Daily 5 - Year 2, Day 86

Today's Daily 5:

1. freshly washed sheets on my bed
2. using my iPhone
3. google reader that makes blog reading so much easier to keep up with
4. books and people that open my eyes so much more broadly to the world
5. blue skies even when it's cold out
6. toast with jam
7. blog comments
8. roasted potatoes
9. trying a new cookie recipe
10. feeding my creative side a bit

The Happiness Project

Last week one of the books I finished reading on my multiple bus trips was Gretchen Rubin's "The Happiness Project: Or, Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun."  With a title and subtitle like that, how could I not love it?

Actually, I really did enjoy Rubin's book.

I liked the ideas it gave me about being happier.

But mostly, I liked these two things:  the first of her "twelve commandments" - "Be Gretchen."

And this, one of Rubin's "Secrets of Adulthood" - "What's fun for other people may not be fun for you - and vice versa."

I need those reminders to be myself.

And particularly I needed to hear that it's okay to be me, even when me doesn't seem to be in sync with the rest of the world around me.

I needed that reminder that it's okay that I really don't like some of the things it seems like everyone around me loves.

After finishing the book, I'm reminded to keep making choices that inspire happiness.  To keep making daily 5 lists.  To try new things.  To do the things I really love.  To notice all the little things that bring a smile or laughter to my day.

And sometimes, even when I don't love things, to do them because people around me do love them, and their happiness helps make me happy too.

Tomorrow Thoughts

I'm sitting here, staring at the remnants of today's "to do" list and pondering what I would like tomorrow to hold.

Tomorrow will hopefully hold these things:

• another loop on the bus, riding, reading, thinking, praying
• baking cookies.  I have a recipe for cookies with banana and pecans and chocolate chunks that I've been waiting to try
• if it's chilly and cold again, it might hold a bubble bath - soaking and warming up while reading
• writing a birthday card for a friend, and popping it in the mail so that it hopefully arrives overseas on time
• catching up on some blog posting and scheduling I've been planning.
• making some notes on one of the books I read last week
• cooking dinner - at least that's the currently scheduled plan.

Daily 5 - Year 2, Day 85

Today's Daily 5:

1. A very productive morning
2. getting a few good deals on snacks and treats at the grocery store
3. trading snarky comments and laughing with a friend
4. mugs of rooibos tea (two different mugs of it today)
5. a quiet evening, mostly resting

Authentic Not Just in the Past Tense

I started reading Alece's blog sometime early in the year.  I can't remember how I found her, but I can tell you why I kept going back.  She writes with a great honesty about being broken.  A deep honesty and questioning that still reflects a trust in God, even when He can't seem to be found.  There have been days where simply reading Alece's words have encouraged me to keep walking out my own crazy, messy journey.

Last week, another blogger hosted "Ladies Week" and shared videos of a number of female bloggers sharing their stories of brokenness and meeting God somewhere in the midst of that.  I found "Ladies Week" because Alece wrote a post that linked to it, and to a video of herself sharing her story.

This video, actually:



I cannot begin to explain how deeply this encouraged me when I saw it first, and how I've watched it several times since and been encouraged each time. 

Sometimes as I share what's gone on and is going on in my life with people around me, I struggle.  It's pretty messy, this year of deconstruction and working again towards healing.  It's not even a new journey.  I've done this whole "need to piece large chunks of my life back together" journey before, and I haven't been all that impressed to be walking it out again.

But the reminder that sometimes we need to be authentic in the midst of the crap, not just afterwards, was one I needed to hear again.  To be authentic in more than just the "past tense."  I needed to hear someone else who understands what it is to walk out brokenness (though our stories are so different) share how sometimes the "grit" of life is the thing God uses most powerfully to minister to someone else.  I needed the reminder to find people with whom I can be really and truly authentic - who I can trust with what's going on in me, and trust to pray and walk with me in the hard stuff and not just the stuff that looks pretty.

I needed the encouragement of Alece's story, and I hope it encourages each of you as well.