Five Minute Friday: Rest
I apologize for the lack of blogging this week. I've had strep throat, and if I had attempted to write anything before today, it would have been an homage to my fleece sheets and vinegar gargle.But I'm feeling up for a quick Five Minute soiree back into the land of the living, or at least the writing.For a few months now, I've the pleasure of participating in Lisa Jo Baker's Five Minute Friday blogging challenge. Every Friday, a group of eclectic bloggers turn off our inner critics and perfectionists and just write for five minutes straight. Zero editing. Just a stream of consciousness free for all. And then we all link up and encourage each other. To learn more about Five Minute Friday and how you can participate click here.
Today's Five Minute Friday theme is, fittingly, REST.Go.An homage to fleece sheets may not be off base after all. Rest. I've had too much of it this last week and still want to sleep for days.I don't rest much without being forced. And this week I was forced. A forced retreat. A forced reset.As my body fights toxins, I contemplate what other toxins I need to cleanse from life.Is this a chance to reset not just my immune system, but my whole system?A chance to plot and plan small, deliberate steps to choosing a fuller, deeper life?To reset my mind. To reset my soul.To cleanse my life of the toxins thatdistractdulldisconnectand devalue life and time and relationships.Ha. Of course I see rest as I time where I need to DO something. Figure something out. Be active in my own cleansing.I can't just be. Just let the Healer do His thing. I look for my own part, my own failure or challenge.Is that true rest?He calls us to be faithful even in the small things. Can I be faithful enough to just be still?
Five Minute Friday: Home
Happy Friday! This is means it's time for another Five Minute Friday post. As a part of Lisa Jo Baker’s Five Minute Friday writing challenge, every Friday a group of eclectic bloggers turn off our inner critics and perfectionists and just write for five minutes straight. Zero editing. Just a stream of consciousness free for all. And then we all link up and encourage each other. To learn more about Five Minute Friday and how you can participate click here.Today's topic, on which I wrote unedited for five minutes and posted below for your reading pleasure, is HOME.GO.
HomeI'm coming up on eight months of living abroad. Eight months of the first word to pop into my head after home as sick.Missing home.Missing community.Missing friends.Missing the crash of ocean spray and car seats gritty with sand. Missing a car, period.Most days I can barely taste it, the bitter sting of missing. I swallow it down, continue scooping tortillas across bean-filled plates and breathing out Buenos dias, buenas tardes, buenas noches to passerby in the streets, and soaking in the sun of Parque Central while shoe shine boys yell Lustre, lustre, couples--too young and too old--caress each other on slatted benches, and cars blast reggaeton as they hobble over the cobblestone streets.I send emails and schedule skype dates and try not to lose the me I am when I'm with my friends, when I'm at my best.It's not all bad. There are glimpses of home here, too. Of growth and community and choosing to reach out and connect.So I write down the gifts.And I wonder if I should stop trying to make this place home and be satisfied with letting this place be here. Here for now. And, subsequently, allow myself to be all here.Thank you God for most this amazing day. For little bits of Spanish conversation. For impromptu lunch dates and surprise meetings in the park. For kissing on the cheek. For salsa rhythms. For the new young adults group that has finally taken off. For prayers whispered in English and Spanish to grow and change and bless and love.For the home I have in You. For the home You've made in me. Here.***To learn more about Five Minute Friday and how you can participate click here.
T.S. Tuesday: Love on the Move
Thankfulness rises and catches in my throat. So many broken things being made new. Joy being restored. Love revealed.T.S. Eliot writes, "Love is itself unmoving, Only the cause and end of movement." I don't know if I agree. I see Love moving. But perhaps it is the movement that I see, and Love the cause and, I hope, the end.Someone I love so much is seeking to grow in love and self-acceptance. Has boldly declared the words:Who I am as a person will not change. The things I like, what I enjoy, what I do will not change. But what will change is that I will love myself more. I will accept myself more.And my heart overflows because I want to yell scream shout "be careful what you write because those words just may come true--those unconscious prayers leaking through your fingertips."I write it, too. I've written it, too. In journals and post it notes and napkin slivers and emails to myself.
I love you. I love you. I love you. And somehow those words, snuck in to an internal world of doubt and self-hatred, are enough to let the light shine through.Be careful what you write, because it might just come true.And what a joy that would be. A love revelation. A freedom to be comfortable in your own skin. A love that transforms from within and can't help but spill out.Could my own journey of loving myself more lead others to love themselves more?It's too much. Thankfulness rises and catches in my throat.And I have to say, Love is on the move.