- A surprise skype call late last night that included video for the first time!
- declaring a king of "people. are. weird"
- being told that something I'd written was used by God at just the right time to encourage a friend
- a job interview that went well
- laughing and deliberately stomping on a leaf, just to hear it crunch
- a really good evening at house church
- seeing God at work in friends lives
- nacho cheese
- catching up with a friend I hadn't seen for a couple of weeks
- laughing with baby M.
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Daily 5 - Year 2, Day 67
Today's Daily 5:
Slow Days
Life seems to move at a pace that is slow right now.
The waiting and limbo thing becomes intolerable at moments, and I am working to come up with ways to fill my days.
Today I'm waiting for a ride, so I'm puttering around my space in Grandma's basement.
I feel like words are coming slowly, too, as I wrestle my way through big issues.
Stuff that isn't formed for sharing, but more for pondering.
I make daily 5 lists throughout the day in my iphone, and add them to the blog at night.
I read blogs, and emails. I write, though often not for public consumption.
And I move slowly, slowly, slowly forward.
Committed to that forward movement.
Maybe the slow days are okay right now, even when they're the brutally hard ones.
Maybe I can live, and even thrive in this place.
Most days I'm not all that sure. But today, on this particular slow day, I think it might be possible.
The waiting and limbo thing becomes intolerable at moments, and I am working to come up with ways to fill my days.
Today I'm waiting for a ride, so I'm puttering around my space in Grandma's basement.
I feel like words are coming slowly, too, as I wrestle my way through big issues.
Stuff that isn't formed for sharing, but more for pondering.
I make daily 5 lists throughout the day in my iphone, and add them to the blog at night.
I read blogs, and emails. I write, though often not for public consumption.
And I move slowly, slowly, slowly forward.
Committed to that forward movement.
Maybe the slow days are okay right now, even when they're the brutally hard ones.
Maybe I can live, and even thrive in this place.
Most days I'm not all that sure. But today, on this particular slow day, I think it might be possible.
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Daily 5 - Year 2, Day 66
Today's Daily 5:
- Getting out of bed anyway (even when the day starts out hard)
- A home-made hamburger
- Finally printing up a "no escape" list of ideas for the days when escaping my weird living situation isn't as easy
- a bit of understanding for a moment where God was catching my attention and the way it was rattling around inside of me
- trading emails with a friend
- several positive steps on the "looking for a job" front
- frozen chocolate chip cookies - frozen cookies are SO good
- finishing up the reading for house church tomorrow night
- getting an unexpected ride home
- candles lit around the room
Head Above Water
I read this article on Gretchen Rubin's blog the other day. I've been slowly reading her book, "The Happiness Project" and have been quite enjoying both the book and her blog.
This is the line, though, that caught me from the article:
"So, if someone’s stubborn, “fake” refusal to acknowledge the dark side of life is annoying you, consider whether he or she might be struggling to stay afloat, to resist being dragged down completely by someone or something. We think we know people, but really, we usually know very little."
I make a list here, every night, of the things in that day that have made me smile in those last 24 hours. If you talk to me these days, I'll be honest about the major challenges that I'm facing in life right now. About the mess that my life is. But I'm also probably going to try to laugh at them. I'm probably going to try to get you to laugh with me. To recognize the mess, but to laugh with me. I'd hardly be declared "fake" in my glee and cheerfulness. I'm not exactly known for that. But for the last year and a bit, I've been making an effort to choose joy, daily, amidst some pretty crazy circumstances.
It so happened that I read Rubin's blog post on a day where I was barely staying afloat. Where any ability to laugh at the current disastrous state of my life had deserted me. And that day, I found myself nodding my head in agreement. And knowing I wanted to share this thought with all of you. To remind myself to be less hasty in judging that super cheery person, and pause to remember all the times I've joked recently, in a last ditch effort to keep my head above water.
This is the line, though, that caught me from the article:
"So, if someone’s stubborn, “fake” refusal to acknowledge the dark side of life is annoying you, consider whether he or she might be struggling to stay afloat, to resist being dragged down completely by someone or something. We think we know people, but really, we usually know very little."
I make a list here, every night, of the things in that day that have made me smile in those last 24 hours. If you talk to me these days, I'll be honest about the major challenges that I'm facing in life right now. About the mess that my life is. But I'm also probably going to try to laugh at them. I'm probably going to try to get you to laugh with me. To recognize the mess, but to laugh with me. I'd hardly be declared "fake" in my glee and cheerfulness. I'm not exactly known for that. But for the last year and a bit, I've been making an effort to choose joy, daily, amidst some pretty crazy circumstances.
It so happened that I read Rubin's blog post on a day where I was barely staying afloat. Where any ability to laugh at the current disastrous state of my life had deserted me. And that day, I found myself nodding my head in agreement. And knowing I wanted to share this thought with all of you. To remind myself to be less hasty in judging that super cheery person, and pause to remember all the times I've joked recently, in a last ditch effort to keep my head above water.
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Daily 5 - Year 2, Day 65
Today's Daily 5:
- Starting the day by chatting with L, my former roommate, on another continent
- the good news that in not so many months, I'll get to chat with her in person, since she's coming for a visit
- laughing over a sign for a course in "Practical Intuition" It feels like intuition should either be practical, or else those words are a complete oxymoron. In any case, seeing the two words paired together made me laugh.
- hugging several dear friends who have lost loved ones recently
- attending a funeral that, hours later, continues to rattle around inside my head and heart, stretching my faith in ways I don't yet understand
- a treatment to end the evening
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
