Daily 5 - Year 3, Day 272

Today's Daily 5:

1. Sunday morning quiet
2. writing several different long and reflective emails
3. the ongoing conversation about my August trip to Florida
4. Anne Lamott's facebook statuses
5. chocolate chip cookies

Daily 5 - Year 3, Day 271

Today's Daily 5:

1. sleeping in, just a little
2. knowing when I left the house early this morning, to be gone overnight, that I'd cleaned and tidied, and would be coming back to a good space
3. a helpful processing conversation with a friend
4. cuddling baby J., one of my honorary nephews, for several hours off and on as his mom and I attended a baby shower together
5. attending a baby shower to meet the third new baby one of my good friends has had in the last month.  So fun to see this house church friend in the role of mama to her new little girl.

Daily 5 - Year 3, Day 270

Today's Daily 5:

1. a breakfast date with a long time friend
2. walking together in Fish Creek park after breakfast
3. laughing over an inside joke on facebook with my closest friend
4. class ending early
5. crawling into a bed made with freshly washed sheets
6. booking airline tickets for a trip to Florida!
7. commiserating over workloads
8. laughing with a classmate
9. the value of honest communication (seen today in conversation and by email)
10. tackling a long to do list with some degree of success tonight

Friday Reflections, May 18, 2012

I'm back to Henri Nouwen again this week, talking about our tendency to live with a scarcity mentality.


The Temptation to Hoard 


As fearful people we are inclined to develop a mind-set that makes us say:  "There's not enough food for everyone, so I better be sure I save enough for myself in case of emergency," or "There's not enough knowledge for everyone to enjoy; so I'd better keep my knowledge to myself, so no one else will use it" or "There's not enough love to give to everybody, so I'd better keep my friends for myself to prevent others from taking them away from me."   This is a scarcity mentality.  It involves hoarding whatever we have, fearful that we won't have enough to survive.  The tragedy, however, is that what you cling to ends up rotting in your hands.

Daily 5 - Year 3, Day 269

Today's Daily 5:

1. Bus heaters on a cold, rainy, trying to snow sort of day
2. Getting my favorite seat on the bus and settling in with a good book
3. Having a student summer bus pass (a new feature, that's saving me about $300 over the course of the summer months)
4. A skype date with L. in New Zealand - nothing quite like laughing and commiserating with your best friend, who though on another continent is also a "mature" student, pursuing a new degree and career path
5. a really challenging conversation with my therapist in our session tonight