Thursday, November 25, 2010

gratitude abounding

My heart is full of thankfulness today. God has been revealing to me his sweetness and goodness lately in significant ways, and I simply can’t miss this moment to stop and say thank you.


Thank you for the joy of cooking and eating (especially today), and thanks that I can share this joy with my lovely mother.


Thank you for the ways in which my sistas and best friends encourage and listen and even laugh at my dumb jokes. Thanks that they have been such a constant, huge, safe, and wonderful part of my life for all of these years.


Thank you for my pets and for all the love and entertainment and companionship they bring to our household.


Thank you for my eighteen students, who lift my spirit and brighten my life every day. Thank you for their eagerness to learn and their sweet interactions.


Thank you for Morris—for all of the love and shalom that goes on in this place. Thank you for my roommates, for their honesty and caring and for the ways we support one another. and for all the other good, passionate people in my life. I am so blessed.


Thank you for my church, for providing me with a place where I can worship, listen, find community, and be comforted and made uncomfortable.


Thank you for my family…for our laughter and our love.


Thank you for HOPE, for bittersweet endings and new beginnings, for my future that is still very much unknown. Thank you for showing up in my life in fresh but familiar ways.


"Let us know the seeds of life's goodness within us and between us. And let us handle it's gifts with wonder." Happy Thanksgiving to you all.



(also, check out Milly’s blog…lots of good stuff going on there: http://molmille.blogspot.com/2010/11/on-advent-dating.html)

Monday, November 15, 2010

O God of Life

I don't have it all together. I often let doubt and fear take over, and I sometimes forget that my God is a good God who desires to bless me and create new beginning after new beginning inside of me and in my world. Lately I've been unsure of what to pray for in my life... and it's comforting to know that I don't always have to have the right words. It's enough to ask, beg, even plead for God to simply show up. To be near. To work in me in ways that I cannot communicate. He listens and cares and blesses us whether we ask for it or not. And he places people in our lives that can give their presence and their love that heals and encourages and acknowledges our paths.

I'm also grateful that when I don't have the words, someone else usually does.
This is my prayer tonight:

O God of life,
who chooses creation over chaos
and new beginnings over emptiness,
we bring to you the disorder of our nation
and the emptiness of our lives and relationships.
Bless us and all the nations with the grace of creativity.
Bless us and all people with the hope of new beginnings.


Source: Celtic Treasure: Daily Scripture and Prayer by J. Philip Newell

Sunday, November 7, 2010

To Mom and Dad

Today, I say thank you. Thank you for loving each other the way you do. Thank you for raising me in a home full of adoration and selflessness and laughter. Thank you for showing me that love, in its truest, most fundamental form, is real. Love is alive and moving at the very same time that it’s constant and steady, and I know that because of you.


Happy 23rd Anniversary!

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

you are good.

I receive an average of 14 drawings/notes a day from my students, and this one happens to be my favorite. can you tell why? :)

(keep in mind that this young man doesn't really read or write and was not aware of what was written)


if you're wondering what he meant to write, check the title (and think backwards). so precious and so innocent are these little ones! they crack me up every day.