New Eyes

I've been talking a lot with a friend about having "new eyes to see" lately. There's a post on that topic coming sometime in the near future. In the meantime, I thought you might like to see my actual "new eyes". My new glasses arrived this week. This first picture is me, with the old glasses - the one's I've worn for the last five years.



These are my new purple and orange eyes. I'm in love with them. But, they do clash a little with certain clothing. So, I also bought a pair of more "conservative" eyes.

These are my new "conservative" eyes. They're black. What you can't see in the picture is the hint of green in the frames, that catches the green in my eyes.

A Blog Link

I liked this post by Tony Campolo's son, Bart, on the Sojourner's Blog today. I relate to the things he says, just a little.

Keeping the Faith

In the news...

The headlines that are catching my attention today:

Attacks in Rwanda Genocide Week

Pakistan Drops Media Restrictions

Day Off

I took today off of work.

I've really needed the day.

After working through last weekend.

After the myriad of personal and emotional and spiritual stuff I've been wading through lately.

After months of never sleeping more than 3-5 hours a night.

It was nice to simply lay in bed, push for a bit extra sleep.

I made it until 8:20 in bed - a recent record!

This morning my plans involve lazing around the house. Watching a little bit of M*A*S*H*. Maybe doing a little cooking or baking. A long, hot shower. Maybe curling up with my journal, or walking to the mall to do a little browsing.

This afternoon I'm going to hang out with my best friend. Have coffee and maybe do a few errands together.

Tonight I'm going to enjoy an empty house. Maybe watch a movie or some bad television.

Tomorrow, I'm going to sleep in again.

Then go to either the zoo or China town or both. I love the zoo. And China town. Tomorrow night I'm going to hang out with T., my baby brother.

This is the kind of weekend I've needed for a while now.

Slow.

Restful.

Not a lot of tension.

Full of people I love.

Loving Our Spiritual Leaders - Henri Nouwen

Loving Our Spiritual Leaders

Religious leaders, priests, ministers, rabbis, and imams can be admired and revered but also hated and despised. We expect that our religious leaders will bring us closer to God through their prayers, teaching, and guidance. Therefore, we watch their behavior carefully and listen critically to their words. But precisely because we expect, often without fully realising it, to be superhuman, we are easily disappointed or even feel betrayed when they prove to be just as human as we are. Thus, our unmitigated admiration quickly turns into unrestrained anger.

Let's try to love our religious leaders, forgive them their faults, and see them as brothers and sisters. Then we will enable them, in their brokenness, to lead us closer to the heart of God.