Loneliness

Two weeks ago, I attended a service at Church of the Apostle. Their sister church, Beloved, was hosting the worship service. They shared a live performance of their newest CD music, Hope for a Tree Cut Down, interspersed with Henri Nouwen interviews about loneliness. For those of you who don't know Henri Nouwen, he is one of the most popular spiritual writers of our time. Henri Nouwen spent his life helping people respond to the universal “yearning for love, unity, and communion that doesn’t go away”. He tried to answer questions like: Is it possible to touch and taste the love of God? How can we live a spiritual life that embraces the pain and suffering of our lives and in the world, and gives us the freedom to love deeply wherever we are? His thoughts on loneliness shared in worship at COTA are helpful and inspiring to me. He has written two books that I want to check out, Beloved and Reaching Out. Today I'm trying to be honest both about my loneliness and my need for God. If you want to listen or download Beloved's music, go here: http://belovedschurch.org/hope/. Enjoy!

Things I feel good about

Okay...so lately I've been especially focused on continuous improvement...I'm always tempted to think more about continuous improvement than the glimpses of beauty that might shine through me. I have been struggling lately to remember these glimpses of beauty. After a drive through the mountains with my life long partner, I have a desire to focus as much energy on identifying the glimpses of beauty in my life as I do identifying areas for growth. There are so many simple things that happen from day to day that I feel good about. It is crazy for me to lose sight of these things. Some things I feel good about today...

• Slept In--pausing, relaxing and prayers of thanks before my feet hit the floor.


• Drank coffee for breakfast with my hubby--Coffee makes me happy, especially if it is fair trade and with my hubby!


• Went with Jer to Goodwill to shop for some cheap cheap clothes~it's a pink day~ I bought a pink corduroy jacket for $10 Yay! --Cheap is a value of mine.


• Called my dad and talked for about 2 hours--love you dad!


• Went with my friend Rhoda and her friend Amy to downtown Seattle to watch the lighting of the massive Christmas tree--oooh so much fun being a short person...can meander through crowds, lots of joy and excitement about small things.


• drank a free sample of Starbucks coffee...oooh yummy!


• took pics of me-n-Rhoda pretending to be mannequins outside the Christmas Displays--I'm not afraid to make a fool of myself.


• danced to Christmas music on the street..."Dancin' in the Street!" --fun, fun, having fun


• Listened to the band, Over the Rhine, for free on the internet--http://www.overtherhine.com/ ---good music


• Ate thanksgiving leftovers...my friend Rhoda made these yummy homeade rolls! --I appreciate homemade stuff!

need I say more...

Grateful

Okay...so this has been a long semester at Mars Hill Graduate School. I'm wanting to hold onto the beauty...so in an attempt to do this, I decided to start this blog...

So grateful for this time...
this time to reflect...reflecting on the stories which make up the years of my life

this time to read...reading Buber, Dillard, Allender, Matthew Fox, Barth, Bruggemann, and many many others

this time for change...changing places and changing thoughts and changing perceptions

this time for preparation...preparing to be a counselor, preparing for what's next whatever that might be

this time...so grateful for this time