Saturday Links

Just a few quick reads today:

Hope wrote about praying for compassion, and about silence and secrets, among other things.  Her words hit home this morning.

Seth Godin wrote about choosing your critics.  Another good piece of advice.

3000 - Thankful

This is the 3000th time in just over 5 years that I've shown up here.

That number seems crazy and immense to me.  That 3000 times in the last five years I've felt like there was something worth sharing, or, sometimes, that I simply needed a place to show up and be myself.

It's way too early to be awake on a Saturday, and I've been lying here already for an hour and a half.  I felt better about that early waking when I remembered that I went to bed very early last night, and, counting backwards, waking interruptions aside, realized I still slept for close to eight hours.  Sweet.

It will be a full day.

Errands this morning.

A much needed appointment for a massage.

Time with family.

A bridal shower for L. tonight.

Almost daunting, from the perspective I have still half-laying in bed, so early in the day.

And yet, I'm thankful.

Thankful for what the outcome of the errands will be.

Thankful for an email from a dear friend, advising of her safe return.

Thankful for eight hours of quiet, if not of sleep, even if they ended sooner than I would have preferred.

Thankful for the timing of a badly needed massage appointment.

Thankful that tonight I get to participate in celebrating L, and her upcoming marriage to my brother.

Thankful for this blog space, that I've been able to show up at and be myself.  3000 times in the last five or so years.

I think it's going to be a good day, but even if it all goes sour, I can pause and remember these moments, in the dawning of the day, where there was and is so much to be thankful for.

Daily 5 - Day 253

Today's Daily 5:

1. a little boy giggling loudly and contagiously on the train this morning.  I could hear his laughter through my headphones and turned to look and smile.
2. apple cinnamon oatmeal for breakfast
3. pomegranate green tea
4. wearing fun earrings today
5. Subway for lunch with a coworker
6. laughing and working on a project at work with our receptionist
7. booking off an extra day in June
8. getting a seat on the train on the way home (rare), giving it to a lady who had her entire leg in a brace, and then actually finding another seat.
9. quiet evening at home
10. early to bed

The After-Work List

On tonight's agenda:

• Take the train home.  Well, to mom & dad's home, where my car is parked.
• (Enjoy current audiobook while on train.)
• While at mom & dads:  check my mail.  cover brownies that mom baked but couldn't cover before she left.  check if package mom was expecting has been delivered since they left.
• Sobeys.  First day of the new flyer sale.  Get fresh produce for the week or so ahead.
• Home.
• Food.  It's undecided if this will involve the actual process of cooking, preparing food from scratch, or if it will simply involve digging some salad out of the bag I bought earlier in the week, and accessorizing it a little.  Plus maybe some chips and nacho dip.
• Attack to do list for the evening, while balancing with the need for rest.
• To do items may or may not include:  wrapping a shower gift for L and writing a shower card; writing a graduation card for L; flipping through cookbooks and consulting the list of current freezer contents to determine a meal gameplan for the next week; catching up on America's Next Top Model online; sending an email or two or three or more; painting my finger and toe nails; sorting through some scrapbook supplies in an effort to purge, sort and organize; updating my budget; and laundry.

When I look at my evening plans listed out like that, they sound pretty mundane.  But, I'm really looking forward to them.  I miss quiet evenings at home, tackling the stuff of life.  I've been busy lately, partly due to multiple committments, and partly because the discomfort of life at grandma's means that I've scheduled far more outings into my life than ever before.  And tonight will likely still hold some of that discomfort.  But it's still a quiet evening at home, and I'm looking forward to that.  To just doing stuff that needs to be done.  To watching trashy television online, and eating and resting.  To finding just the write words to communicate love for the girl my brother is marrying, and how delighted I am that she's joining our family and celebrating her Bible college graduation.  To resting into myself a bit.  Even with that slight edge of nerves that exists as part of life at Grandma's.  Because I'm learning about myself from that too - about what I carry with me, and that having a place of safety doesn't have to be dependent on location.  That I can carry that with me too.

It's the little stuff of life that I really love these days.  And I'm looking forward to an evening spent immersed in it.

This and That

A collection of stuff worth reading and watching this morning:

A video of Governor General Michaelle Jean's apology to Rwanda for Canada's indifference during their genocide.

An article about forced sterilizations and the impact of China's one child policy.

A blog post with a Christian perspective on stewardship of the environment.  I particularly liked the statement "Dominion should not equal destruction."

Anne Jackson on being exposed.

Donald Miller on telling the truth.

Dana linked to this very cool way of viewing the Sistine Chapel.  It brought back very fond memories of how profoundly that room touched me when I visited, and how I wished I could have spent hours simply taking it in, instead of the maybe 10 minutes that I was able to spend there.

This article on the fact that Jamie Oliver is putting his own funds behind his vocal campaigns for better food and eating.  I am so on board with this idea that if we stop eating processed crap and start eating more healthy, home-cooked meals, we can make a huge difference in some of the health crises that seem to be on the rise, and I love that Oliver is putting his money where his mouth is.