transfer that seems to be creeping in as my son said "dag" yesterday when he was describing a puppy - we've got to put a quick end to that one!

Your Linguistic Profile:

55% General American English

20% Yankee

15% Upper Midwestern

5% Midwestern

0% Dixie

What Kind of American English Do You Speak?

The Princess and The Goblin

We are reading George McDonald's The Princess and The Goblin together each night and there are quotes in here I don't want to forget:

"But Mr. Author, why do you always write about princesses?"

"Because every little girl is a princess."

"You will make them vain if you tell them that."

"Not if they understand what I mean."

"Then what do you mean?"

"The daughter of a king."

"Very well, then every little girl is a princess, and there would be no need to say anything about it, except that she is always in danger of forgetting her rank, and behaving as if she had grown out of the mud. I have seen little princesses behave like the children of thieves and lying beggars, and that is why they need to be told they are princesses. And that is why, when I tell a story of this kind, I like to tell it about a princess. Then I can say better what I mean, because I can then give her every beautiful thing I want her to have."

pg,. 11-12

~~~~~~~~~~~~

"...on she ran, unable to think for fear, and ready to run anywhere to elude the awful creature with the stilt-legs. Not daring to look behind her, she rushed straight out of the gate, and up the mountain. It was foolish indeed -- thus to run farther and father from all who could help her, as if she has been seeking a fit spot for the goblin-creature to eat her at his leisure; but that is the way fear serves us; it always take the side of the things that we are afraid of."

pg. 138-139

~~~~~~~~~~~~

"The lady was seated on a low chair by the side of the fire, with hands outstretched to take her, but the princess hung back with a troubled smile.

"Why, what's the matter?" asked the grandmother. "You haven't been doing anything wrong -- I know that by your face, though it is rather miserable. What's the matter, my dear?"

And she still held out her arms.

"Dear grandmother," said Irene, "I'm not so sure I haven't done something wrong. I ought to have run up to you at once when the long-legged cat came in at the window, instead of running out on the mountain, and making myself such a fright."

"You were taken by surprise, my child, and are not so likely to do it again. It is when people do wrong things willfully that they are the more likely to do them again."

pg. 147-148

~~~~~~~~~~~~

"You must not suppose that I am blaming you for that, I daresay it was out your power to help it."

"I don't know, grandmother," said the princess, beginning to cry. "I can't always do myself as I should like. And I don't always try. -- I'm very sorry anyhow."

pg. 159

happy roald dahl day!

one of the most fantastical minds and imaginations of our generation is being celebrated today. he would have been 90 today.

have your own SCRUMDIDDLLYUMPTIOUS day!

“Adults will try to fool you into thinking they have important things on their minds when, in fact, they are thinking about what to have for supper or when they are going to wash the car.”

Wholly

I was reading Meet the Austins by Madeleine L'Engle before I hand it off to Alinea so we talk about it together and found this quote. It reminds me so much of the incredible views we have on our Bay of Fundy:

"One side of the room is all a big window which Grandfather had put in. It has shutters you can close, but when they're open you look down the steep bluffs to the ocean and the only thing that's farther out on the bluff than Grandfather's stable is the lighthouse. Mother and Daddy always look forward to sleeping in the enormous bed, but Mother says that the first couple of nights, even if they close the shutters, she always stays awake for a long time to see the lighthouse light as it swings around. There are no pictures in the room; Grandfather says you can't ask any picture to compete with that view. But on one wall he painted in soft gray Gothic letters:

"God is over all things, under all things; outside all;
within, but not enclosed; without but not excluded;
above, but not raised up; below, but now depressed;
wholly above, presiding; wholly without, embracing;
wholly within, filling."

That has always been one of Grandfather's favorite things, so we knew that it was by Hildevert of Lavardin, who wrote it sometime around 1125."

Meet the Austins, Madeleine L'Engle, pg. 151

You are like a Hurricane

During Lent last spring I was tempted to 'give up' something meaningful. And then I remembered that the past 12 months were about giving many things up and away. I decided to embrace instead of push away, to add instead of subtract. I decided that I was going to pour my Lenten meditations and prayers into my fingers and onto paper.

It had been years since I had allowed myself the freedom to do art. I completed three pieces, each in a different medium. This one is my favorite. It is a self-portrait.

It didn't begin that way. I just had my sketchbook, my pastels and the sunny warmth of the front porch at 29 Union calling to me. I would have never set out to draw myself. I don't know what happened.

I have never been light on my feet. I guess I've always been too self-conscious. I'm sure the church's stern frown upon dancing in my younger years had is affect. Needless to say, I have rarely lost myself in the moment of movement and the dance of joy.

But, there were two euphoric recollections of freedom that have etched their way deep into my memories. I guess they came to life here on this page.

The first was during my college years while staffing a week of camp. This was not the camp of my childhood and they held a DANCE (gasp) for their campers and it shocked my little Brethren roots to the core. I watched from the sidelines with my pharisaic nose in the air. Until the dj called all of the females, young and old to the center of the floor. How could I not go?

We all joined hands and he played Cyndi Lauper's Girls Just Want to Have Fun - and we circled and circled, spinning faster and faster. I have never felt so free. So full of life and so uninhibited. All self-consciousness stripped away and I joined the whole instead of the fear of the one alone. The isolation that comes from judgment can be a desolate thing indeed.

The second time was only about five years ago, at the National Youth Workers Convention in Pittsburgh. They invited Andy Hunter to a late night option to give us a taste of what England was doing on the rave front. I was so excited. Keith not so much. I wanted to get lost in the crowd and find that place of becoming part of the whole in worship.

Walking into the room they reserved was a huge disappointment. About 12 people were on the dance floor with about 20 more watching. At a convention of 1000's I had to admit that I was more than a bit saddened that more people weren't joining in so that I could loose my inhibitions and spin. Childhood restrictions on dance also make for little grace and ease of movement on the dance floor. I pictured myself doing the "Elaine" and becoming a spectacle instead of a sum of the parts that make up the whole.

We sat at the sidelines, Keith wanting to leave, I wanting to stay until more people showed up. Then I noticed that his stage was set up in front of a large curtained off section of the room. I got up, without telling Keith where I was going and snuck back behind the curtain. No one could see me. I became invisible even to myself, and able to dance for that audience of One. Tentatively I put out my arms, I closed my eyes and began to feel the beat and I swayed and wove my hands into the music. My feet were still firmly etched to the floor though.

A couple of minutes changed that as I realized my invisible safety and then I began to spin - I know it wasn't full of dancer-like grace and moves of skill, but rather it seemed like the three year old I once was turning in time to the music of Lawrence Welk my parents often listened to in my childhood. Although not artistic in the least I was free and worshipping my God to my full extent, body, soul & spirit, tears streaming down my face.

I think that it what flowed onto the paper here. I imagined myself in the middle of the greening grass, long skirts and sleeves flowing in the wind and spinning like my life depended on it. I was lost in the medium, adding color, my hands smearing and blurring, green, yellow, orange and red all swirling and whilrling onto the paper.

It is how I long to be - so carefree, so uninhibited, and fearless in my worship. So unlike reality.

Self-conscious.
Stumbling
Afraid.

I'm glad it's on paper. It makes it feel more real. It reminds me that there are times when heaven touches earth and I am transcendent in my worship. Freed from all that hangs on me, body and soul.

I realized after looking at it that it was so similar to a weather map of those tropical storms that whirl and spin in this season - so dangerous and out of control. Oh the damage they wreak and wreck.

That brought up another memory from when I was in middle school. Our bus driver was a crazy lump of a woman named Hilda. I remember crossing Highway 50 on the way home and we were sideswiped by a car on the four lane highway. After that we called her "Hurricane Hilda". It was then that the fear of the hurricane began winding it's way into my psyche.

Hilda is far too close to Heidi for my liking. I never wanted to be known as "Hurricane Heidi" - destruction, wind gusts of 100 mph, unruly wildness. Not the image the church ever told me a woman was to embrace. And far too much like the wild things I knew were deep within me.

This became a secret obsession of mine. Each hurricane season I would listen for the choice for "H" - fearing that my own name would be linked to those horrible tragedies. Hurricane Heidi. Oh the destruction, the devastation the wild things within me can wreak and wreck. Not a metaphor I welcomed freely.

Since then I have pondered it's similarity to the fears I have in embracing my voice and my call here in our new community. I have been silenced and silenced myself for so long that the power of the force within me terrifies me. Will I come on as a fire hose instead of a fountain? How will it ever be possible? How can I spin and not wreck? How can I participate and not be so self-conscious and afraid? How dear God can I serve you and fulfill the call you have on my life?

Only when I spin for You. Only when it is truly done in worship. God help me.

Make a difference

It makes no difference, unless you make a difference.

Peter Fitch

Myers-Briggs Prayers

These are spot-on! Which one are you?

ISTJ: Lord help me to relax about insignificant details beginning tomorrow at 1:41.23 am e.s.t.

ISTP: God help me to consider people's feelings, even if most of them ARE hypersensitive.

ESTP: God help me to take responsibility for my own actions, even though they're usually NOT my fault.

ESTJ: God, help me to not try to RUN everything. But, if You need some help, just ask.

ISFJ: Lord, help me to be more laid back and help me to do it EXACTLY right.

ISFP: Lord, help me to stand up for my rights (if you don't mind my asking).

ESFP: God help me to take things more seriously, especially parties and dancing.

ESFJ: God give me patience, and I mean right NOW.

INFJ: Lord help me not be a perfectionist. (did I spell that correctly?)

INFP: God, help me to finish everything I sta

ENFP: God,help me to keep my mind on one th-Look a bird-ing at a time.

ENFJ: God help me to do only what I can and trust you for the rest. Do you mind
putting that in writing?

INTJ: Lord keep me open to others' ideas, WRONG though they may be.

INTP: Lord help me be less independent, but let me do it my way.

ENTP: Lord help me follow established procedures today. On second thought, I'll settle for a few minutes.

ENTJ: Lord, help me slow downandnotrushthroughwatIdo.

Amen.

via

Synchonized Goldfish - really!

My good friend Dan posted this today and it's so amazing to watch - this man has trained his goldfish to swim in unison! Very cool!

DanWilt.com