Prayer

Please, please, please pray for Marsha Lioi today. (Click on Rachel's last poigniant, heartbreaking post.)

Rachel's Mom finds out what stage her cancer is in.

Marsha is an amazing lady. She has reared (and there are still several at home) seven brilliant, well-adjusted children (one of whom happens to be one of my favorite people) and, for as tiny as she is, has the faith of a giant.

She lost her first husband to cancer when he was only 31. So she, as she said at church yesterday, knows too much.

I feel funny about writing about other people's sorrows on my blog--I don't want to embarrass them or make them feel awkward. But anyway--please, please, be praying.

Cleansing

A few weeks ago, I spent hours and hours cleaning out my office.

Wow. A LOT of stuff piles up in five years.
I threw away old programs. Old brochures. Magazines that I'd never looked at. Enough post-it notes to wallpaper my dining room. In the end, I threw away at least five garbage cans worth of stuff. And that was just my office!

I tend to be a pack-mule (I can't stand rodents--even to use the thought figuratively makes me shudder, and mule works here, too, because I can be stubborn about actually taking the time to do it). Stuff piles up. And sometimes I have trouble letting go.

I have trouble organizing life in general sometimes. What are things that I should hold on to? What are things I should let go of? What do I want IN my life? What do I want OUT of my life? What are my priorities?

I think one of the most practical things I'm working on is trying to be better in terms of how I treat my body, literally, in terms of diet & exercise. I can play the dieting game for a while, but I need help! I've enlisted family members to keep me
honest this time, and we're all doing a little plan, so hopefully this will work :0)

Vision

So...I heard a lot of npr today.

During Fresh Air, Terry Gross was interviewing Taylor Branch, who wrote a trilogy on Martin Luther King, Jr., entitled At Canaan's Edge. Branch was discussing King's famous Memphis speech and how he alluded to Moses...How Moses viewed Canaan from the mountaintop but never entered the Promised Land. King, who'd had nightmares & premonitions of his own death, knew that he might never see his own vision, his own dreams, come to pass, but that others must go on without him.

It made me think about the idea of "The Promised Land." For Moses, The Promised Land, obviously, was Canaan, where he and the Israelites could have peace after wandering in the desert for 40 years and supernaturally escaping the bonds of slavery.

For King, I believe The Promised Land he was referring to was an America where our country's constitution was truly true for all people, of all races...classes... gender.

But as I was thinking the other day about what is truly the best form of government...(thinking about the fall of communism; socialism; capitalism, etc.; and the quote that "democracy is the worst form of government...except when compared to everything else") and as I was thinking about all of the scandals that are in the news lately (can anyone say "Tom Delay") and all of the corrupt politicians in DC and all of the red tape that you have to cut through to get anything done, and the injustice of our justice system and the scary state that our schools are in, and the depth of poverty that exists in the United States, I was considering the fact that there will never be a perfect government because there will never be perfect people.

But there are good people. Who make good decisions. Who desire good things. Who want to make a difference. There are good people who have visions and dreams and compassion, and good people who are trying their best to get good things done. There are people who are accomplishing Huge things (Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf being sworn in as Liberia's first female president today; Michelle Bachelet being elected Chile's first president--how wonderful is that?). I wonder who are the Moseses and the Kings of our generation. Who can see the promised land? Who even has a vision for a promised land? Who is dreaming the big things?

What is our vision for the United States? That every single person living in this country have access to education, health, a future, the chance to pursue their dreams? How on earth do we go about making that happen?

What is our vision for the Church? That every single person alive know how much God loves her/him, and know what Christ did for them? That Church would be a (unified) reflection of the love that Christ has for us? Again, how on earth do we make that happen?

What is our vision for ourselves, for our families? That we will all be successful and well-educated, and well-employed and well-loved? How do we even make that happen?

sort of

"Everything's kind of getting back to normal," I told someone today.

And it is.

And it isn't.

What is normal, anyway?

the green stuff

Yesterday I had spinach for breakfast (with eggs); spinach for lunch (on a turkey sub at Subway); and spinach for dinner (mixed with beans & mushrooms from Papa Bears, one of their specialties).

And I've spent about 20 hours cleaning my office this week.

Take that, New Year's resolutions!

routines

First day back to work.
There's something comforting about routines...the normal.

And yet with a new year, you hafta wonder what changes will come.

I didn't make any formal resolutions, but I'm definitely aiming for serious goal setting and some self-reform. Like losing weight, paying off credit cards, and being more dedicated at getting closer to getting something else published.

Oh, and did I mention to become more organized? Guess those are formal resolutions.

Happy 2006, everyone.

bigger

A circle of grass, smooth as a lawn, met her eyes, with dark trees dancing all around it. And then--oh joy! For he was there: the huge Lion, shining white in the moonlight, with his huge black shadow underneath him.

But for the movement of his tail he might have been a stone lion, but Lucy never thought of that. She never stopped to think whether he was a friendly lion or not. She rushed to him. She felt her heart would burst if she lost a moment. And the next thing she knew was that she was kissing him and putting her arms as far round his neck as she could and burying her face in the beautiful rich silkiness of his mane.

"Aslan, Aslan, dear Aslan," sobbed Lucy. "At last."
The great beast rolled over on his side so that Lucy fell, half sitting and half lying between his front paws. He bent forward and just touched her nose with his tongue. His warm breath came all round her. She gazed up into his large wise face.

"Welcome, child," he said.

"Aslan," said Lucy, "You're bigger."

"That is because you are older, little one," he answered.

"Not because you are?"

"I am not. But every year you grow, you will find me bigger."