Reverb 10: Day 16: Friends

The December 16th Reverb 10 prompt:

December 16 – Friendship

How has a friend changed you or your perspective on the world this year? Was this change gradual, or a sudden burst?

(Author: Martha Mihalick)

This has been a year for shift and change in friendships.

There have been the new friendships at house church.  The settling into a rhythm there, being welcomed, laughing, talking about who we are as a group, about faith and life and all the goofy little things of life.  They've shaped my perspective as I've thought about mission, and about humility.  They've been the people who've come around me in some really challenging moments this year, hugging me when I cried, laughing with me, giving me space to share the honest truth about how I'm really doing, and even helping me a bit financially in some challenging moments.  They made me welcome and gave me a home to land in for my faith, and I can't imagine my week without that Thursday night gathering.  I miss it when I'm away from it.

There have been shifting friendships, old ones rekindled, and new ones born.

There has been a group of friends who have honored my request to come around me and pray with me and journey with me through some tough stuff.

There was the adding of voices and personality that came when I flew to California and spent a week in person with a friend who'd already become dear via blogging and emailing.  Her voice, already among my trusted friends before that trip, has been important in the journey of healing that this year of crazy deconstruction has encompassed.  It's the checking in at night and rating the day, the trading of snarky emails, the moments of humor (ridiculous or dark), the shared love for the world, for Jesus, and for books that has made it fun.  The trading of book recommendations particularly makes me smile - there are few people who have managed to successfully recommend books to me, but she has made numerous timely suggestions that I've loved!

I don't know how to describe, exactly, the way friendships have changed me this year.  But I can say with great certainty that they have.  That I have been blessed with friends who I love, and who love me in return.  With people who have been there in a year that hasn't exactly been filled with triumphant moments.  Who in the moments I was least able to believe myself loved and lovable, came around me and showed me in tangible and intangible ways that the truth was the opposite of what I felt and believed.  They taught me that I could struggle, and need support and encouragement and prayer, and not be a burden, the way I was so convinced I was.  That was a thought that drove me to hide the broken bits, or the severity of the hard days.  The people I'm privileged to call friends have been carriers of God's love for me this year in ways that I truly can't wrap words around, and I'm so grateful for them.

A Chuckle

I get the daily Garfield cartoon by email, and have for years.  It's been a while since I've posted one here, but this one really did make me smile when I read it:

Daily 5 - Year 2, Day 123

So, today was not quite as long and crazy as yesterday, but it had its moments, and I'm not caught up on the reverb 10 project.  Hopefully over the weekend!

In the meantime, here's today's daily 5:

1. waking up at mom and dad's after a mid-week sleepover due to last night's late night and today's early morning, much easier public transit access from their house
2. collecting some wrapping paper scraps from the toy shoppe at work for a project I'm working on
3. incredible joy and smiles on people's faces as they shop for their kids
4. having great joy at work, even amidst some really chaotic moments
5. House church Christmas dinner tonight
6. some really great conversations with friends
7. a steak sandwich (red meat was just what I needed as this crazy week has been sapping some energy!)
8. home decently early
9. a few good hugs from friends
10. feeling joy in the holiday season - not generally my favorite time of year at all, but this year I'm learning about anticipation and excitement, instead of painful, dragging, waiting through Advent, and it's a lovely change.

Reverb 10: Day 15 - 5 Minutes

Yesterday's (December 15th) Reverb 10 prompt:

December 15 – 5 Minutes

Imagine you will completely lose your memory of 2010 in five minutes. Set an alarm for five minutes and capture the things you most want to remember about 2010.

(Author: Patti Digh)

Okay, I'm taking this literally, after pausing for a few minutes to reflect on what I'd want to include, and I'm setting a timer for five minutes.  These are the things I want to remember:

• that this was the year my life changed completely
• the year I lost my car
• saying goodbye to L when she moved countries
• the year I started seeing a couple different natural health practioners in an attempt to balance things out and really get physically healthy after several rough years
• the year Tim got married, and the chance to be part of his wedding party
• the day I lost my job.  I'd like to forget the negative emotions that are still left, but not that day.  There were some moments of grace in that, and it was a day that is ultimately a blessing in the midst of a very, very ugly disguise
• reading Robert Benson and thinking about being duckless
• being forced into praying, and realizing that God was calling me to enter nursing as a profession
• the crazy summer of studying (I never want to repeat this, and if I forget it, I just might!)
• California, palm trees, disneyland, and the friendship that took me there
• making choices to pursue healing
• discovering the wealth of supportive friends around me when the bottom of my world dropped out
• the funnier aspects (and not the awful ones) of the drama of life at grandmas
• finding reasons to laugh in the really dark moments
• lots and lots of tears, but lots of hugs too

And that's it.  Not a bad list for five minutes.  A whole lot of things to remember.

Daily 5 - Year 2, Day 122

Today's Reverb 10 post will come sometime tomorrow or the next day.  Today I worked 9 hours, and then 5 more at a benefit concert, and I have to be back bright and early tomorrow and am opting for sleep instead of writing!

In the meantime, here's the brief version of today's daily 5:

1. Opening day at Toy Shoppe
2. The wonder of a huge donation of fabulous toys
3. helping to choose gifts for a baby to be born any day now (the mom was 5 days overdue, and shopping for her two older children as well as the baby)
4. Macdonalds for a fast supper
5. hugs from friends
6. The origin of "hi" - it's a contraction of hello, which is a contraction of the old English phrase "whole be thou" - such a lovely blessing to wish someone as you greet them.