Goodness and Light

Quote of the Day:  from the song Do You Hear What I Hear
Said the King to the people everwhere,
"Listen to what I say."
Pray for peace, people everywhere,
listen to what I say!
The Child, the Child,
sleeping in the night,
He will bring us goodness and light

To hear Martina McBride sing this song of hope with an orchestra and choir, click on this Youtube video.

Here's a glimpse at what it looks like in Minnesota this week.  We don't need to just dream about a white Christmas.  This is nothing to what happened south of us.  The Minneapolis/St. Paul area was pounded with snow.  The Metrodome roof collapsed.  You might have heard about that on the news or seen the video.  OMG! The Vikings game had to be postponed and moved to Detriot. 

The good that happens from a hard knock by Mother Nature is that you quickly see neighbor helping neighbor.  The one with the snowblower helps out the ones who only have a shovel, and the ones with a shovel band together to make the work go faster. When my neice's car got stuck in the street, friends and strangers alike dug it out.

Snow is easier to handle than the subzero temps.  We wake up to the weatherman warning us that the thermometer reads negative 18 degrees Fahrenheit with a windchill factor of minus 40.  We just want to stay under our flannel sheets and down comforters.  Who wants to go out in that!  We start to feel isolated.

Isolation is not good for me.  Add to that the short days and long dark nights and the increased illnesses that happen this time of year.  Well, it gets harder and harder to stay in a happy holiday mood.  I feel sad for my friend who's four-year-old son died this summer.  It's so hard for her this Christmas.  I feel sad for another friend who is recovering from an abusive relationship and worrying about her kids when they're with their dad.  I just learned that a friend of mine was diagnosed with inflammatory breast cancer.  I can hardly type that and not break down crying.  That sounds really scary.  She has a 12-year-old daughter and triplets who are seven (two girls and a boy).  She's been in our Mothers of Multiples group.  My age.

So, yesterday, I was getting cranky at Christmas.  What is helping me is being with people IRL (in real life).  Human contact with good people who care about those who might be having a blue Christmas.  Loving people who don't expect you to be happy just because it's the holidays.  And, nurturing people who shine light on those dark emotions.

If you're experiencing the dark days of December, know that you're not alone.  Reach out to others.  Look for the light.  "Do you hear what I hear?"  A child is born to bring us goodness and light.

Journey on, even through the cold and the dark.  Nothing ever stays the same.  Cling to the the promise of new life.

Journaling Prompt:  What are you feeling blue about this season?  How can you reach out to someone to find goodness and light?

Sunshine and Sorrow

Quote of the Day:

Touched by An Angel

by Maya Angelou

We, unaccustomed to courage
exiles from delight
live coiled in shells of loneliness
until love leaves its high holy temple
and comes into our sight
to liberate us into life.


Love arrives
and in its train come ecstasies
old memories of pleasure
ancient histories of pain.
Yet if we are bold,
love strikes away the chains of fear
from our souls.


We are weaned from our timidity
In the flush of love's light
we dare be brave
And suddenly we see
that love costs all we are
and will ever be.
Yet it is only love
which sets us free.

A rose is a symbol of love. Its gorgeous shape and delicious smell draw us in.  And, yet, this beauty doesn't live forever, and its thorns tear the flesh.

We enjoyed a wonderful weekend, sunny skies, warm weather, time with friends, great conversation, and delicious food.  I finished reading the book I found on my trip West by Maya Angelou.  While I was enjoying all those things, my friend was deciding to take her four-year-old son off life support. We don't know why he stopped breathing in the night, why his brain swelled and caused so much damage, or why his days on this Earth were so short.  His brief life brought joy, love, and meaning.

God sends us sweet roses, loving friends, and magnificent sunrises to help us through the dark days.

The sunrise on the West Coast looked like this, the full moon still shining over the water, and the sun reflecting off the front of the waves. 

From Psalm 30, Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes in the morning. 

Journaling Prompt:  Write about your recent joys and sorrows.

Beautiful Savior

Quote of the Day:  1 Thessalonians 5:11 (The Message)

9-11God didn't set us up for an angry rejection but for salvation by our Master, Jesus Christ. He died for us, a death that triggered life. Whether we're awake with the living or asleep with the dead, we're alive with him! So speak encouraging words to one another. Build up hope so you'll all be together in this, no one left out, no one left behind. I know you're already doing this; just keep on doing it.

(A little finger flair as I accompany my little sister's beautiful voice at a concert, summer 2009.  Music of the '40s, like Change Partners and Dance, Moon River, and Sisters)

Last summer my little sister, Joy, traveled from her home in Portland, OR to Minnesota to visit and do a concert.  She asked me to accompany her.  At first, I was excited to do it, but the closer it came, the worse I felt.  I had lost my self-confidence and didn't know where to find it.  (Sort of like Little Bo Peep and her sheep.)  I've been playing the piano since I was seven years old.  I started playing for the early morning church service at my little country church when I was in the 7th grade.  I accompanied my school choir, countless soloists in voice and band, and yet, I'd lost it.  I continued to play even when I didn't have anything to practice for, while I was having babies, plunking out a few tunes in between feedings and diaper changes.  I could always play the piano, no matter what my mood or situation.  It's what saved me from the pit.

Then, I had a few set-backs.  My ex-husband used to say that my playing gave him a headache.  After I divorced that negative voice, I put myself back out there on the piano bench at my church.  I did not get the support there that I needed.  In fact, I was literally told that I was not good enough.

NOT GOOD ENOUGH!

Do you know what awful damage those words do?  Do you hear them in your own head?  Do people in your life say them to you?

They're wrong.  They're mean.  They're coming from their own damaged souls.

I told my little sister that I couldn't do it.  "Maybe your old accompanist is available," I said.

"No, Mary," she said, "You're the one.  I want you to accompany me.  You are good enough.  You need to be the rock."  The accompanist is the support for the singer.  In this case, the singer was the support for the accompanist.  My eyes mist up even as I type this.

I'll be playing piano for Palm Sunday service at a new church where I'm honored, appreciated and told, "Of course, you'll play."  I was a little nervous about playing.  I suggested that someone else might be better equipped.  I mean, Palm Sunday is about the most important worship service.  It tells the whole story of the One who walked the broken road before us.  Who carried our burdens on His shoulders, and who came back from the darkness to reclaim life and give us hope.  Who am I to play out that message?

But then, I heard it, the voice that says, "Of course you can."

Journaling Prompt:  Can you be that voice, the rock, that supports another person? Have you heard it?  Listen for it.  It's for you, too.

Water Molecule

Quote of the Day: The world is so empty if one thinks only of mountains, rivers, and cities; but to know someone here and there who thinks and feels with us, and though distant, is close to us in spirit - this makes the earth for us an inhabited garden. - Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

- We're like a molecule of water, ever moving in the cycle of life -

As a need for a starting point, let's say you are dropping from the sky in the form of a snowflake. You land on a frozen field in Minnesota. There you sit, in your frozen state, waiting for something to happen so that you can move on. In this case, the spring thaw. With the warm air and sunshine, you melt and flow together with all the other melted molecules of snow, now water, and become run-off into the big ditch. You're pulled by the slope of the earth into the Red River of the North, which runs the unique course of flowing north. If you think about maps and how North is at the top, it seems like this river defies gravity and flows up, not down. But, North it does indeed flow, into Canada, where it can get stuck for a while again, because it's colder the further north you go. The river feeds into Lake Winnipeg which is part of the Hudson Bay watershed. The Hudson Bay covers most of Northern Canada and meshes with the Arctic Ocean. Your destiny as this particular molecule seems to be cold. However, you could potentially become attached to a ship and sail with it to the Atlantic Ocean, work your way down the coast and settle somewhere off the Florida Keys. One can always remain hopeful. Still, you could get stuck again in an iceberg. You could spend years and years freezing and melting. You could evaporate and become cloud, blow with the wind and end up in some far-off country where you have to learn all over the shape of the land. And, find, that in the end, it was you, a single droplet of water, that gave life to an exotic flower that brightened a dark day for a girl with a heavy heart.

Did you know that no matter where the stream pulls you, no matter which direction the wind blows, no matter how many times you are frozen, you will thaw, you live on, and YOU create beauty in a world filled with darkness.

I often think of this hymn, My life flows on in endless song; above earth's lamentations, I catch the sweet, though far-off hymn that hails a new creation. No storm can shake my inmost calm while to that Rock I'm clinging. Since Christ is Lord of heaven and earth, how can I keep from singing?

May the waters of life flow in and through you, filling you up to overflowing so that when you're needed most, you will provide the nourishment to bring out the beauty in others.

Amen.

Journaling Prompt: Describe a time that you brought out the beauty and talents in another person and watched him or her shine.