5 Years

Five years ago today, I wrote my very first blog post.  It was a slow start.

I opened a blogger account because a good friend of mine was in Sri Lanka, working for Samaritans' Purse, doing water relief work following the tsunami.  (As a side note, it's hard to believe that it's been over five years since that boxing day Tsunami, as well.)  He had a blog, and I couldn't comment on it without a blogger account of my own.

So I opened an account.

And the rest, as they say, is history.

In five years I've written 2989 posts.  That's the equivalent of showing up here 1.6 times a day, every day, for the last five years.

I've chronicled a journey beginning in the worst months of depression, through the moment of sudden healing.  I've written about life and faith and family and friends and shoes.

I've travelled a bit, and dreamed a lot.

I've shed a lot of tears.

And I've even made some friends out there in the blogging world.  One of them I even got to meet in person last year.

I'm thankful for this record of my life that has developed, and for each of you who have stopped in to say hi, or share your opinions, or journey with me.

Here's to another 5 years!

Daily 5 - Day 137

Today's Daily "5":

1. Turkey Chili for lunch at mom and dad's
2. A blog redesign
3. Listening to the personalized mix cd that was part of J.'s Christmas gift to me while I worked on the blog this afternoon - loving the music on it!
4. Watching the movie "Bedtime Stories" with Mom and Dad tonight - I'm increasingly a fan of funny, creative, imagination inspiring kid's movies.
5. Thankful for a car that is still getting me from place to place safely
6. Incredibly thankful that I am still off of work for another week
7. Loving checking out photos of friends Christmases on blogs or facebook - especially a few friends who were celebrating the first Christmases for their new little ones
8. playing simple games on facebook
9. grateful for the healing in my relationship with my parents that is letting me truly enjoy all the time we've been spending together
10. sipping a cup of mango rooibos tea
    
11. 137 days of writing lists of things that make me smile... it's crazy to think I've been doing this that long!
    

New Look

Well, since the template I was using for my blog sort of self destructed and erased the pretty blue flowers that were in my header, and replaced them with a particularly ugly warning message, I figured it was probably time to switch things up again.

I'm liking the new look.  The template is called "echo history" which seems somehow appropriate for someone who is a history geek!  Plus, it reminded me of some of the fonder memories of my time in Europe, and stirred the longing to go back to Rome in particular, and I'm always grateful for those reminders and stirrings.

And, since in the process of changing the template, I had to rebuild my entire list of links, I've updated it and added several new links that weren't there before.  Check some of the blogs out - even the ones that haven't been updated recently have some really great content in their archives.

And now, having spent close to three hours fixing the blog, I'm off to find something to eat for supper.  I'm hungry!

And let's all pray that this template lasts a while, and doesn't require changes, because I'm not in any hurry to repeat that tedious project again anytime soon!

Face Lift

I went ahead and did it.

After just over four years, I gave "Of all the liars in the world..." a bit of a facelift!

While I was at it, I updated my blogger profile, and added a few links to the list in my sidebar.

Let me know if you have any problems with it, so I can make an attempt at correcting them!

Re-do?

I'm contemplating (after over four years!) changing the look of my blog.

Of giving it a bit of a facelift.

But I'm nervous about losing features I like, or not being able to make other features work the way I'd prefer.

What do you think? Is it time for a facelift? Have you ever done a facelift to your own blogs? How involved was the process?

Updates...

I've updated the list of "People and Things I Like" in my sidebar. I added a number of blogs I've been reading regularly the last while. I thought some of you might like to check them out too... but mostly, I put them there so it's easier for me to get to them!

New Feature

I've added a new feature to the sidebar of my blog. I've decided to make a list of the stuff I'm reading. I'm only going to list the non-fiction books (I read probably 2-3 novels a week, and tend to re-read novels so I don't feel a particular need to list them.) I'm also trying to make a greater effort to read things that are spiritually challenging - to pay attention in my own life to the quotes on spiritual reading from Henri Nouwen that I put here earlier in the week. As I finish a book, I'll add it to the list, with the most recently finished book being at the top of the list.

I'll probably still post pretty regularly about the stuff I'm reading, and to be honest, the list is more of a way for me to keep track of what I've read than anything else, but if you're interested, check the list out.

"Special" Birthday

There are lots of things I could talk to you about today.

I could tell you that I’ve arbitrarily declared today to be December 1, because the two inches (and still coming down) of snow we have is acceptable for December 1, but in my opinion is completely not acceptable for April 20th.

I could tell you how glad I am for a cup of passion tea this morning.

I could tell you about eating pizza with Megs last night, and starting to watch a movie, getting twenty minutes in and turning it off and going shopping instead. (I can’t even tell you the title of the movie, because I’ve forgotten it. It was crude, dirty, had David Duchovny and Julianne Moore and Maggie Gyllenhal and someone else, and sounded so inoccuous on the back cover that neither one of us remembered to look at the rating or the comments that go with the rating. Can I just say that I have an incredibly bad track record of picking independent or lesser known movies – the ones I pick are almost invariably BAD. So if you’re ever watching a movie like that with me, don’t let me pick!)

I could tell you about the attitudes I was raised with, the ones I was thinking about on the way to work this morning as I slogged through the snow from the train station. The ones that say that spiritual warfare is something that only happens in lesser developed countries. The ones that say that poverty is something I should care about if it’s a starving African child, because they can’t help themselves, but something I should look down on if it’s a north-american street person, because really, why don’t they just get it together and find a job?

Or, now that I’ve got those other things out of my system, I could tell you why April 20 is a special day for me. I think I’ll just go ahead and do that.

You see, 19 years ago today, I knelt down on the dirty chocolate brown shag carpet that was then in our living room (can you say 1970’s leftovers!?) beside my mom, and, in the simplistic language that a four year old uses, “asked Jesus into my life.”

My parents made a big deal out of this. They made a big deal out of reminding us every year, honoring this choice, the commitment we’d made. They’d remind us, even when we forgot about our “special birthday” (which we also called our “spiritual birthday”). We had a special dinner plate that we used to use for special occasions. I don’t remember exactly what all was on it, but it was blue and white, and I remember that it said “you are loved” on the rim somewhere. Basically, it showed up for each of us two or three times a year, on our actual birthday, on our “special” birthday, and maybe when something really exciting happened. My parents believed in celebrating our unique accomplishments and special occasions.

I resented April 20 for a number of years. All those years of depression, when I was praying that God would simply release me from the “unknowing” commitment I made at age four. I was begging God to let go of me, because it seemed that all I’d ever had from him was pain. If he wasn’t going to let me go, I told him, then just let me die, because I was done living.

Last year, my healing was new, and I was embroiled in the midst of caring for some very “messy” people, handling some messy stuff in my own life, and job hunting, and April 20th passed without notice or incident.

But today, I’m grateful. I’m grateful to the four year-old me, the simple faith that handed my life to Jesus. I’m grateful in hindsight for all the years that Jesus walked with me, through pain and depression and suffering. And I’m grateful for my relationship with him today. I’m grateful that I can say that I’ve known Jesus and even tried to walk with him for most of the last nineteen years. I’m grateful for the healing he’s brought. I’m grateful for the deep heart knowledge of his love for me. And so, inside me today, I’m celebrating. I’m reveling in a significant moment. I’m enjoying my “special birthday.” And I’m passing birthday wishes on to you. May you know Christ, be found in him, not having a rightousness of your own that comes from the law, but a righteousness that is through faith in him. May you know Christ, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death and so somehow to attain to the resurrection of the dead. (Philippians 3).

Some Changes

Since I've finally managed the switch, I also took the time to make some changes. Most significantly, I've updated my list of people and things I like. If you're still not on the list, it doesn't mean I don't like you, it just means I don't know where to find you!