Holy and Steadfast

Quote of the Day:  

Psalm 15

A psalm of David.

1 Lord, who may dwell in your sacred tent?
    Who may live on your holy mountain?

2 The one whose walk is blameless,
    who does what is righteous,
    who speaks the truth from their heart;
3 whose tongue utters no slander,
    who does no wrong to a neighbor,
    and casts no slur on others;
4 who despises a vile person
    but honors those who fear the Lord;
who keeps an oath even when it hurts,
    and does not change their mind;
5 who lends money to the poor without interest;
    who does not accept a bribe against the innocent.

Whoever does these things
    will never be shaken.

Mary at the Medicine Wheel, in the Big Horn Mountains.

Sacred Ground

The Advent Photo A Day word for Dec. 10 was Holy. I had thought of skipping that one because Holy seems like a word to describe God or Heaven. I thought of church hymns like Holy, Holy, Holy. If you grew up in a Lutheran Church you might be singing that song in your head right now. Then, I thought of another song from the Psalm I quoted above with the line Who shall dwell on that holy mountain. That got me thinking about holy, or sacred, ground, and our bike trip last year to the Medicine Wheel. When the Biker Chef started the walk up and around the wheel, always to the left first, the wind swept up and over the mountain, blowing steadfastly over the sacred ground, carving the path, bringing fresh air. I thought of the people who have walked that path before us. I looked at the tokens they left behind. I felt the solemnity of their prayers, their grief, and their hope.

Hope is what keeps us steadfast in our journey to the Holy place. May your path blow with new life today.

Go. Create. Inspire!

Journaling Prompt:  Have you ever been to a place that felt holy, or sacred?

Awake!

Quote of the Day:  Today is life - the only life you are sure of. Make the most of today. Get interested in something. Shake yourself awake. Develop a hobby. Let the winds of enthusiasm sweep through you. Live today with gusto. Dale Carnegie

When you awake for breakfast, I have fresh bread and coffee waiting.

Awake! a great word for the Advent Photo A Day Project (click pic at the side for more info). Last night, I made sourdough bread with oats and molasses. It drove us crazy to smell it baking. We couldn't wait for morning, so the Chef and I had a slice before going to sleep. Mmm. Home-made fresh bread is a process, and certainly worth the wait. You keep the sourdough growing on the counter, or in the fridge. You must feed it and stir it to keep it alive. Then, when you're ready to bake, you take a scoop out of it, add more flour, yeast, and other yummy ingredients. Then, wait for it to rise. When it's risen, you punch it down, knead it, and let it rise again. Then, you work it over one more time, forming loaves, letting it rise, until finally, by the end of the day, you can bake it.

And, too, we pursue our dreams, waking and sleeping, working and kneading, adding ingredients, and waiting. When all that hard work finally meets opportunity, we will awake to a new day and taste the goodness of our creations. 

Today, as we awake to almost a foot of snow in Minnesota and temps well below 0 degrees Fahrenheit, we carry on. We don't let the weather hinder our plans. Krista and I are driving to St. Paul to see The Wizard of Oz at the Ordway. We are awake to new opportunities, awake to more adventure, following the snow covered yellow brick road. I'm sure Oz is warmer than Minnesota!

Go. Create. Inspire!

Journaling Prompt:  Where do you think you'll go if you follow the red brick road? What have you waited for?

Flood

Quote of the Day:  
But the exact day and hour? No one knows that, not even heaven’s angels, not even the Son. Only the Father knows. The Arrival of the Son of Man will take place in times like Noah’s. Before the great flood everyone was carrying on as usual, having a good time right up to the day Noah boarded the ark. They knew nothing—until the flood hit and swept everything away. - Matthew 24:36-39

Flood?! I thought that was an odd choice for the Advent Photo A Day Project. The first image that jumped into my mind was the big flood of 1997 in the Red River Valley of the North. We were living in East Grand Forks at the time, had just sold our house, and I was staying in a ground floor apartment with Bobby, my oldest son, while my husband started living and working in another town. When the flood hit, I started packing. He came home, but by morning, the levees broke, and the flood waters spilled out. Once the water was set free, it flowed everywhere, covering miles and flooding every basement along the way. Somehow, the apartment buildings were spared and none of our possessions were lost. I had friends, though, who lost everything. Their entire houses were filled with flood water. A dirty, murky mess was left in its wake. I walked into one friend's home and said, "It doesn't even look like your place anymore." She said, "No, now it's a shithole."

That's how we left that community. It was the end of April. Many schools were damaged. Most people had flood damage in their homes. The school year ended. No final tests. No good-byes to my students. I saw a few as we came back to regroup and turn in grades. They had prom and graduation, but it was different.

from the MN public radio website

Grand Forks, ND, April 1997

Flood You can be flooded with emotion, flooded with paperwork, flooded with ideas. Flood, to me, means overwhelmed, suddenly, by outside forces beyond your control.

The verse above helps me understand, a little, why they chose this word. It's like the time before the flood, we lived one way, going about our daily activities without too much care. Once the flood hit, everything changed.

Whatever floods your life, may you find a life raft, piloted by a great friend, to help you navigate.

Go. Create. Inspire!

Journaling Prompt: When have you felt overwhelmed, flooded by outside forces? Who helped you through those times?

Time and IWSG December 2013

Quote of the Day:  Peace is when time doesn't matter as it passes by. Maria Schell

Time in a bottle Jim Croce "There never seems to be enough time to do the things you want to do, once you find them." 

Time (Why you punish me?) by Hootie and the Blowfish "Time without courage, And time without fear...is just wasted time."

Honey, time marches on, and suddenly you realize it is marching across your face. line by Truvy in Steel Magnolias. I played Truvy in a community theatre production in Alexandria, MN about 10 years ago. It is one of my favorite roles.

If you have to watch the clock, it might as well be artistic.

How do you mark time? For a short time, I had an email correspondence with a guy named Tim. I told him that every time I type his name it turns into Time. He wrote back a funny quip about time and how he marks it by how fast he empties the shampoo bottle! 

I am marking time today by noting that we're already at the first Wednesday of the month where we write about our insecurities with the Insecure Writer's Support Group, founded by the great ninja blogger, Alex J. Cavanaugh.

Before I joined the Advent Photo-a-Day Project, I had planned to write about my word for the week, which was Accept. And, actually, I think Time and Accept work well together. We need to accept the time we have, accept the time of life we're in, accept our gifts and take the time to use them to make the world a better place. We need to be gentle with ourselves when we run out of time. We need to accept that we are busy people with many tasks to do and people to care for. And, sometimes, we need to claim our time to create and build our own careers while those around us need to accept that we have those needs.

When I told the Biker Chef the word for the day, he wondered about thyme. There he goes, spicin' it up for me again. He says that thyme can be used with almost anything. I sure enjoyed the thyme at Thanksgiving! (*grin)

I'll leave you with one more song about time/thyme, Scarborough Fair: Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme, recorded by Simon & Garfunkel in 1966. The song itself has been around a long time. According to wikipedia, it is a ballad from Great Britain/Yorkshire and has been around since the middle ages.

When I wrote back to Tim about time, I said that I would like to be timeless, or at least have my creative work have the staying power of a song like Scarborough Fair, or a story we keep going back to like A Wrinkle in Time, or one of Shakespeare's great plays whose themes are timeless.

Go. Create. Inspire!

Journaling Prompt:  How do you mark time?

Peace

Quote of the Day:  You cannot find peace by avoiding life. Virginia Woolf
Peace is the first thing the angels sang. John Keble
Let there be peace on Earth and let it begin with me. song by Sy Miller and Jill Jackson
Imagine by John Lennon

Woke up this morning to freshly fallen snow.

A snow covered Earth, neighbor helping neighbor.

A warm cup of coffee and snuggling under a blanket with a book, 

and a sweetheart = Peace.

The word for December 3rd is Peace. Someone once told me that a definition of peace is believing this statement: You are exactly where you are supposed to be.

When the snow falls softly in Minnesota, and you don't have to worry about driving on the slippery roads, it is so peaceful to sit tucked inside with family or friends. It's cozy. When the snow stops and all the neighbors go outside to shovel and fire up their snow blowers, it feels like peace in the neighborhood. Let us battle nature and not each other. Make peace with someone who has hurt you.

That new snow does feel kind of Christmasy.

And, I have peace of mind driving my shiny new Subaru.

It was made for Minnesota winters.

(This is NOT a paid advertisement. *grin*)

Go. Create. Inspire!

Journaling Prompt:  Describe a peaceful moment or scene.

Thanksgiving to Advent, Go and Bound

Quote of the Day:  Advent: the coming or arrival of something extremely important. I decided to join the Advent Photo A Day Project. I like the photo challenge, and the word challenge. 

Dec. 1 is Go. I felt I already had "GO" down. It's part of my signature, after all. Go. Create. Inspire! And, GO, I did this past weekend with a show at the Guthrie on Friday night (see my review of Born Yesterday), and a trip back to the metro on Saturday for the Brainerd Warriors football championship game. They lost to Owatonna, a great team. And, I feel like I'm ready to GO, jump on the bus of life, and experience many things.

Photo for Dec. 1, GO!

We went to "Born Yesterday."

December second's word is "Bound." Hmm. It's a strange word. When you look at the definitions, one says to leap or move forward. Another definition is to be tied up and restricted. You can be out of bounds in a sport, or life. You can also bound up the stairs. You can be bound by the norms of society, or bound into a new adventure. Weird. I'm bound and determined to write a new play. So, how do you take a picture of that? Joy and I have a great slogan for our Primo Art Spa, In a world of creative constipation, we're here to get things moving. You can be bound up by the cheese of life. Ha!  I'm bound to get things moving in my creative life. I'll start by playing the piano. My new play is called Grace Notes: Piano Bench Confessions. That's bound to cause some dialogue.

Advent Photo #2 Bound.

I hope the strings on my piano are bound tight!

I'm bound to get the creative energy flowing when I sit down to play, or teach.

I also joined Mark Koopmans' bloghop for December 24, 50 States of Pray. 

I also want to mention that I'm thankful for Thanksgiving and all the people who came to my house, and the ones who had other plans, and especially for the Biker Chef who cooked the most delicious meal.

It was a double Weber Thanksgiving, with pork shoulder on the right, and turkey on the left.

Biker Chef and the bird.

Mr. Happy, at the center of attention, as usual.

Full plates

Full house

Full tummies

Full of fun

Full of ideas for Christmas

Full of Love

Full of Gratitude

Go. Create. Inspire!

Journaling Prompt:  What are you thankful for?