Daily 5 - Year 2, Day 115

Today's Daily 5:

1. 1 year, 115 days of making these lists
2. the youngest "volunteer" ever - a three week old, very cute little boy, who came with his mom and dad for their volunteer shift at my job today
3. a high school teacher who brings a class of his students to volunteer every year
4. the fun of reflecting each evening and writing a reverb 10 post
5. an evening with no obligations, that was thus spent in pajamas
6. a hopeful phone call this afternoon, returning a message I left yesterday
7. getting a seat on the train for the ride to mom and dad's tonight

Reverb 10: Day 8 - Beautifully Different

Today's Reverb 10 prompt:

December 8 – Beautifully Different.

Think about what makes you different and what you do that lights people up. Reflect on all the things that make you different – you’ll find they’re what make you beautiful.

 (Author: Karen Walrond)

This is a hard question to answer.  In fact, I was tempted to skip it all together.  I think I'm still discovering what it is that makes me beautiful.

I was reflecting just the other day that for the first time in my life I'm coming to believe that I am loved, that I am not a failure.  I'm learning it in different ways each day.  I'm learning it as I realize that some things that come naturally and easily to me are not natural and easy for a lot of people.  I'm learning it as I discover things like bus reading that are unique ways for me to feed my soul.

I feel like this is a cop out answer, but this is so much a journey of discovering for me still that it's a question I'd rather ponder within me than try to put words where none exist just yet.

Bus Reading

Barring last weekend's failed attempt at bus reading involving a migraine headache and motion sickness, spending three hours or so on a weekend riding a bus circuit has become one of my favorite ways to relax, and to find time to read, think and pray.

So, I thought I'd give some tips on the best way to have a bus reading experience.

• Pick the right length of loop.  Only you can know how long this is.  Mine is about three hours.  
• It must be a loop.  Transferring takes away from the relaxation factor.  You're preparing for the transfer, making the transfer, and then waiting for the end of the route.  The interruptions to the thinking time will not do.
• Make sure, if at all possible, to sit in your favorite seat on the bus.  Mine is on the left side as you're facing the back, the first bench seat in front of the back doors.
• A sunny day is the best.  Or a grey day where the sun somehow manages to poke through.
• A variety of reading materials is essential.  At least two to three options.  You're probably only going to read one, and depending on your speed of reading and your ideal loop length, you're probably going to read almost all of that one, but at least for me, I never know for sure which book it is that's "right" for that day until the loop starts.
• Resist the urge to check email or facebook on the phone.  I check mine once or twice.  I limit it, because I get on the bus so that I'm reading with focus, away from a screen.
• Notice the route.  Put down your book and let the things you're driving past stir you to pray.
• Snacks are necessary.  I recommend chocolate.  Also, a bottle of water.
• A journal and a pen for both the journal and for marking key passages in your book (well, obviously not if it's a library book!) is also helpful
• this is a solitary thing.  I was thinking the other day how much I'd like to share this particular pastime with some dear friends, and realized it wouldn't be the same if it wasn't solitary.  I'd never manage to have a friend there and not be conscious of them and what they're doing, even if we didn't sit together and weren't talking.  The solitary time is what makes it an introvert's dream escape.  There are people around for people watching, but they're mostly quiet, and most won't talk to you.

Mostly though, I think think bus reading has to be personal.  It works for me in a way that sitting in a coffee shop or a library or a bookstore wouldn't.  It has the right mix of people and lack of distraction.  It's a place and a way to spend time that lets me relax and enter into my own heart.  Into my love for words and ideas.  Into praying for the important things and people in my life.  Into dreaming and longing.  And my place to do that on the bus is just that, my place.

I hope each of you has one of those places, too, and I'd love to hear what it is for you.

Daily 5 - Year 2, Day 114

Today's Daily 5:

1. Seeing the very beginning colors of the sunrise as I waited for the bus
2. A bus that arrived on time
3. Catching a later glimpse of brilliant sunrise orange
4. pomegranate green trea
5. being good at my job
6. finding time to make a nagging phone call
7. A very full and busy day that had joy in it
8. pork and mango tacos
9. Hanging a Jesse tree ornament
10. yoga two days in a row
11. a hot shower
12. getting a ride home
13. dipping into my dwindling stash and enjoying a mini almond joy bar
14. my neck pillow
15. curling up with a mug of tea and candle light

Reverb 10: Day 7 - Community

Today's Reverb 10 Prompt:

December 7 – Community

Prompt: Community. Where have you discovered community, online or otherwise, in 2010? What community would you like to join, create or more deeply connect with in 2011?
(Author: Cali Harris)

 A little over a year ago I started attending a house church.  It was unexpected.  I sort of fell into it.

When I started easing back into a church, after a year away, recovering from the fallout of a mission trip that didn't go as planned, and too many years of expectations and the pressure of being a pastor's kid, I picked the biggest church in the city.  Someplace where I could slip in and out anonymously.  Where I'd never be noticed, and no one would know if I was there week to week.

One week I heard a pastor speak, and something about what he said made me curious.  He was in charge of a church plant, but a non-traditional one.  A group of house churches.  Something in the things he said caught my attention - it caught the part of my heart that had been hunting for a place where God was moving in surprising ways, and it caught my attention because it was particularly unusual coming from the stage of our local version of a mega church.

I sent an email.

It took a while for a response to come, and by the time the response came, life had gotten crazy again, and I ignored it.

A month or two later, the pastor emailed me again, asking if I was still interested, and would I like to meet for lunch.  God seemed to be prompting, I said, yes, met with him, shared a bit of my story, and accepted an invitation to attend a particular house church the following week.

It was this time last year that I went for the first time. 

For the first several months, I made myself go, every week, hoping that the "new person in a small group of people who've been together for a while" thing would pass.  I knew it was the right place for me, but it took a long time for it to feel like home.

But it does feel like home, now.  That is the community of people who came around me when I fell down the stairs, totaled my car, lost my job, spent the summer studying, and as I've navigated the ins and outs of an incredibly tricky living situation this year.  They are the people I laugh with, and that I've cried with, and on the Thursday nights when I'm not with them, I really miss them.

They've taught me what it is to be there in the good times and the bad.  We've navigated a lot of ins and outs of each others lives, and I'm so thankful that that pastor followed up and sent a second email, and that somehow I said yes to a lunch meeting, and ended up with a church community that God confirms over and over again is the right place for me in this season.