Some thoughts on having peace in the middle of the storm

We have massive thunderstorms in our area today. In fact, the country has been riddled with unusual upheavals of tornado, hail, wind and unstable weather activity.

The weather has been harshest to those in the southwest, particularly parts of northern Texas and Oklahoma.

In our family we are all reacting differently according to our realities.

My sister is first on the list of heroes. She and her husband and children are seeking to help those in their area who have been less fortunate, including a family who lost everything to a recent flood.

Others are staying put as getting out in this weather may pose more of a hazard.

That's me.

With parents who count on us, it's not wise to rescue others at our parent's expense. They need us here and now. Meanwhile I continue to work at my desk and stay tuned to the weather.

I also know I am privileged to have the time to blog at will and don't take it for granted. I am very grateful and seek to use my words wisely and in a way that leaves you better for having visited my writings.

John, on the other hand, is out making it happen. He's "hunting something down and killing it" so we can have dinner tonight, if you know what I mean. The weather is not keeping him in, partly because his work is not where the most severe troubles are. Yet, the troubles are all around. He understands the risk and is tuned in and ready to get to higher ground if needed.

I could be frantic, but chose focus.

I could chose to fixate on horror, but chose humor.

I could be jittery, but chose joy.

I could chose non-sanity, but I chose service.

I could be worried, but chose wisdom.

I could panic, but chose peace.

Check with me at the end of the day to see if I met my goals. My prayer is you'll pray for me as much as I am praying for you in your circumstances. We need each other, and it's so good to know people are wishing you the best where ever you are, and they know you are wishing them the best.

I have work to do today. So do you.

May you find peace within in the middle of the storms that rage without.

Finally, may we all make peace with the past,

preside over our present-day well

and feel deeply optimistic about the future.

For I believe more today God blesses those

who stay connected with their own

and who realistically seek to bless everyone in their path.

This post is dedicated to all the trained workers, reliable rescuers and loving volunteers who serve those affected by the storms of life.

Nature that Nurtures the Soul

I am nearly finished with Philip Yancey's book "Soul Survivor," and constantly feel he has taken a walk through my mind, asking the same questions and looking for them using the same methods I use. And yet, Mr. Yancey continues to challenge me practically, stretch me mentally and provide a safe place for my emotions as I continue learning how to express encouragement to others.

I so enjoy reading one who appreciates nature as John and I do and weaves it into real life, uses it to train his psychological acuity and expresses his gratitude for the material world.

 

Want to take a free vacation?

 

Take a walk or go for a bike ride. 

 

Want to meditate on God when the Bible does not make sense?

Look at the skies.

 

 

Want to show friendship when there are no humans to be found?

 

Love on a pet.

G.K. Chesterton stated in his book Orthodoxy that "Nature is not our mother, Nature is our sister."

To walk with Bible in hand staring only at it's printed words while under God's cathedral of Creation misses the stage on which God's play is playing out.



He gave us bodies to use, care for and nurture in order to help teach others how to do it better.




He gave us a mind to use, educate and churn out ideas in order to help those created in His image know more about God and His purposes.

 

He gave us emotions to use, harness their energy and focus on expressing truth to serve humanity.

 


We may seek a normal and placid existence, but the truth is, this state is only best and realistically lived out in our soul. I believe this is true inner peace.

The design also includes the ability to redeem one's body through exercise and proper nutrition, through education and artistic expression & productive innovation of any kind.

Annie Dillard said, "Beauty and grace are performed whether or not we will sense them. The least we can do is try to be there...so that creation need not play on an empty house."

 

I believe that Creator wants us to enjoy his gift, find solutions to better our lives and share them with others.

Or God would not have made nature to compliment us.

People Are My Books & Books Are My People

When I was younger, I wasn’t a great reader. In fact, I didn’t try to read because the people around me served as my books.

I was the type that would start a book and not finish it, then feel guilty years later associating personal failure with my lack of finishing books, and other things. 

So I made a decision sometime in my late teens that I would finish books I started, unless they were irrelevant.

I began journaling in Jr. High. Life was exciting and I didn’t want to forget one drop of it!

Journaling helped me preserve the best memories about my friends and family. Later, journaling helped me sort through emotions in my personal development. Journaling has also served as a way to thank God for his gifts, for recording answered prayers and as a general talking back to God.

Doodling in school transformed into writing my thoughts down at work when life felt overwhelming, or when I was navigating my own belief system, trying to learn what had not been specifically taught or shoring up a conviction in the middle of a difficult situation.

About eleven years ago I decided to take writing seriously. My creative side had transformed from a visual artist – the one that got the art scholarships to college – into a creature who couldn’t stop thinking about life and thanking God and others for their contributions to my blessed life.

I read recently that overnight success takes about 15 years. I may get there yet, but meanwhile I write. I read books cover to cover about themes and people whom I admire, seek to imitate [until my own voice develops more], and then write about at some point.

I don’t beat myself up any more about not having been a cover-to-cover reader as a child, because now I understand that people were my books. From the missionary team my parents were a part of, to the rich landscape of Brazilians I grew up with - and others cultures in Brazil - each person was a book in progress. Each life a story to savor, enjoy, laugh and cry with.  

Now I am understanding that books can be my people. When there are no contemporaries that I can connect with on a certain topic, I can find a book by someone who resonates with what I am seeking. I am richer for the good gifts of books and unending stories that reflect the living God, even subtly.

Heroic Happiness

"...and it was always said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge..." ¹

 

–—

In the Book "Soul Survivor",² Phillip Yancey writes of G.K. Chesterton, a loved British theologian:


"...[Chesterton] had been struggling with despair, evil, and the meaning of life, and had even approached mental breakdown. When he emerged from that melancholy, he sought to make a case for optimism amid the gloom of such a world."

I thought of Ebenezer Scrooge who had been visited by the ghost of Christmas past where lived unforgiveness. He then encountered the Ghost of Christmas present stately planted in stoicism. Finally Scrooge saw his ultimate fate. Eternal unhappiness.

But in his dark night of the soul, Ebenezer Scrooge made a decision.

Interpretation mine: I will serve those around me the best I can with what I have, and I will start with my nephew and his happy though ill son, Tim.

It only took one step, a change of attitude. Then the clouds parted. Scrooge changed some things including his circumstances and his friends. And happiness lived happily in his heart ever after, affecting those around him.

Choosing heroic happiness is rooted in deep joy born of so many things, including injustice, adversity and loss. It can continue to flow like a fountain all the days of our life should we chose it.

I sincerely believe today that happiness begins the moment we know truly for ourselves that God Is and will never leave us so long as we live. And should we chose to follow Him, the more we obey him in good conscious, the happier we get, even if things get tough. When doubts come, read The Beatitudes -- The Be Attitudes!

As we continue growing in this Truth all the days of our life, the gift of  Happiness grows as well.

Self-gratification is happiness rooted in fleeting pleasure. But pleasure in its best form merely mirrors God, who was pleased when he created this world in its perfect state.

When we decide to be happy and find pleasure the way God designed it, it continues to repay not only us, but those around us.

So when you smile today, don't think of it as a mask, think of it as a deep well that is rooted in heroic happiness. You will find your well filled to brimming over!

Watch the clouds part, if only in your heart! And don't forget to pass along good news and good stories along the way!

¹ Charles Dickens "A Christmas Carol." 

Isn't Forgiveness Freeing?

I would love to hear you funniest or most sober or most touching story arising from a misunderstanding.



Me first.

Funniest...

An old college friend and myself were catching up a few years ago and we were having a lot of laughs. I then told her I felt bad about something I did in college and she said, "I don't recall that at all! But let me tell you what I've been feeling bad about all these years," and she shared something bad she felt she did to me that I had no recollection of!!! We then had another good laugh and it killed the bad story line we had been telling ourselves.

How many potential old friends are out there waiting reconciliation if only someone would give the other a chance? Has it been one, five or ten years? A lot can happen in a week, let alone a year or more. Chances are people have grown and there is something redeemable in reconnecting. Who knows, you might find out you are more alike, more forgiving or more of something better by letting others out of their box, or freeing the frozen memory from your mind!



Isn't forgiveness freeing?

Your turn!

Friends love at all times

I get the daily quote from simpletruths.com every morning. This morning's quote spoke to me:

“A friend is someone who understands
your past, believes in your future,
and accepts you just the way you are.”

~  Anonymous

I have lived long enough to understand that there are people who don't understand my past, who don't believe in my future and who don't accept me as I am.

It's okay.

There are plenty who do. I'll bet there are those for you as well.

However, they are true who are true online as well as in person. It's time to move on when others are moving away from us or when we are moving away from them. We can still be respectful, but the end of friendships in their present form is a must to move forward in life.

The true friend follows us in and out of life no matter the circumstance.

I went through a dry spell with my friends many years ago. It was just the stage and circumstance of my life. But today I am grateful beyond belief for having gone through that time of testing. It tempered me. It showed me my true and valued friends. I am better for having been through that desert. It's made me a better friend and more appreciative of the brevity of life and the need to focus on what's important.

In counting my blessings through my present friendships, I came up with too many to mention, but here are a few friendship experiences that have built me up recently.

A recent conversation this week with my sister Andreia merely inquiring about a project John and I are working on meant the world to me.

A phone call from my newest friend Linda just checking in started my day out correctly!

A visit from my cousin Stephanie and my Aunt Lucia was all the therapy I needed for a trial I was working through.

A car ride from Houston to Oklahoma City with some of our best friends Lisa and Jason was filled with laughter and good memories for years to come.

A workout with my sister-in-law Mary Louise on a recent visit to Florida bonded us more.

An impromptu visit with one of my best friends Charla on that same recent Florida trip allowed me to meet the parents of a friend I've had for a quarter century and now know where she first learned how to laugh and learn to do life!

A recent conversation with my best friend Kathy from junior high reminded me I can pick up the phone and be where I always am with her, loved and able to love unconditionally!

There are so many more I could mention. I am rich with friends.

My friends ARE my Facebook. One day I may get back on the social media site. But for today, this works for me. And I want to say thanks for the many real friends I have and look forward to the many that are to come!

Be blessed friends and know you are a blessing to me!

Snow Falls

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Snow Falls

Snow falls quietly before snow balls start flying

Ice feels good breaking on the face

The players smile

Cold
Wet
Sloshing down the neck

Friends hide, planning and packing snow
Then firing balls feverishly, trying to avoid a hit

Red faces
Cold hands
Tears drop from the cold
Hands need a fire
But laugher surrounds

And in the end
There is peace
As friends wobble around
Arm in arm
Feet crunch on the newly fallen snow

In the distance
The way distance,
A mother calls her children home to dinner
And it sounds as if she is there beside them

Snow
Beautiful and white
Magnifying sound
Fun to play in
Hard to plow sometimes
And it gets brown and hard when it stays too long

When it's gone
We are glad
But memories linger on...

This post is dedicated to our friends and family in New England as you weather another snow storm!