A prayer for Holy Week

I thank you, Jesus, for becoming a human being
so I do not have to pretend or try to be God.
I thank you, Jesus, for becoming finite and limited
so I do not have to pretend that I am infinite or limitless.
I thank you, crucified God for becoming mortal
so I do not have to try to make myself immortal.
I thank you Jesus for becoming inferior
so that I do not have to pretend that I am superior to anyone.
I thank you for being crucified outside the walls,
for being expelled and excluded like the sinners and outcasts,
so you can meet me where I feel that I am,
always outside the walls of worthiness.

I thank you for becoming weak, Lord Jesus,
so I don't have to be strong.
I thank you for being willing to be considered imperfect and strange,
so I do not have to be perfect and normal.
I thank you Jesus for willing to be disapproved of
so I do not have to try so hard to be approved and liked.
I thank you for being considered a failure
so I do not have to live my life trying to pretend I'm a success.
I thank you for being wrong by the standards of religion and state
so I do not have to be right anywhere....even in my own mind.
~Richard Rohr

The Civil Wars

Blog silence

"Please pay attention not just to the words, but to the silent spaces between the words, That's where the shift happens."

~Eckhart Tolle

I've lost my words and am waiting for the shift. I'll be back. Eventually.

Traditions

It's quite interesting to see your kids begin to internalize the values that you as parents believe. One of the main values we, (as in me and Hubby), try to drill into the girls' heads in the importance of family. As in, family comes first. Always.

For the last few weeks, my mom and dad have been picking the girls up on Fridays and keeping them till either Hubby or I can get home from work. Then one Friday mom invited us to stay for dinner. That same night, my sister and her partner came over too; a big old family dinner. The girls loved it, so the next Friday they invited themselves to stay for dinner and we all showed up again. We joked that this should become a tradition. Of course the girls locked on to that, so you can imagine that chaos that happened last Friday when we couldn't (for various reasons) have dinner last week.

Needless to say, we were all there tonight.

Jesus and the Seeds

This past Sunday I went to my favourite little shop, WestCoast Seeds. As I was puttering around, the owner came and asked if I needed help. I explained to him that I was doing a presentation at work and wanted to use some seeds as an illustration point. He asked who I was speaking to and what my job was. I told him I was talking to new pastors and that my job consisted of getting people's asses out of the pew and into the community. He looked at me for a few seconds then asked me to "lay it on him". He wanted to hear my presentation.

Now, I'm not a 'preaching to stranger' kinda gal, but I thought alright, let's talk Jesus and seeds. So, I laid it out. Talked about the biblical metaphors of gardening, commitment and soil. After I was done, he smiled, told me his name was Don and that he was going to help me out. He went to the back of the store and came back with a box of thousands of packs of seeds. He asked me how many I was speaking too. I told him 25 or so this week, but that I was leading a workshop in April that could have a 100. Don handed me 100 packs of seeds and told me to come back in April and he'd set up me with a box full.

Don reminded me of something. That Jesus appeals to folk. On every level, in strange places and when you least expect it.

KitchenAid

The thing about making homemade bread and muffins is that once you start making them, your family will start pestering you for it all the time. In fact, they will prefer to any sort of packaged snack/bread that you try and sneak in on days that you don't feel like making fresh stuff. Which is why you will spend every evening wondering if you can make it through the next day without needing to bake that night.

Luckily, my dear friend is letting me 'store' her KitchenAid for her and I might be in love.

Light and shadow

Shadow: Epic parenting fail to start the day.

Light: Cooking dinner with the Bear, building a tent with Pookie.

Such is my life.