on this day...

Today was a holiday--a day of rest and reflection. It almost felt like a mission year sabbath, but without all of the fun because many people were missing. But, anyway, today I have been very emotional. I don't know why...I'm not usually a very emotional person. But today brought with it a culmination of realization, history, hopes of the past, present, and future, of dreams that have been realized. I'm beginning to learn that dreams are realized daily--some in big, visible ways, and others in small, unseen ways. God gives us the ability and even gift to dream, because in dreaming, we see thoughts, ideas, and hopes that are bigger than ourselves...bigger than our world. Perhaps in dreaming, we see a glimpse of the Kingdom...and if we dream, the Kingdom can come a little closer to us. The Kingdom full of unimaginable love, always giving grace, tender mercy, never-ending hope, and beautiful, colorful dreams. I hope that we embrace the dreams God gives us in moments that seem huge and grandiose and in moments that seem small and insignificant. And I want, more than anything, to embrace the dreams of those around me as my own...because if we can't help each other dream then what are we here for anyway? May we keep dreaming, keep hoping, and keep fighting for all that is possible.

something to think about...

this hit me this week when i read it...thought i'd share...

"The temptation is always to reduce life to size. A bowl of cherries. A rat race. Amino acids. Even to call it a mystery smacks of reductionism. It is the mystery. As far as anybody seems to know, the vast majority of things in the universe do not have whatever life is. Sticks, stones, stars, space--they simply are. A few things are and are somehow aware of it. They have broken through into Something, or Something has broken through into them. Even a jellyfish, a butternut squash. They're in it with us. We're all in it together, or it in us. Life is it. Life is with. After lecturing learnedly on miracles, a great theologian was asked to give a specific example of one. 'There is only one miracle,' he answered. 'It is life.'

Have you wept at anything during the past year?
Has your heart beat faster at the sight of young beauty?
Have you thought seriously about the fact that someday you are going to die?
More often than not do you really listen when people are speaking to you instead of just waiting for your turn to speak?
Is there anybody you know in whose place, if one of you had to suffer great pain, you would volunteer yourself?

If your answer to all or most of these questions is No, the chances are that you're dead."

-Frederick Buechner, Listening to Your Life

whew...may we be truly alive.

the holidays...

I've had two wonderful weeks away from the kiddos...although i catch myself talking about them quite a lot. I return to work tomorrow with much to do, i'm sure as we all can attest to. I spent Christmas with my family and one nice thing about being born on Christmas day is that you are always with family. We traveled down to Florida to spend time with my grandparents and my aunt, uncle, and cousin. We made many new memories and wrote down many quotes from my grandma...my sister and i slept on the pull out bed with THE BAR...it's become a tradition now to need a back adjustment every holiday. Right after getting back, my sis and I headed up to Atlanta and she was gracious enough to take me to the airport Monday morning at a very awful hour! I flew to San Francisco to visit with Grace and see what all this talk is about the West coast...it was wonderful! I wish I had seen Grace's life, family, and city before we lived together and did Mission Year....in fact, it would have been helpful to see everybody's place of existence PRE-mission year. Those girls are forever a part of me--it was as if we had never left each other and that is how i always feel when we get back together. We ATE, ATE, and ATE some more, visited Berkley, the bridge of course, went bowling, saw the Sound of Music Sing-A-Long (AHHHHMAZING), hiked, celebrated Grace's mom's birthday, ate too much crab to even tell you, i ate an oyster (steamed thankfully), played rock band, saw trolley cars and Lombard Street, walked along Pier 39 and Fisherman's Wharf, and countless other things! It was a great trip and more importantly, it was time with a dear friend.

Back to school tomorrow...