Daily 5 - Day 41

Image by Vicki's Nature via Flickr

Today's Daily 5 (and a picture, just because I loved it):

1. Grocery shopping trip to the "soul-sucking mega store" that was far more peaceful than usual
2. A simple but delicious dinner of turkey souvlaki kebabs and coleslaw
3. Finally managing to warm up, after grocery shopping (I was absolutely freezing all day. Nothing I did to get warm at either home or the office worked... but somehow, after groceries, I was warm. go figure. especially given my great love of grocery shopping!)
   
4. A truly ridiculous laugh over a blogthings quiz (see my previous post)
5. Making trip plans for next month with my roommate and realizing a new that the much needed and longed for vacation really is going to happen!
   

Changing Leaves

I've got to tell you that usually the results of the Blogthings quizzes I do are fairly accurate to my personality, and personality style quizzes always amuse me, so I do many of them. Given my current love affair with fall, and the changing season this year, I was definitely looking forward to seeing the results of the "What Part of Fall Are You?" quiz when I came across it.

Well, the results weren't particularly indicative of anything, but they were so blunt and ridiculous that they made me laugh quite hard. See?

You Are Changing Leaves

Pretty, but soon dead.

What Part of Fall Are You?

Blogthings: If Quizzes Are Outlawed, Only Outlaws Will Take Quizzes

Monday Morning

So far, I've got to tell you, I'm having a Monday.

Even if today weren't the official first day of autumn, I'd have been convinced that autumn was here when I went outside this morning. What has, for the last several weeks, been simply a thick and heavy dew on my windshield, was frost this morning, requiring scraping so that I could see enouch to safely drive. I've been looking forward to fall, and I'm loving it, but I really could live without the scraping of the windshield for a few more months.

I forgot to bring my journal with me to work this morning, which isn't really a problem, other than that it throws off my usual routine of spending the fifteen or twenty minutes before the work day begins reflecting on the day before, and the night of dreams. I like routine. (It also means that I need to find time tonight to write instead.)

I wore capri pants to work, thinking that I would probably be okay for warmth. I'm still wearing my jacket, sitting cross legged so as to have as much skin covered for warmth as possible, and, when I'm not typing, I'm clutching a mug of tea. I'm absolutely freezing!

And I woke from weird dreams about water and family, and being inadequate and unable. Funny how those feelings come after a day yesterday that assured me of things in the opposite spirit.

So, it's Monday, and I'm diving into the new week. Our bookkeeper is on vacation, which, in the past, would have meant that I basically didn't get a lunch hour for that week, but, thanks to our newest hire, I have the freedom to still have a lunch hour this week, and that, in my mind is worth celebrating.

Daily 5 - Day 40

I always like it when I hit the 40 day milestone in something. Such an important number in scripture, and I've also read that it takes 40 days for a habit to be built.

For forty days now I've been making a concerted effort to choose life and joy. Some days have definitely been harder than others. When I woke this morning, it seemed that it was going to be a harder day, I didn't know what it might hold. But it was lovely, and here I am, showing up for the 40th time to celebrate life. And joy has begun to bubble within me, and it is oh so welcome here.

Today's daily 5:

1. the birth of a baby daughter to some friends I've know for years
2. hugs from friends I get to see rarely
3. moments of victory, big and small, and being reminded that there is more strength within me than I know, thanks to Jesus
4. a beautiful fall drive, filled with confirmations of purpose and life
5. "I Surrender" by Kim Walker - a song I'd never heard before, playing at just the right moment for my heart.
   

New Life...

It's raining today, and my first instinct was to groan. I'll be doing some highway driving, never my favorite thing today, and the thought of doing it in the rain felt just a bit daunting.

And then I remembered that it is a new day. A new week, and that we are on the last day of the celebration of Rosh Hashanah, and a new year.

And that all summer I've been loving the rain. Feeling joy and hope in it. Seeing in it new life. The promise of the spring that would finally break the seemingly unending winter I've seemed to be living in.

So, in a day that seemed bleak, and a day that is full of uncertainties, I am choosing to find hope in the rain. To find joy and peace and rest in it.

I received news this morning that is granting much hope and strength. Some long time friends (I've known them since we were all in Young Life together in high school) celebrated 9 years together earlier this week (6 dating, 3 married), and this morning, my friend brought their first child, a little girl into the world. Her name is Annabella Fleur, and the birth of this precious much anticipated little flower is a miracle of new life that I needed to hear about today.

So, I'm going to celebrate new life today, and remind myself of that as I see what the rest of the day will hold.