Monthly Archives: August 2013

Lonely

Posted on by
65
FIVE MINUTE FRIDAY

So now on Fridays a group of people who love to throw caution to the wind and just write without worrying if it’s just right gather to share what five minutes buys them.

While the kids are changing into their swim suits, while the popcorn is popping, while the dog is outside doing his business, while the show cuts to commercial. Just five minutes.

Today, the prompt is: Lonely


What is it like to be lonely?
It feels like something, well, someone is missing. I think of a figure standing in the mist in the night, leaning against a street lamp. No one seeing him knows why he’s there, but everyone knows he’s alone.
She sits at the counter in the diner, sipping coffee and reading the newspaper. He goes to see the movie alone. Dance classes are full of people who need a partner. A college student walks home to his studio apartment after class.
All these snapshots are of people who are alone. But are they lonely?
The man in the mist is there to smoke his cigarette. The woman in the diner sighs with pleasure because it’s her ‘night out’ while her husband puts the kids to bed. The movie was a happy coincidence; he didn’t think it was still out.

The dance class vibrates with the joy of individuals pursuing the dream to cha-cha, even if their partners would rather stay home and watch reruns of CSI. The college student lives alone so he can study. His ADD doesn’t need the added distraction of a roommate.

People can be alone, but not be lonely. I need to be careful when I label what I see. The world may be filled with “lonely people”. But some of them are mislabeled.

Linking today with: Five Minute Friday

Five Minute Friday

Lawn and Order

Posted on by
55
I hear: “Bloom where you’re planted.”


I think: “That depends.”

I have some shrubs in front of my house. We’ve landscaped around them with bark chips and then I dug a little trench to place a series of interlocking bricks. It creates a wall to divide the shrub area from the lawn.
I love to go out in the early morning to wander around the plants. I pull the little weeds that try to make the bark chips their new home. They come out easily; they can’t get much of a grip. The real challenge is the grass that begins to grow in-between the bricks.
Day after day, week after week, I pull and yank, trying to get that grass pulled out by the roots. I have thought about it so many times; too bad this grass doesn’t grow about half a foot further south. That’s where the lawn is. I’d love that. Instead, I’m removing perfectly good grass because it’s in the wrong place.
Blooming where you are planted is a tricky concept. You can have a wonderful talent, like opera singing, but what if you end up in a Barber Shop Quartet? Should you bloom where you are now planted? Not in my book. You should get the heck out of there. You need to find the lawn! You are stuck in the bricks.
When my children were small, I was working part-time as a nurse in a Same Day Surgery facility. It was challenging, but I loved it.
After a while, a weird thing started happening. I’d get crushing headaches every day I worked. It was so strange. I’d go to work and be fine, but leave like there was an anvil on my head. It was awful.
At first, I thought it might be ‘sick building syndrome.’ But that couldn’t be it. No one else was sick. Then it hit me. It was the environment all right, but not the air.
Our head nurse was not a good leader. She liked to play one person against the other, and listen in on private conversations. I knew all that, but I was a part-time employee, so I figured I could handle it. I didn’t realize that I was getting tension headaches from the stress.
I was not blooming. I quit, and the headaches stopped. The issue wasn’t that I couldn’t do my job; the issue was where I was doing it. Squeezed in between those bricks, no wonder I got headaches! I needed a pasture, a place to spread my roots.
The Lord wants to give me a place where I can bloom. But sometimes that field is hard to find, and I end up putting down roots in the wrong place. The field I’m in? Turns out it’s not a field at all.
God is calling. I need to get up and go, but only a few inches. Then I’ll be happy. F inally, I’ll be in the lawn.

(Full disclosure: I used a stock photo. But my front yard is nice too!)

Linking today with Wednesday Prayer Girls
Linking today with Winsome Wednesdays
Linking today with A Little R and R
Linking today with Into the Word Wednesday
Linking with Intentional Me

A Little Love on Monday

Posted on by
48
“You are the light of the world”
Matthew 5:14

Did you know that you are a light?
You are. Jesus says you are, so it must be true.

It’s Monday, and light is a little hard to connect with on a Monday. So…let me help you see how shiny you are.

I know that you are a God-seeker, and are actively looking for Wisdom. You can’t do that unless you have been called and given the grace to go out and seek. That grace is his light, shining the way to wisdom and the knowledge of him. But don’t forget that God is not just ‘out there.’ He is inside you too.
It’s easy to forget that. Like a firefly, you can’t see your own light, but can see someone else’s a mile away. If no one has reminded you lately that you are all lit up like a firefly, I will tell you. You are.
Like a lighthouse, your light points the way to shore, to a resting place. You are that gentle resting place for so many. Yours is not a harsh, blinding light. Your light is soft, gracious and inviting. It has to be, because it comes from God. The storms on the sea do not extinguish your light. You may have to bend, but your flame will stand again; straighter and taller.
Warmth flows from your light too. You give life to the illuminating love of God, with your hands and feet. God cannot physically hug your children, spouse or friends, but you can. The warmth of his embrace is yours to share, to bring comfort to the hurts of the world.
Your light has the power to transform you in joy, and gives the power to share that joy. You can distribute that joy in the grocery store, in school, or in what you write and what you say. Your smile can change every person you meet today. Your attention to a story told, lifts the spirits of those you hear.
Light is strength, because it erases the darkness. The Lord looks at you right now, sees his servant, and smiles. He sees the glowing power of his light in you, and knows that the darkness will never overcome it. His precious light is safe with you. You will protect and sustain it by the care you take, in living your life for him.
So have that cup of coffee, make your list and go out into your day. When it gets a little overwhelming, sit back for a minute. Try to see what God sees in you.
Remember, you are the light of the world, the light of your Father’s eye. Look out to others, yes, but don’t become so distracted that you miss the joyful truth. Time to get out from underneath that bushel. The Father desires your beauty. And so does your world.

Linking with Hear it On Sunday, Use it on Monday , Playdates with God , Unite ,
Teaching What Is Good

Psalm 23

Posted on by
46


Would you believe this gorgeous scene was behind a hotel?


My daughter and I had a ‘Girl’s Weekend’ in Merrillville, Indiana a few years ago. We loved the area, and the hotel. Out for a walk one day, we headed around to the back of the building.

What a surprise! This little lake area had benches dotted here and there, and a bark-chip path circling it. Perfect!

I had to take a few pictures…who would believe it?


Linking with Still Saturday

Linking with The Weekend Brew

Story

Posted on by
46

FIVE MINUTE FRIDAY
So now on Fridays a group of people who love to throw caution to the wind and just write without worrying if it’s just right gather to share what five minutes buys them.
While the kids are changing into their swim suits, while the popcorn is popping, while the dog is outside doing his business, while the show cuts to commercial. Just five minutes.

Today, the prompt is: Story

Tell me a story. Not just any story, tell me your story.

I love biographies, and I’m not sure if it’s because I’m infernally nosy, or just Curious George. But I know your story will fascinate me, so let’s get started.
Now your story might be as complicated as Anna Karenina, or as simple as Good Night Moon, and that’s the fun of it. No matter what you’ve done or gone through, I know there will be things about it that I will understand. I’ll learn where you’ve been, and want to hear about where you’re going.
The story is told because I couldn’t be there, so feel free to make side comments and tell me what you were feeling. Later, over some tea, or a glass of wine, maybe you’ll let me tell you what I was feeling too.

God bless us on the road, the road that is your story and my story. It was so good to have met you today. I just knew I’d be fascinated.

Linking today with Five Minute Friday