The 19th

So, my baby brother is no longer a teenager. He turned 20 today. That makes me feel just a little bit old. We were laughing together at his party tonight - I told him it made me feel old, and he said it made him feel just a bit old too.

Happy Birthday T!

The Fullness of Time and The Mountaintop Experience - Henri Nouwen

Two more great reflections from Henri Nouwen:

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.

The Mountaintop Experience

At some moments we experience complete unity within us and around us. This may happen when we stand on a mountaintop and are captivated by the view. It may happen when we witness the birth of a child or the death of a friend. It may happen when we have an intimate conversation or a family meal. It may happen in church during a service or in a quiet room during prayer. But whenever and however it happens we say to ourselves: "This is it ... everything fits ... all I ever hoped for is here."

This is the experience that Peter, James, and John had on the top of Mount Tabor when they saw the aspect of Jesus' face change and his clothing become sparkling white. They wanted that moment to last forever (see Luke 9:28-36). This is the experience of the fullness of time. These moments are given to us so that we can remember them when God seems far away and everything appears empty and useless. These experiences are true moments of grace.

Random Facts about Me

So, just because I was thinking about some of these things, here are some random facts about me...

• I could eat potato at just about any meal, in just about any form. Except mashed. I'm not that crazy about mashed potatoes.
• I say that about potatoes, because that's what I felt like eating tonight. Potatoes. So I made a spiced hashbrown type dish that I often make, and a few strips of bacon.
• Continuing in the food vein for a second, let me just say that I don't like breakfast foods. At least not for breakfast.
• I do however, eat breakfast for supper every once in a while. This is something my very straightlaced roommate finds odd. I come home, and make pancakes, or french toast, or hashbrowns and bacon. I grew up eating breakfast for supper occasionally. It's a Pippus family tradition. One which my roommate finds weird.
• I love almost any television that's not written for the dumbest possible viewer. Unless it's really crude, or really physical comedy.
• I love everything I've ever seen written by Aaron Sorkin. Sport's Night. The West Wing. Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. The American President.
• My phone rings so rarely that I'm always a little surprised when it does ring.
• I'm a sucker for impulse buys - particularly if they're practical items that I use regularly. I may not need the item at that moment, but if it's somewhere where I can grab it on impulse, and it's a good deal, I'll probably buy it.
• I'm also a sucker for sales.
• I have favorites of all kinds of things. Favorite jeans. Favorite socks. Favorite product lines. Favorite make-up.
  
• I have to be in exactly the right mood to shop for clothes. If I'm in the wrong mood, then I could try on the most perfect outfit, and I'll still hate it.

Okay, well, I can't think of any more particularly random facts at the moment, so I'm moving on to other things for the evening... see you around!

Tuesday Morning

There are several things I'm randomly thinking about this morning, that I'll probably eventually explore here further:

• the idea of rescue - I wrote a personal essay on this topic Sunday afternoon...
• that walmart at Christmas, even late at night, when it should be slow, is always a bad idea. I was there for 40 minutes last night. 20 minutes of that was standing in line to pay. And they didn't have most of what I needed to buy.
• 11 work days left before Malta. Crazy.
• if I lived in a city with great public transportation and a good climate (does such a city exist?) I'd wear skirts year round, and never drive anywhere again. Walking is very therapeutic.
• as per usual for this time of year at work, there are dozens of little projects on my desk, all urgent, and all being delayed by the slow response times of others, and I'm feeling the pressure to get them done before Christmas, and particularly before Malta.
• I'm having dinner with a friend tonight, but am looking forward to being home relatively early for a change.
• tea is almost always a good idea
• need to make decisions about a couple of upcoming things. things that make me nervous. need to spend some time sitting quietly in the next few days praying through those decisions.
• need some slow time for my brain to catch up to my body and soul - I'm dreaming every night again, the same dream for a whole night, in repetition, with different dreams every night. Not the spiritually significant sort of dreams that I sometimes have, but lots about the stuff of daily life, the stuff I'm thinking about. And lots of airports. Air travel seems to be a theme in my dreams - in the significant ones and the non-significant ones.
• mandarin oranges are a gift of god. even though I'm allergic to them, and they make my skin hyper-sensitive and hyper-reactive. How can you have Christmas without mandarins?
• the phones at work rang off the hook yesterday. Renewal season in progress, and grumpy policy holders and representatives are calling to tell us what we're doing wrong!
• and with that, there are things on my desk that rather desperately need attention, but first, I need to make a cup of tea!

See ya later!

In the thick

Things at work remain out of control busy. I think they'll be this way until I leave. My last day is January 8th. Only 12 days of work left.

The first half of this week is a little wild, too, with Christmas engagements and trying to see friends before everyone scatters for the holidays and I leave town for five weeks.

So, if it's quiet around here until Thursday, that's why!

See you around!