Daily 5 - Year 2, Day 212

Today's Daily 5:

1. A day that started with being awoken to pray, and ended with hearing about other prayers being answered
2. tackling some homework
3. A great salad for supper - I wasn't expecting to really enjoy it, since what I really wanted was a burger or a steak, but it was really satisfying
4. a yoga class that focused on all my tightest and sorest spots
5. unexpectedly getting to hang out on skype with a friend for an hour or so
6. being able to laugh at some of the odder aspects of my week
7. a day that was mostly good
8. having a bit of time to read for pleasure on the bus
9. when the really soft toilet paper is on sale
10. some really good chocolate

Reading, Listening, Pondering

Because I can't figure out what else to share with you at the moment, here are a few thoughts from three random categories.

Reading

• I just finished Ann Voskamp's "One Thousand Gifts" and it will be getting a full post all to itself, just as soon as I can figure out how to put words around the way that this one is impacting my heart.
• Currently on the go for reading, I have, "Letters from the Land of Cancer", "Holy Cow", and "Forgotten God" (which I'm reading for a house church study that I'm also providing a good portion of the leadership to)

Listening

• Audio book: Mennonite in a Little Black Dress.  I'm almost finished with this one, and I'll probably be writing another mini-reviews post soon to talk about it and one or two others that I've read recently.
• Kindness - Steve Bell.  I've worked for Steve when he comes to town for about 15 years now, and this is his latest album.  I haven't had a ton of time to listen yet, but a quick perusal of the lyric booklet (I choose all music based on lyrics) tells me that the usual profound quality of Steve's lyrics and those of the others whose work he records is still there.  Early favorites off this album are the title track, the song "Absalom, Absalom," and "In Billy's Wake".
• I think I'm also going to dust off Steve's "Waiting for Aidan" album.  I seem to be the only one at the concerts I work that has this as my favorite of Steve's work, but this is the album I still return to in the moments when I'm struggling.  It was the only Christian album I could stomach during the many years I struggled with depression, and as I find myself again wrestling with some big questions, I feel a yearning to listen again.

Pondering

• Some big life direction questions.  The sort of "Are you really saying what I think you're saying, God" type of questions
• Some smaller but still very painful relational questions
• A day on the weekend where I was struck by a whole number of awarenesses all at once.  That hasn't happened in a while, and I feel a bit caught in the maelstrom of it all.  Not bad, but shocked at the things on the surface of my mind and heart.
• and praying for friends and friends of friends, scattered across bits of the world that are less than stable.  for war torn regions, and those that have been stricken by disaster.