Daily 5 - Year 2, Day 196

Today's Daily 5:

1. Bus drivers that crank the heat in cold weather
2. bookstore browsing (I seriously love just looking at books.  I added a bunch of titles in the travel and memoir sections to the list of books to check out someday that I keep in my phone.  I was also proud of myself for resisting the temptation to purchase books.)
3. Wireless access at school & watching last night's episode of The Amazing Race between classes (my team, the cowboys, are still in it!  I was a bit worried there after last week's cliff hanger.)
4. There's this really good little food stall in the student center that serves Vietnamese.  It had just opened in my last year of university the first time around, and I was delighted that it's still there.  It's definitely going to be a staple in my at school diet for any time that I'm a student to come.
5. Chocolate discovered in a pocket of my backpack at just the right moment
6. Italian wedding soup, passion tea (the old kind, not the new kind), and brownies for supper
7. A beautiful new scarf purchased in the Middle East by a friend
8. A package full of palm trees from the same friend (I had such big smiles when it showed up today and I opened it up!)
9. unpacking after being away for a while
10. the first time wearing cozy purple sheepskin lined slippers that L. brought from New Zealand.  (I'd requested a pair of slippers after loving a pair that a previous roommate had brought for me, and was delighted when L. gifted them to me yesterday.)
11. It was Bachelor night, baby!
12. the comfort of settling into my own bed for the first time in a week and a half
13. marking items off of lists
14. not having to drive on a day when the roads were admittedly sketchy
15. loving the novel I'm reading right now about life in Kabul

Daily 5 - Year 2, Day 195

Today was a good day.  I got a hug today from one of my closest friends.  One I hadn't seen in a year since she insists on living on a different continent from me.  (Actually, I was counting, and she's been to four of the seven continents, plus a few places that aren't actually part of proper "continents", in the last four months!)  I went to dad's church this morning solely because I knew she would be there, and it was so much fun to be engrossed in conversation with someone, look up, and find her grinning at me and waiting for that hug.  I'll probably write more about that kind of friendship in the next day or two, but let me just tell you that today was good, in large part because I spent a good portion of it laughing with someone I love dearly.

So, today's Daily 5:

1. A hug from L.
2. The worship team sang an old 90s worship song that I love this morning "I Will Not be Shaken".  I love the lyrics to that song, and some of the memories of places I've been where we sang that.  It was a big one at the summer camp I worked at the summer I first really felt God speak and prompt me to speak and share something with someone, long before my life took the "crazy charismatic" turn it took some years later, towards the space in which I now exist.
3. Sharing communion at church
4. Lunch with L, sharing Vietnamese (according to her a very "Calgary thing to eat") and laughing
5. Introducing L. to a movie I've come to love, "Arranged", and talking about cultures and travel
6. Getting behind the wheel of a car and driving for the first time in probably five months, and while it was still stressful, it wasn't quite as panicky as it has sometimes been.  Thankful, too, for good road conditions today.
7. A hot bath and losing myself for a bit in a novel that transported me across the world and into a totally different culture
8. doing homework curled up in bed
9. the moments when words flow easily, even if it is just for a boring homework assignment
10. watching something snarky a friend directed me towards and laughing at her suggestions for assigning bits of it to a sticky situation I'm dealing with these days, as a way of laughing at the situation instead of being frustrated and stressed out and angry because of it.

Daily 5 - Year 2, Day 194

This was the kind of slow day where things to add to a Daily 5 list flowed easily.  A day where blessings seemed full and rich, and the pace was one that allowed for them to be savored.  The kind of day that is, in itself, a blessing, an item to add to the list.  The kind of day I love, because so many days it is hard to find even five reasons to smile, but sometimes, on days like today, they flow, and I see deep, rich grace in that.

Today's Daily 5:

1. A day where the blessings to count were full, rich, numerous, and able to be savored
2. Sleeping in a familiar and comfortable bed after time away from home
3. a banana for breakfast
4. attending my first yoga class in a week and a half
5. green grapes
6. peanut butter toast
7. fortune cookies (I seriously need to buy a box of these things - I love them!)
8. Sunshine
9. list making (I had several lists on the go today, to do items, and those sorts of things)
10. Pretty mittens
11. clean water
12. the man on the bus, resting his hand gently on the shoulder of the woman in the wheelchair he was accompanying, his words, his eyes, his demeanor, speaking love and grace for her.
13. Those moments when the bus becomes a holy space
14. worn-in, comfortable jeans
15. words that capture the intangible thoughts brewing beneath the surface
16. Books that transport me abroad
17. a soothing shower, offering rest and time to think without other noise
18. clean smelling pajamas and a towel to wrap my wet hair in - all still warm from the dryer
19. A line in The Amazing Race that made me laugh "I'm from Oklahoma - I don't do water.  I don't even take baths."
20. making a new brownie recipe
21. buttery popcorn
22. a day of catching up
23. sharing time with family
24. magic bags
25. curling up comfortably in bed with my laptop

Like Tea Bags

I came across this quote today, and had to share:

"Women are like tea bags; you never know how strong they are until they're put in hot water."
(Eleanor Roosevelt)

Daily 5 - Year 2, Day 193

Today's Daily 5:

1. Sitting in a warm sunbeam, relaxing
2. watching Grey's Anatomy
3. waiting quietly for a flight - time to think, process, rest, pray
4. the beauty of flying over the mountains on a sunny day
5. the miracle of flight - what would be an 8 hour drive took 50 minutes in the air
6. time to chat with family
7. Chinese take-out
8. a hot shower after traveling
9. watching Kim Walker lead worship online
10. catching up on some favorite television shows.