The Gift of Youth

Since I've been reflecting a lot on gifts lately, I thought it only proper to take a minute and be thankful for the gift of my new Iraqi friends, especially my young friend Rota.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. Children are such a blessing! They help me to remember what's really important ("one more" race to the playground), to appreciate the small things (Eric Carle puzzle books), and to not take myself so seriously (ribbons placed on my head). Yesterday my visit with my friends completely made my whole day.

I echo the sentiments of Rota who said as I left, "I miss you." Walking away from their home, I missed them already!

Two Sinatra songs on the theme, because I'm a dork:

You Make Me Feel So Young

Young at Heart

Three Cups of Tea

"The first time you share tea with a Balti, you are a stranger. The second time, you are an honored guest. The third time you become family." (derived from a Baltistan proverb, Greg Mortenson)

What a beautiful blessing. After a somewhat stressful confusing and lonely week, I shared a cup of tea with Yanfei and Michael. While it was only the first time, there were three cups of tea between us. More importantly, we listened to and cared for one another with a wonderful friendship-building conversation. So refreshing in a culture that has lost so much of this personal connection.

Wealthy Poverty

The Situation: Loneliness

"According to Mother Teresa, it is among the wealthy that we can find the most terrible poverty of all- loneliness." (Shane Claiborne, Irresistible Revolution)


The Alternative: The Simple Way

Each of us is created for community, and in the image of community. And yet everything in the world tries to rob us of this Divine gift.

The life of the simple way is the story of that struggle to love and to be loved.

The most radical thing we do is choose to love each other... again and again.

If you are a seeker of the Way, may our story feed you hope... or at least keep you from making all the same mistakes.

"Life in community is no less than a necessity for us, an inescapable 'must'... all life created by God exists in communal order and works toward community." -- Eberhard Arnold

Let Your Life Speak

"True self, when violated, will always resist us, sometimes at great cost."

"Before I can tell my life what I want to do with it, I must listen to my life telling me who I am."

"Ask Me," William Stafford

Some time when the river is ice ask me
mistakes I have made. Ask me whether
what I have done is my life. Others
have come in their slow way into
my thought, and some have tried to help
or to hurt: ask me what difference
their strongest love or hate has made.

I will listen to what you say.
You and I can turn and look
at the silent river and wait. We know
the current is there, hidden; and there
are comings and goings from miles away
that hold the stillness exactly before us.
What the river says, that is what I say.

Excerpted from "Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation" by Parker J. Palmer. Copyright (c) 2000 by Jossey Bass, Inc., Publishers, a company of John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

I miss you, Amanda...I wish we could be 26 together.

Give a Girl a Chance

Girls Can Change the World

Happy Birthday, Paddington!

Today I learned it was Paddington's 50th birthday. He looks pretty good for a bear of his age, don't you think? Anyways, this sweet surprise brightened my otherwise uneventful day. I suppose I should eat a marmalade sandwich to celebrate my childhood friend.

Premise

Sometimes I wonder about my life. I lead a small life. Well, not small, but valuable. And sometimes I wonder, do I do it because I like it, or because I haven't been brave? So much of what I see reminds me of something I read in a book, when shouldn't it be the other way around? I don't really want an answer. I just want to send this cosmic question out into the void. So good night, dear void. (Kathleen Kelly, You've Got Mail, Nora Ephron)