Category: Uncategorized (Page 156 of 188)

i think it’s done. well, the general concepts are… the “how to get from here to there” are still in progress, and they just may be until jan 31, 2010. i’d like to treat the intentionality of the list much like i do running: success isn’t measured by speed but by completion. and, thanks to a wonderful podcast by rob bell, i hope that the list becomes second nature at some point, that i don’t even have to think about it, but it becomes second skin. habit. my daily rhythms.

(btw, i post primarily for the accountability involved. go ahead – ask me in september about my progress. i’d love it. see #2.)

The list: ways to make 2010 better than 2009
(not listed in order of importance)
1. perfect a mac and cheese. i’ve already started with the attempts. jj said, “don’t worry, you’ve got all year”. i’m hoping that book club will come to my aid with a tour of mac and cheese (yes, i was serious!)
2. follow through. the road to hell was paved with good intentions, right? i’m really floundering in everything from printing my cookie recipe to taking friends out for their birthdays. after some consulting with KLM, i think this is closely related to planning ahead. also in…
3. reflect daily. what was good? what was frustrating? how do i need to change my reaction to the uncontrollable events in my life? where in my character is there room for growth? what are my blessings? have i tried to bless? who have i blamed (instead of loved)? what kind of story am i living? who did i hurt?
4. read to henry
5. kiss JJ. daily.
6. connect and contribute to st. paul’s. (as previously noted, no action plan as of yet…)
7. develop 1 spiritual habit (otherwise known as a discipline). no leads on that one yet, either. pretty sure it’s not going to be fasting from food, though, as i’m sure child #2 would throw a fit. this is likely tied to #12, so i may need to be strategic.
8. learn to knit
9. grow another garden
10. run. no stipulations, just run for the love and the benefit of it. a race would be nice. but i will enjoy victory when i just run.
11. go on 5 dates. all with jj. i’ll start a sign up list for babysitters.
12. live joyfully and generously. i think this will involve #3 and #7. since i have no concretes on either of them, it’s just a guess. suggestions welcome: what has worked for you?
13. have wine with a friend on a regular basis. until april the “alcohol removed” version will have to do, but i’m trying to think year-long with the list. hopefully i’ll have plenty of volunteers for this one, too.
14. remove from vocabulary: i’m tired (i always am), i don’t have time (i must make time), i don’t have the money (i chose to spend it elsewhere) and “after XXXX i will…” (carpe diem).
15. throw a good party. we’ll have several reasons to celebrate (a baby, a graduation, hopefully a new job for the hubby, and 2 30th birthdays!). surely a party can result. the way i do birthdays it’ll have to be an overnighter!

actually, #14 and #15 were last minute adds, but i didn’t realize that my list had 13 and that seems inappropriate. i used bullet points in my original list (at the front of my ’10 calendar – ironically, opposite the page with instructions on “daily and weekly plans: tasks and goal planning”).

what’s on your list? what would make 2010 even better than 2009?

it’s hard to believe, but i do think i’m enjoying the christmas season more and more with age. you love it as a kid because of the toys and the fun and the food, but then there’s a lull and you really only appreciate getting a few new things and getting a break from school. but then you re-emerge as an adult and see beauty in things that you never realized were there before. it’s a good thing.

this morning at church was a wonderful celebration. we did the typical worship songs that i do enjoy, but the worship band is good about tossing in some traditional carols and i LOVe how they’ve done them up. sooo much fun. after the “god rest ye merry gentlemen // we three kings” medley i wanted to say, yes yes, the other songs are nice, but more, more of the carols! however, i’m greatful that they don’t listen to little old me because my own epiphany came during a “normal” song.

the past few weeks i’ve been wondering, “why a baby?” and have had no thoughts. i’ve also done little in the way of research. my intentions were to take some of the Hebrew bible prophecy and see if i could see any reasoning there as to why God would start it all with a little baby. why doesn’t Jesus just show up on the scene to do his thing all grown up? i love the birth narritive, but why do we pay such attention to this?

i started to think about how many of the great stories of dieties coming to earth had to do with taking on human properties, having a weakness and teaching a lesson. i know very little about greek/roman mythology and i just didn’t have the energy to expand my understanding.

but today we sang a song that included in the chorus words from the psalm, “Who is this King of Glory? the Lord, strong and mighty!” i found it quite ironic, especially as i held and saw so many little babies. strong and mighty? i just couldn’t imagine that the wise men and the shepards would have this psalm in mind as they visited jesus in the manger. i imagine there would be great praises of hope along with some coochy-coochy-coo. but strong? mighty? this little creature can’t even hold his head up on his own, let alone the sins of the world.

but then i started thinking about how God is able to see things in a way that humans tend not to imagine. when God picks out a helper, he rarely uses who we think he would. first example that comes to mind is how the people picked the big, strong Saul to rule them first. failure. so God picked teenager David to be great among his people. he was able to see something in him that, as we first read the story, doesn’t appear to be evident.

and God does that with each of us. daily i’m reminded that there has to be something in me that i don’t see, that God does, otherwise he wouldn’t go through all the effort of guiding and keeping and directing me. sure, he sees my every shortcoming. he knows that i’m stubborn and prideful and think about myself waaaay too much. he’s watched the numerous times i should’ve said “i’m sorry” but just cried instead. he doesn’t close his eyes to that. he just sees more.

jesus had the same amazing way of dealing with people. time and again we can read stories of how he sees something in people. a potential. but more than that – a hope.

so i wonder if using a baby as the “strong and mighty” is just another way that God is inviting us to see the world as he does. if we can see the hope in this tiny creature, perhaps we can begin to see the hope in the rest of the world. if God can do such amazing things through tiny little wrinkled hands and feet – such as provide redemption for the whole of the world – then perhaps he can do something amazing through him. or her. or even me. maybe if we start to see hope in all things and situations, knowing God is infinately bigger and stronger and can do anything with anyONE, then perhaps the reason for the season will change the rest of our years.

we can only hope.

best things that happened last week:
1. date night
2. house is decorated for c’mas
3. found out i had 20 more hours of vacay than i had thought.

seriously – 20 more hours! i was like a kid (or myself) in a candy store as i marked my availability to cash in on it. i will work a grand total of 12 hours the week of NYE but get paid for much more. is there anything better than paid vacation?

there are lots of studies that actually say vacay makes you more productive. this probably has something to do with the rate at which you reply to emails the first day you’re back (it HAS to quadruple when it comes to messages sent per minute rate). but i think it’s a general rule of life that you must rest. it’s been a soapbox of mine long before now, and it’s not just because i’m lazy (though that makes me quite the flag waver). it’s built into our dna.

i read a few good books on the subject, one of them being Sacred Rhythms (Barton), which I highly recommend. Rob Bell once gave a message on the same topic. He said that studies have been done on animals at the zoo, and it seems that if animals are kept in the public eye for more than 6 straight days, they become quite cantakerous. put them in the cave for a day and when you bring them out, they’re back to normal. we’re just built to have to take a break.

which makes me sad for the current state of our culture. it seems that being pro-vacation makes you a slacker, or at least that’s what we all think it makes us. we were discussing my “extra” vacation at lunch and a co-worker mentioned she has nearly 3 weeks left. 3 weeks! that’s the rest of this month! more than! but she said she didn’t feel like she could take it throughout the course of the year, so it’s just sitting there to be wasted. another co-worker is actually taking her vacation but is very quick to say, “well, you know, working from home” as if she’s going to loose her job for leaving email stagnant for 4 days.

now, i don’t fault the employer on this. it’s not their job to make us take vacay. i think it’s the fear of the employee when they go to take it. it’s like there’s this idea that if you take vacay, you’re not working hard enough. lies. lies, i tell you.

this is what i decided is really happening: we don’t take vacation because we want to feel important. we want to feel like if we left, it would all fall apart. there would be crashing and burning and people crying “why, michele, did you leave us?!” but the reality is that everybody makes it just fine. sure, there are adjustments to be made. but the work gets done. and when you come back, you’re so much more enjoyable to work with. win-win. win.

i’m not sure how it became so socially acceptable to make ourselves feel so good about being important. i guess we all have our ways of doing it… i shouldn’t pick on the people who have solid careers. but i just have to think that if you’re really doing well at your job, then you should be training other people to replace you. if you’re really doing great things, then there should be more of you, not you doing more.

just a thought.