Daily 5 - Year 2, Day 179

Today's Daily 5:

1. Finally figuring out a weekend packing/transporting my stuff system that means I don't have to carry everything I need for the weekend with me all over the city on Friday's before I arrive at mom and dad's
2. a tiny, cute girl who was so proud to be getting on the bus with her grandpa that she was grinning
3. Odd banana sightings - someone had taken the time to drape a banana peel over a hand rail at the university, and then a few hours later, in a totally different part of the city, I spotted another whole banana laying in the snow... the two totally random sightings made me giggle
4. a good appointment
5. walking through the train station just as the busker playing there today hit the chorus of "Mighty to Save".  I needed that reminder today, as I continue to wrestle with some discouragement "He is Mighty to Save, Mighty to save..."
6. a quick change of plans that ended up with Chinese food in a food court, but still included a fun evening hanging out with my friend F and her daughter A, catching up, and wandering the mall.
7. cracking up over "Might have negotiated for keeping my maiden name!"
8. finished up a book I was reading that I was aiming to finish.  I had lots of time to do that today, since between school, an appointment, and meeting a friend, in three different corners of the city, I spent close to five hours of the day riding the bus.
9. coming home to find lots of entertaining emails waiting for me
10. honestly, tonight number 10 is very much just the relief of collapsing into bed after a fairly exhausting (mostly good, but exhausting) day.  pajamas, a comfy bed, my laptop, magic bags on my feet/back, those are all really relieving things tonight.

The Opposite Problem

Convincing my head and heart to be on the same page is an ongoing problem for me.  It's a problem when you are both intellectual, and yet intuitive.

Usually, in my case, my head knows something is good long before that deep interior part of my heart is convinced.

Today I'm having the opposite problem.

My heart is fully on board, and my head is not at all convinced.

Reverb 11!

Remember Reverb 10, all through December?  I got an email with a prompt from them the other day.  Once a month over the course of 2011, there will be a prompt coming my way to help me stop to pause and reflect.

This is the new prompt for February:

One month into 2011, what question(s) are you living? Are there any prompts/questions that arose during #reverb10 that are still resonating in your life? Are you living new questions?

So much of reverb10 has played into this new year, particularly as I've chosen my "one word" of heal.

The posts from reverb10 that continue to stand out to me are these three:

• Day One - One Word - the post in which I inadvertently, a month ahead of time,  went with my gut instinct and named the word that I wanted to define 2011.
• Day Eleven - 11 Things I Could Live Without - to be honest, I remember this as being one of the hardest, but also most fun posts to write.  I like the list I came up with, and some of the little things from that list have very much shaped the little personal steps I'm taking towards healing in this new year. 
• Day Eighteen: Try - the list of things I wanted to try in this new year.  I've actually made progress on some of them.  Yoga, for example - I've fallen in love with yoga.  

These are the posts that are still resonating.  The ones that I think about when I stop for a minute to consider this year that is only a month old.  I'm looking forward to this year, however hard it has already been.  I'm curious to see what healing comes, and how it comes.  I'm looking forward to living the things I named in those posts - and living without the ones that I also named!

Daily 5 - Year 2, Day 178

Today's Daily 5:

1. Making friends via my blog
2. Got two proposals for papers/projects for school done today
3. listening to my body and realizing when I needed a break today
4. making a new recipe - I made my own viniagrette dressing for the salad I took to our house church potluck dinner tonight
5. wine - you have no idea how wonderful a glass of wine was tonight
6. chocolate cake
7. Learned an important life lesson - don't wear cute earrings to house church
8. reasons to laugh
9. having a brief venting session
10. talking wedding plans with a friend

Wishbone/Backbone

Right around the new year, someone I know had this as her facebook status:

So and So has her wishbone where her backbone should be.

I read it and cracked up.

And related.

How many times have I sat around wishing for something to work out, when what I probably needed was to collect myself, grow a backbone, and make it happen?

No more wishbone where my backbone should be.

When I read that facebook status, I was in the process of making decisions that would shape 2011, and the status, however humorous, actually shaped those.  It's funny, the things God has used to challenge me.  Facebook statuses, time with friends, books.  God speaks in funny ways to me.  And I'm so thankful that I'm learning to listen for those prompts, even when they come in humorous facebook statuses.