Photo by Alanscottwalker, creative commons license
I depend on the work of my hands to feed my family. All day, my fingers tap the keyboard.
I use my hands for my hobby, looping yarn into warm pieces to wear or dishcloths to clean.
I struggle with my hands. Since breaking my hand in a motorcycle accident in my 20s, I’ve always felt the weather. Then I was diagnosed with arthritis in my hand in my 30s.
I serve as a deacon in our church. As I pass the brass trays of bread and juice, I see how many people struggle with their hands, too. The tray might be too heavy. The wafer of bread—as small as a fingernail—might be too small to grasp. The juice cup might be unmanageable for hands that shake.
As I see people struggle, I see others notice and respond. They see the need, respond to the need and show God’s love.
I pray that when my hands give out, I sit next to a true Christian: a person who sees the need and responds to the need, showing God’s love.
We pick some experiences in our life. Many more happen to us.
We want joy and pretty sunsets. Sometimes we get pain and time stuck in traffic.
I’m working on a project now that uses up my scrap yarn. It will be an afghan when I’m done. Scrap plus afghan makes scrapghan!
I didn’t pick any of this yarn on purpose. It’s all just yarn that happened.
The variegated rainbow was from a leftover ball a friend at church gave me.
The camouflage was from a hat I made for my husband to use in airsoft. It was a terrible hat that had the power to make anyone wearing it look like a mushroom.
The orange was from a vintage afghan I made based on a book from the 1970s. Long live the color sensibility of the 70s!
The stripes are from a project I never finished. I was going to make a stained glass-type wall hanging. Instead, I didn’t finish it and let it linger in a plastic bag for two years.
When I put together the scraps of my life, all my experiences sewn into one, they look beautiful to me. I think this is how we must look to the angels. A mix of joy and sunsets, pain and time stuck in traffic.
May you be blessed today with air to breathe and grace surrounding you. Peace be with you.
I’m thankful for heat. And caring friends. And heater repair people! Our heater has gone out twice in the past two weeks. Here in Missouri, we’ve had single digit temperatures.
Things I have learned about myself while in a house with no heat:
I would be a terrible pioneer, despite my love for the Laura Ingalls Wilder books.
I take heated bathrooms for granted.
I should keep appreciating the warmth of snuggling with my loved ones and pets even though our heat is working again.
Here’s a little glimpse into our life with animals. They keep us warm…and entertained as you can see!
Mira the curious cat loves every new surface. Including the top edge of the bed as we move it. She jumped up there herself.
Mira has dreams of being a professional organizer. She jumped in there while I was going through my memorabilia.
Mira squished herself into this basket.
I don’t remember putting this away in the pantry…
Finally, from the outdoor animals
Horse Mountain
May this week bless you with a sense of peace and hope. I hope you are staying warm!
If you had the ultimate power to edit your life in 2015, what would you change? Do you have people who don’t support you? Do you have a home that doesn’t support you? Do you have a habit that no longer serves you? The good news is that you have the power to change these situations!
In 2015, I want to edit my novel and my life.
Novel Editing
I’m three highlighters deep into editing my first draft of my novel from NaNoWri (excerpts in case you missed them). I bolster myself to be brutal each time I pick up the highlighter. No mercy! I think.
Where I thought I would have to cut a lot, I need the opposite. My novel writing style seems to mirror my poetry writing style: sparse. I need to put some weight on the bones of the words I already have and fatten the story up!
Life Editing
As for editing my life, I see it in two parts: home and self.
Home
My home needs streamlining. We have too much stuff for the space we live in. That is the reality.
This realization helps me to not feel guilty. No matter how many systems I try, the problem is more stuff than places to put it all away.
To start, I focused on our bedroom as the place to make spacious and open.
First, I removed all the boxes I stored under our bed and moved them to the bathroom. Who knew I had so much memorabilia? How much do I need to remember?
I still have to go through all the boxes and steel myself to edit their contents with a hard eye. If I try to hold onto everything, I won’t have space to welcome the good things that are coming to me.
So memorabilia weeding is in my future. For now, the space under the bed is clear so I am called that a success.
Next, I saw the floor of the closet after a big cleaning out. I’m afraid I can’t even remember the last time I’ve seen that floor. I know it didn’t happen in 2014. Now I can actually walk in my closet. Novelty!
Self
The editing of self comes with healthier eating, regular exercise and working with God.
For 2015, I created a healthy four-week meal plan. This will help reduce our costs and shopping time. With our meals already decided, a menu will free my mind to think of other things. I built in making extra of some meals so others are already taken care of. So far, it’s been efficient. I will let you know more about it later after we’ve gone through a few cycles.
My exercise plan focuses on making exercise a daily habit. Some days, we only do eight minutes of yoga. But I call that success! My sister taught me the power of accumulation. Even a few minutes a day adds up to something respectable for the year. At the end of 2015, how proud will I feel if I say I exercised every single day? And even if I only do eight minutes a day, I will have 48 hours of exercise total.
Finally, my plan for spiritual growth will be a new prayer for wellness this year. Last year, I held the word simple in my heart. I sang about simplicity. I felt these prayers work in my life. Today I have less intensity about acquisition.
This year, I will focus on wellness and well-being:
I know things will work out. With God, all things are possible.
All is well.
May my loved ones be well.
May my valued readers be well.
Did you make a New Year’s resolution to change something about your life? Even if you haven’t had success this first week, it’s not too late to try again.
2014 was a good and bright year! One of the highlights was the book signing in September. I had fun seeing everyone and getting a taste of celebrity (and that is all I need…just a taste).
If you remember my 2014 resolution, I did well with my singing and sang almost every day. My husband was sweet enough to sing with me. The song acted as a way to start the day with a reminder of what matters. It’s not the race to be fastest on the highway or be most powerful but what matters is a humble, thankful heart. Life can be as simple as I make it.
An ongoing source of joy was time with family, friends and animals. Our home is a place of sanctuary and peace for me. I’m grateful to learn that I made a difference in people’s lives, as shown in this story by a former student of mine, A profile in how to live a joyful life: Genevieve Howard.
My plans for 2015 include
Edit my story that I wrote during NaNoWriMo and publish it
Improve my physical health so I’m more flexible and vibrant
Finish my Creative Women’s Devotional and publish it
Encourage others in their faith, creativity and hope
I’m glad to see these are the most popular. They were all close to my heart: prayer, crochet, honesty, my family and my writing. Thank you for your support of my blog.
I wish you loving people, interesting adventures, a lightness of spirit and health in the coming year.
My Christmas wish is that the coming year will be the most generous one yet for me: that I give more, enjoy more and live all my days in the depth of God’s love.
With much affection for all my readers, I wish you a good and merry Christmas!
Many ways to say Merry Christmas! From 1907. Courtesy of the Library of Congress
Pray with me
Let us celebrate the birth of our Lord
with all our might, all our strength and
all our heart!
For God so loves our world.
I don’t see well at night. Where most people can make out an understanding of their surroundings, I struggle to make sense of the shadows.
The other night we were driving home on our gravel road. I was a passenger, my son was in the back and my husband drove.
As we got closer, I saw something running in front of the car. Rather than dashing across, it took a lead position and kept a few feet in front of the car. Worried it was one of our cats, I said, “Careful! Is it one of ours?”
“Honey, we don’t own a raccoon,” said my husband. We all broke into laughter.
“Well, thank goodness we don’t. Seven animals is enough,” I said. “I can’t imagine how chaotic it would be adding a raccoon to our mix.”
I’m grateful to be known by people who love me and accept my weaknesses.
This week in Advent is focused on joy.
Joy to me isn’t quite the same as happiness. The feeling of being happy can be momentary, as in, “Oh! You brought me chocolate! I’m so happy!”
Joy can come mixed with challenges. Parenthood is a joy, but doesn’t always make people happy in the moment. Joy comes from recognizing the holy and being grateful. Things might be rough but joy is always available.
Horatio Spafford, the writer of one of my favorite hymns, It Is Well with My Soul, lost his son from scarlet fever, faced financial ruin after the Great Chicago Fire and then lost his four daughters from a shipwreck. As he traveled the sea near where his daughters died, he wrote the words, “Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to know, It is well, it is well, with my soul.”
That wellness of the soul is the joy of a God-centered life.
I can’t see in the dark. I might mistake raccoons for pet cats. But I can tell joy when I see it. Coming home with my family, laughing as we go, this is joy.
May you be blessed with joy this week!
Blessing
God, give us eyes to see your goodness,
strength to do your will and
bravery to accept your grace.
Peace, I ask of you, O Lord.
Peace in my words,
Peace in my hands,
Peace in my memories,
Peace in my home,
Peace in my relationships,
Peace in our world.
The world doesn’t seem peaceful now, does it?
All the more reason to respond to upheaval and distress with compassion, to reach out to those who need help.
I have more to say but not the strength now to say it. Another time.
Peace, I ask of you, O Lord.
Blessing
Thank you for the blessing of peace and the opportunity to bring more of your love to others.
Peace, we ask of you, O Lord.
Renew our eyes to see who our neighbors are.
Rehabilitate our hearts to heal the pain, the lack and the suffering around us.
Whew, what a month November was for me! I wrote a novel during NaNoWriMo that I’m excited for you to read in the coming year. Fiction was fun, so much easier compared to memoir!
I printed out a copy that is wire-bound and begging for edits. Nothing like the heft and substance of a printed book, especially my own! With many colors of highlighters and matching sticky flags, I will do some revising and then prepare the story for its public debut next year.
Thank you, everyone, for supporting my writing. Without you, my treasured readers, there would be little reason for writing.
Advent
Advent began this week, the time of the year in Christianity when we wait with eager hearts to celebrate the birth of Jesus. This week in Advent focuses on hope.
During my Stephen Ministry meeting last night, our leader asked,
“How will you keep the Christmas season Christ-centered?”
I will reflect on this question and think on ways I can make it so. How about you?
Light to grow in; reflections by Genevieve Howard 