Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Peace

We have now fully entered into the season of beautiful words of peace and well wishes being scribbled on cards, emailed and now mentioned as a facebook status.  From a rhetoric perspective, I love this time of the year.  Open dialog of love and self-expression is at my core as a person - thrive on it.
But articulating words of wisdom and living them can truly be two very different things.  So, I am going to share some incredible advice I received this morning from my dearest and oldest friend...
"Stand at the crossroads and look;
ask for the ancient paths,
ask where the good way is, and walk in it,
and you will find rest for your souls."
I wish for all of the dear, sweet souls who read this blog to receive peace this year.  Peace after you have fully evaluated what is the good way and chosen to be authentic in it.  Peace - fully alive.

Friday, December 10, 2010

Pay Off

When I was twenty years old I took the biggest risk of my life.  I met this boy, he had this great strut and his presence could be felt over fifty feet away.  I couldn't stop my stare.  We talked it up for hours.  Talked about who we wanted to be someday and who we thought God might be.
I wanted to forget him.  I wanted to be able to just walk away like I always did and just forget him.
I didn't.  I couldn't.  So, I broke all of my unwritten rules and married him as a kid - huge risk, the ultimate risk.
Now, eighteen years after being drawn to the swagger and the holes in his jeans, I still can't forget him.
He seems to keep stealing my heart, my affection - my attention.  He has most of me.  More honestly, he created the portions I am most proud of about myself.  Discipline, taking risks, making me fight for authenticity - he coached and enamored, I listened.
When I was a little girl I thought that love was a wicked fairytale that ended poorly.  The story took you to love's bliss and just before the happily ever after came the army of ruin demolished the concept of love.
That isn't true.
Marriage isn't a fairytale.  Marriage is knowing you can't forget the person you love.  It is that sense of loss that can even bring tears to your eyes if you even dream or imagine something happening to him.
I took a huge risk, but the real risk would have been the horrible life of wondering how he could go on without me.
Thank you, Brian, for not making me find out what life would have been like without you :)

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

The Gift of Time

So, by now you have probably stood in a long line or scrolled on-line looking for the perfect gift for someone.  It is the craziest month.  A month of consumerism and anxiety.
But it doesn't have to be.  For most of us, the calm comes as we really listen to what other people want....our time.
This year my daughter put over five board games on her "want" list.  I stood baffled by the list.  She has a Wii, a DS, an iPod...games and music are at her disposal.  My hope was to add to the collections, but no, she put at the very top, most wanted game - LIFE.  Yes, the board game LIFE.  The one that is celebrating 50 years.
I actually laughed out loud as I ordered the game.  I remembered wanting the game myself at her age.
Then it hit me.  She wants the exact same thing I wanted when I put that game on my list.  Not the game, but the time and people it takes to play it.  Like me, she has realized that parents who purchase a game like this are going to be forced to play it - which translates to a lot of time together as a family.
In reality my daughter has asked for what most children are asking for - time with their parents.
Someday she may not desire our time as much.  Someday I may be the one dragging the old, tattered LIFE game out of the closet begging her to play one more time before she leaves for college.  And maybe, just maybe, she might play with me before she leaves if I give her, this year, the gift of time.

Saturday, December 4, 2010

Good Advice

I am quickly learning the sustaining impact of good advice.  It transcends time and after a period it doesn't even matter who the dispenser of the advice is, it just has to be truly good advice.
A piece of advice that has impacted my life and shaped a lot of my personality came from my mom.
I cannot even remember the first time it was stated, but it became a mantra in our home and more importantly a mantra in my own head.  Here it is,
"Don't compare your worst with other people's best."
Can you imagine how helpful that was in high school, those years you are using cover up for zits like crazy?  Yep, it was most helpful.
But the help lasted much longer than through growing pains, the advice shaped a mindset of personal acceptance.  I have been blessed with believing that everyone has a worst and a best and to even attempt to compare those is just foolish.  How can you know which you are comparing?
So, I don't and I haven't spent too much time concerned about comparing which has led to a lot of undeserved self-confidence.  The funny here is that I walked away with that advice even taking it a step further to assume that I have a best that maybe I haven't even seen yet.  Yes, I actually walked away with hope of a better me.