Smile List - Thursday Afternoon Edition

Been needing this all day, but only now finding the time to sit down and write one.

These are the things that I love, that I'm thankful for, that are making me smile right now:

• soft, brown suede boots
• a multicolored tweed skirt, that incorporates several of my favorite colors including orange, brown, and turquoise
• my "bohemian" purse from the Tibetan shop
• a note from a dear friend last night, reminding me that she loves me
• the rosary I brought home from Rome
• that there are just under two hours left in this workday
• that tomorrow is casual Friday and I can wear jeans to the office
• Karla Adolphe's song "Hold Me Near"
• The Garden State movie soundtrack
• being back in the habit of writing in my paper journal daily
• plans for a quiet morning mostly alone in the house on Sunday
• five reminder stones sitting on my desk
• taco wraps with my roommates and a houseguest for dinner tonight
• plans for a quiet evening, holed up in my bedroom with lit candles, reading, writing, making a couple phone calls, and hopefully getting to bed early
• a truly tasteless (but quite funny) joke that a friend told me this morning
• remembering the great evening one of my roommates and I spent on my birthday about a month ago, watching the movie "Mamma Mia"
• 2 dozen red roses in a vase on my dressing table at home
• lovely smells emanating from an oil burner in my bedroom
• mango exfoliant scrub from The Body Shop
• roiibos tea
• sheepskin lined slippers with a kiwi fruit print (a gift from my roommate - sort of a joke since both of my roommates are from New Zealand)

More on choosing life...

Another thought on choosing life from Henri Nouwen

Waiting with Our Response

Choosing life instead of death demands an act of will that often contradicts our impulses. Our impulses want to take revenge, while our wills want to offer forgiveness. Our impulses push us to an immediate response: When someone hits us in the face, we impulsively want to hit back.

How then can we let our wills dominate our impulses? The key word is wait. Whatever happens, we must put some space between the hostile act directed toward us and our response. We must distance ourselves, take time to think, talk it over with friends, and wait until we are ready to respond in a life-giving way. Impulsive responses allow evil to master us, something we always will regret. But a well thought-through response will help us to "master evil with good" (Romans 12.21).