A Picture Share!

The result of a halloween costume gone horribly wrong...

A Picture Share!

I went as scully for our costume party tonite... Wasn't much of a stretch really...Just me in a black suit with an fbi badge!

Patience

We have been in this house for nearly a month now, and I still feel like we haven't moved in. Of course, this place is just a temporary stopping-place, and we will be moving into our more permanent residence in about 6 months, but I just hate the unfinished business of boxes and endless searching for that random item that I haven't needed in 3 years but just happen to need today. I hate boxes! My life has become solely about endless mounds of corrugated madness and everything therein for the past month or so. At home I'm tripping over them, have no place to put them, really don't want to unpack much more because I'm just going to have to pack them back up again very soon. At work, Daddy Warbucks brings trailers full of them, and they stack up and I'm tripping over them there, and just when we have unpacked the last box, he shows up with more. And then Friday night I was at work until 9:00 pm packing up infinite numbers of books into boxes. I am so very sick of cardboard.

But it's okay, really... cardboard has come to mean transition, change, growth and expansion. It's a mirror of my internal self: unpacking certain items, truths, that have been long since forgotten or hidden away, and boxing up or discarding old pieces that no longer have use or relevance. Compartmentalizing certain areas -- "No, I can't get into that box now. There's no place to put all that stuff. There will be time for that later..." -- putting some things on hold knowing that God can take better care of them than I at this point.

I'm trying to be patient with all the unfinished business around and inside of me. I am exactly one-half neat freak and one-half pack rat, depending on the mood I'm in. I like to carry stuff around, but only for so long, and then it starts to drive me nuts and I toss it. So as I'm tripping over things in my house and getting irritated and wanting to do crazy things with the boxes that just don't fit anywhere right now (can I just throw away the box that has my china in it? There's nowhere to put it for the next 6 months! Oh, wait, I like my china.), I'm trying to have patience and not let the neat freak freak out too much, trying to remember that it's just a season, we're in transition, and soon we will have a large place in which to spread out and unpack all that stuff. Maybe not today, and maybe it's okay for stuff to look messy and unkempt... there's a process behind the mess. My neat freak self will just have to let go and live in the process instead of trying to control it.

But come April, I never want to see another box again.

drink

I love autumn. I am so happy that the air is just a bit crisper, that it's time for pumpkin muffins and spicy flavored coffee, for less time inside and more time spent soaking up the quiet of the moment surrounded by nature and God.

When it begins to show little hints of autumn outside, I instinctively want to get a little quieter in my soul, go more inward, listen more, talk less; take in instead of dole out... the world could probably use a little less of my opinions anyway. It is so hard to find the time to actually go there these days, and my pursuit of quiet must be purposeful or the opportunity will be missed. The change in seasons creates the desire for change in me, and the choice is mine whether or not to follow through.

I have been in such a season of hustle and bustle and urgency over things that just really don't matter much. I have not been able to really create (to rest, to dream, to try) in so long that I think I have forgotten how. But I am feeling the pull, the call to come away and be and do what I was created to do; in the image of my Creator, I was created to create. And I am not fulfilled when I am not doing what I was created to do... and how easily I forget this truth. I don't want to live a flat, stale, one-dimensional life spent in pursuit of comfort and status-quo-middle-class existence, because it becomes just that: existence, not living.

But why is it so hard? Why do I have to be so vigilant to keep the focus? Why do I have to try so hard to stay awake and not fall into the slumber of the mundane, everyday existence? I don't need fireworks, I just want to live and breathe and know that I am exactly where I am supposed to be, learning what I'm supposed to be learning, listening instead of glazing over. Time is so short. I just don't want to miss it...

Anne Lamott is my hero.

I was snooping around and found this 2003 article on Anne.

I'm even more intrigued in her knowing now that she loves Joyce Meyer.

What a nut! I love her. I want to be like Anne Lamott when I grow up.

Jack?

From annerice.com

NOTES FROM ANNE ON CHRIST THE LORD: Out of Egypt

"Dear Ones --- As many of you know, my new novel will be published in about a month. I've not said very much on this because perhaps there is so much to say. But let me make a few introductory remarks now. Christ the Lord -- Out of Egypt is a novel about Jesus as a child, a boy of seven. And the story is told from his point of view. The research for this book has been endless and thrilling and at times confusing. I'll post more about the research, the sources in all fields, including archaeology, social history of the first century, Jewish history, Jewish law and customs, New Testament studies, etc., as time goes on. An entire bibliography of works consulted would be very simply impossible. -- What I want to say here is this: every effort has been made to make the entire world of this book accurate according to all the records we possess. This is the Jesus who was born in Bethlehem, celebrated by angels, visited by shepherds, and the Magi. This is the Christ of the four gospels in whom I believe. -- In a way, the novel is the story of Christmas told in a new way -- from the point of view of Jesus Himself when he is old enough to start talking seriously about the mysteries surrounding His birth. --- My life has led to this book.

Love, Anne."

(Thanks to Shane for the heads up.)

So, wow. That's amazing. What's even more amazing is that she posted Brian McLaren's review of her new book on her site. That's the weirdest collision of worlds, like, ever.

It's going to be interesting to see how this plays out... Whether it will be a huge "Last Temptation of Christ"/"DaVinci Code" type controversy or if people will actually be open to what the book says. It apparently opens with the apocryphal story of Jesus as a boy killing a playmate just to see if he could resurrect him, so right away it's not based on canonist Scripture and leaves a lot of room for fanciness, but we'll see, now, won't we?

A Picture Share!

At the corn maze..