Star Wars, strangers, and sunflowers

     I had been looking forward to the Friday after my birthday ever since

my friend Sarah told me she had a surprise planned for that night. I

love surprises, whether I am on the giving or receiving end of them.

All I knew was that she was picking me up at 6:00, I did not need to

dress up, and we were going downtown. Having vast experience with my

tendency toward tardiness, Sarah had purposely set the pick-up time

earlier than we actually needed to leave. As she'd predicted, I was

still getting ready when she arrived. But by about 6:15, we were

headed downtown to some mystery destination. After weaving through

tourist traffic, we finally found a garage with room for us to park

and started walking down Meeting Street. By the time we passed the

locksmith shop with all the keys pressed into the sidewalk, I

suspected we were heading for Theatre 99. Sure enough, we went behind

the bike shop and climbed the stairs to the small theatre. It was only

after the usher had torn our tickets that Sarah handed me mine and I

saw my surprise revealed! We were about to see The One Man Star Wars Trilogy!

     For the next hour, we listened and laughed as geeky comedian Charlie

Ross reenacted the original Star Wars movies on an empty stage, doing

character voices, sound effects, music, and inside jokes. I had tears

of laughter running down my cheeks by the end. It was the perfect

birthday present. I know the Star Wars movies backward and forward,

and Sarah knows well my geeky obsession with them. That was the best

part of the gift, I think. She knows I love surprises, knows I'm

always running late, knows I'm a Star Wars fanatic. The being known

meant as much as the experience itself. Sarah is also someone who

knows how selfish and petty I can be, who has been snapped at when I'm

in a bad mood, who has taken care of me when I was sick. Isn't that

what all of us want -- to know that someone else cares enough to learn

who we are, from the trivial quirks to the shameful secrets, and still

stay with us? It is my deepest desire, if I'm honest. My heart

flutters with longing when I read Paul's words in 1 Corinthians 13:12,

"Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been

fully known." I am thankful for the few friends who truly know me,

hopeful that one day I will know and be known by a husband, and

praying that in God my deepest desire finds it deepest answer.

SS

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"I was a stranger and you invited me in."  Matthew 25:35

     People normally don't invite strangers into their homes.  Strangers are people you have never met, never talked to,  never laid eyes on.  And yet...

     This week we are in Austin, Texas, apartment shopping for our youngest daughter who will be attending graduate school at the University of Texas in Austin in the fall. (Hook 'em Horns!)  My extroverted, well-networked husband sent out a plea on Facebook to all his friends in Texas for any help in locating an apartment.  We received lots of helpful advice and one amazing offer.  

     One of Don's friends contacted another friend, an Austin local, to ask for advice.  That wonderful artist friend not only offered a potential apartment site, but also invited us to stay at her house while we visited Austin and looked around.  She and her family planned to be gone during the days we were in Texas and offered us the use of her charming art-filled home in the historic Hyde Park district...that is, if we wouldn't mind feeding the cat while we were here.  We were strangers with at least two degrees of separation.  We had never met and communicated only by email.  

      A friend of a friend offered her empty house, wi-fi password,  and even instructions for the coffee pot. She welcomed us into a home away from home.  Hopefully, on a later visit to Austin, we will meet, maybe have dinner and become friends.  But for, now, we were weary travelers and a stranger invited us in. 

AF

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Lean Forward

"Lean forward into your life... Just tip your feathers a wee bit and see how dramatically that small lean can change your life."

                                                                      -Mary Anne Radmacher

     I like to meditate on visual images, particularly ones in nature that keep reappearing on my path. For the past two weeks, that image has been sunflowers. I was delighted to find a vase of them at Sea Biscuit Cafe on the Isle of Palms, where I like to sneak off on some early mornings when I'm on that side of town. They are so bright and cheery, brash and bold, dominating wherever they are. 

     I like how they catch me unexpected, their tall size allowing them sneak peeks over fences.  

     I like how they lean into the light and seek out the light. They remind me that my day will go down in great part based on how I orient myself to the light.

     I like how the spirals of seeds in the sunflower heads feel soothing to me.             Mathematicians study them with their special pattern of numbers called the Fibonacci sequence. I just like how ordered and calm everything seems at their center.

     Mostly, I like how they remind me to just be happy - the way, before worry and/or the daily grind dominates a day, we were created to be.

DB

Last blog post of 2011

Bracing for the New Year

I have friends who are good for me and those who are bad.  Tuesday, I couldn’t decide which category to put Michelle Mills in. We met for a workout at the new popular BLAST900 fitness studio in Mt. Pleasant.  At the time it seemed as if it were a good idea. I had the day off, it would only be an hour and it would be a chance to work off some of the three holiday desserts I had felt compelled to try.

Hopping on the treadmill, I enjoyed a warm, fuzzy moment thinking how good it is to have friends who encourage you along life’s way. If it weren’t for her, I probably would be in bed, reading and listening to the rain. Instead I’m reading such affirmations on the wall as: Your mind is the athlete.

Bring it on, I think.

This studio does intense, interval sessions. After several sprints on the treadmill and doing walking lunges up a 27-percent incline, I looked over at her, but she wouldn’t meet my eyes. Definitely, bad for me. Warm, fuzzy feeling is gone. I sneer at the positive affirmations on the wall. My mind obviously is no athlete.

I think of getting pizza with my kids, my reward for surviving, as we walk to get our bags and mop off our sweat.

“You want to go to Trader Joe’s and get some thinkThin bars? she asks.

Sure, why not.

What are friends for?

DB

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Hurley's First Snow

This is all new.

Something cold, white, crunchy under your paws.

Not sure what to do.

Each step must feel strange.

You pause and look to me.

I do my best to guide you, mother you,

Reassure you from the other end of the leash.

"It's okay.

Just take another step.

I won't be far."

Each time I stand on the brink of the unknown,

I need the same from God.

Guide me, mother me, reassure me.

But there is no leash connecting us.

It's not so easy to know where to look.

Still, when I take that first step,

Sometimes I think I hear a familiar whisper.

"It's okay.

Just take another step.

I won't be far."

SS

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In these in-between days,  between the first holy days of Christmas and the revelry of the New Year, I find myself reaching for grace.  So, the quilts didn’t get finished this year,  the book is still in process, the house has yet to be de-cluttered, my blog post is late.  My never ending list of projects will simply have to go on the to-do list for 2012.  In the meantime, this in-between time,  we will have visits from family, dinners with friends, a daughter still home from college, and life to enjoy.  And so for these last few minutes of 2011, I’ll put away the to-do lists, sit on the back porch and put up my feet, and simply be.

AF

Thanksgiving

For the beauty of each new day here in the Lowcountry,

for a church where I am encouraged and challenged and loved,

for the gift of laughter,

for a rewarding and fulfilling job that also meets my financial needs,

for beloved friends and family literally all over the world,

for Hurley (the world's greatest dog),

for parents who raised me to love learning and never stop,

for memories and photos of the people and places I have loved,

for second chances (and third and fourth and so on),

for a house of my own so near the ocean,

for all the different colors my eyes can see,

for only having been admitted to the hospital once in my life (so far),

for books to read and time to read them,

for the inspiration to write and keep writing,

for music to hear and sing,

for good food,

for moments that take my breath away and give me goosebumps,

for great colleagues and a wonderful supervisor,

for foreign travels and foreign languages,

for being a work in progress,

for all the stories that have taught me about God and the world and myself,

and most of all for the One whose love surrounds me, and whose mercy and grace are redeeming me,

thanks be to God.

SS

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In this early morning moment, I find myself already full

of thanksgiving

for a husband who loves me deeply and completely,

daughters and a son in law who fill the house with laughter 

and the stories of their lives, 

for everyone together under one roof.

For rain in the middle of the night,

wind chimes that sing with a fresh breeze on the porch,

sweet basil clipped from the garden, 

and that holy trinity of garlic, onions, and celery,

for the unacknowledged luxury of clean water 

that pours forth with just a turn of my wrist.

For my old sewing table and scraps for new quilts,

long runs and strong legs,

time to write and to sew and pull weeds,

for a refrigerator filled beyond overflowing with food 

(and for family and friends who will be here to enjoy it!) 

for the mercy of stretchy jeans on feast days.

For new beginnings and old friends, 

for the freedom to move forward and explore new paths,

for the winds of change that keep my life fresh,

and for the quiet to know that just this moment,

just this breath, 

is enough.

AF

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Kiawah Island on a recent November morning 

(meditating on two scriptures Psalm 40:3/Isaiah 43:1-2)

Taking Flight

Where even to start with thanks for this holiday season.

There are the usual suspects, of course -

Friends, family, home and hearth

But what really has me on my knees this season

feeling so blessed

is how God's teaching me

to just be content 

in flight

No thoughts lingering on where I took off or where I'm gong to land.

Just this moment suspended in time, able to see the small gifts all around

to really be with people and hear what they have to say

to watch God plant a new song in my heart

though I tremble, and I'm not sure of the words

only the refrain in the wind

trust

DB