Daily 5 - Day 107

I think I'm only going to write 5 today, not 10 the way I have been... it's not that it was a bad day, just very, very long, and the things I'm grateful for are large and simple tonight.

1. I'm thankful to have made it home in one piece. On an evening where the roads were like skating rinks, it took me two hours to drive to meet my parents, I had to abandon my car because I couldn't get it up an icy hill, and then we spent three more hours trying to get to my brother's Christmas choir concert before finally giving up (turns out only 11 choir members made it there either!), going so my dad could rescue my car, and get both me and George home, I'm just grateful that there weren't any accidents, and I was incredibly relieved to be out of a moving vehicle and in the safety of my own house.
2. I'm thankful for three hours in a car with my parents. Lots of chatting and catching up.
3. I'm thankful for the changes in my body that let me know that I'd missed dinner while sitting in a car for five hours. It used to be that my appetite was so suppressed that I didn't even notice if I skipped a meal. While I was by no means starving, I was definitely hungry by the time I finally made it home tonight.
4. I'm thankful that there are almost no plans for tomorrow that are pressing, and that the few that are somewhat pressing can be accomplished with relative ease via public transit.
5. I'm thankful for the comforting warmth of my own bed.
6. (oh, and a bonus) I'm thankful my dad rescued my car. while I could have walked from where I live to get it once the roads thaw, I definitely feel better about it being parked outside my apartment building instead of along a relatively abandoned street near a local park.
   

Having Reverence and Respect for the Body

Another challenging thought from Henri Nouwen...

Having Reverence and Respect for the Body

In so many ways we use and abuse our bodies. Jesus' coming to us in the body and his being lifted with his body in the glory of God call us to treat our bodies and the bodies of others with great reverence and respect.

God, through Jesus, has made our bodies sacred places where God has chosen to dwell. Our faith in the resurrection of the body, therefore, calls us to care for our own and one another's bodies with love. When we bind one another's wounds and work for the healing of one another's bodies, we witness to the sacredness of the human body, a body destined for eternal life.

Seriously? Seriously?

It was a rough night.

A full of dreams kind of night.

A finally have to give in and take painkillers in hopes of catching just an hour or two of sleep kind of night.

I think I slept about three hours. Maybe.

I'm still bemused by the events of yesterday. I wish I could share them publicly, but I can't at the moment. Suffice it to say that you would all have a very good laugh at my expense. Because God really does have a sense of humor.

Just as a taste, in the midst of a challenging conversation with a dear friend yesterday, we were talking about our hearts being changed, made new. I knew that I was in for an adventurous next little while when, driving home from work after the conversation, I got stuck for quite a distance behind a vehicle with custom license plates that read "NUHEART".

This is one of those backwards days at the office. I'm going to be hauling dirty boxes and totes full of mail for most of the day, and really should be wearing grubby clothes. However, I don't have time for a wardrobe change after work, and I need to be wearing nice clothes to meet my parents for dinner and attend the Christmas choir concert that my brother is a part of tonight. Figures that the one day of the week where I could be casual and grubby at work, I need to look nice for after work. I compromised with jeans and boots, a tanktop, blazer, and cute necklace and bracelet. Here's hoping I don't get the blazer too grubby while I'm hauling totes all day.

I think it's going to be an interesting weekend. Unique in oh so many ways.

In the meantime, I find myself returning to my Grey's Anatomy loving self and regularly looking heavenward, thinking of God's sense of humor and irony as currently on display in my life, and with a rather sarcasticly chuckling tone, quoting one of my favorite Meredith Grey lines, "Seriously? Seriously?"