Valentine's Day in November

I don't have deep thoughts for you today, but I can't let a delicious moment like this pass without sharing.

Unusually warm for November, we are luxuriating in sunshine on the patio. I'm procrastinating. I have a 'to-do' list I want to accomplish before Thanksgiving, but something might get crossed off the list or postponed..... this is worth it. Weather doesn't follow my schedule. I'm healthiest and happiest when following the weather and adjusting my schedule accordingly.

Everyone knows how to cancel a picnic when it's raining, but what about canceling a household chore or even a workday for amazingly gorgeous weather? That's one thing I miss about living in Keystone, Colorado. When a big dumping of gorgeous powder falls, no one shows up for work that morning. Everyone is hitting the slopes, and it's not because they can't drive in snow. No. Everyone is driving their cars to the ski lift.

So, if you're stuck in a task you'd rather not be doing, or stuck in a moment you'd rather not be experiencing and you can't see the everyday-glory of it, drink deep from this entire day we experienced at my house. Let's enjoy these moments before the rush of the holidays and maybe even slow down in December instead of speeding up. Moments like this are hiding around every corner. Perhaps you'll see yours tomorrow, or perhaps you already saw a glorious moment recently. Share your glorious moment with us below...

An Unscheduled Moment

My children invented a game, this morning, which involved the little one pushing the big one out into the rain, dissolving in fits of laughter and repeating. I was drawn away from the kitchen to the intoxicating sound of their joy.

In my experience, creative, spontaneous play unfolds organically when children are given large amounts of unscheduled time to follow the whims of their developing brain in a safe and familiar location, like their own home. 

In spite of my strong commitment spontaneous expression, I constantly find myself feeling pressured by "schedule," "measuring my worth by production" and "number of organized activities," values highly revered by American culture. Certainly schedules, goal setting, planned activities and production have their place and have the potential to facilitate a certain amount of joy and satisfaction, but every human needs a balance of scheduled time and unplanned time. Some of us are designed to flourish in a more structured environment and some of us are designed to flourish in a less structured environment.

I'm still learning who my children are and what they need as individuals, but I know I myself thrive on large amounts of unplanned space to create and follow an unseen "flow." Perhaps it could be called an "unseen structure." In spite of this self awareness, I spend far too much time chasing satisfaction from rigid models of daily life. Today the example of my children, and their deep notes of delight in surprise creativity, beckoned me back home.

I welcome you to delay your next activity by another 39 seconds, walk into my home through this one minute video and relive this unplanned moment with me.....

Christmas Glow

Another little Christmas miracle; I am at the beach, my favorite place in the world, on this Christmas Day.  I aim for Christmas perfection every single year, but I don't get Christmas perfection every year. I am very much aware that "Christmas perfection" is a combination of heart warming circumstances and a state of mind, the state of mind being the most crucial element. Therefore, I am especially grateful for the Christmas perfection I felt this year.  We have an ENORMOUS set of extended family.  No way are we able to gather everyone together most holidays.  But a few showed up at our door last night and kicked off one of our best Christmas celebrations ever.  

One of my favorite realities about our family is the flexibility of our Christmas traditions.  We have many traditions we draw upon depending what seems practical for the current year. Each year there are themes similar to previous years and themes brand new.  

This is our first Christmas at the beach.  After gifts were given and opened with love and thoughtfulness, same as every year, many rushed to change out of pajamas into beach clothes to bike down to the water's edge and jump, splash, build and toss sand, while others burned energy on the beach basketball court.

I love the beach because it's the one place in the world where everyone understands how to live in the moment.  No one expects a sand castle to last more than a few minutes or a few hours at best. Yet we throw all of our passion and joy into this effort as though we are sculpting the next Michelangelo. We don't grasp, stress or cling to this fleeting moment, knowing full well a similar moment might come again, but never with the exact same feeling. We enjoy and release it without question.

Christmas Day, on the other hand, is a holiday scarred with expectations unmet for many people.  I have shed my share of tears on Christmas Day for one reason or another.  Some of us give up and grow callus, loosing our childlike wonder.  Some of us spin our wheels harder, trying to force it, only making it worse.  I chose to simply try again every year with varying levels of success and failure, attempting, every year, to accept what IS. Striving and releasing. Striving and releasing.

Will we all get it right one day?  Will there ever come a time when the afterglow of Christmas perfection lasts forever?  Is it even possible, in this broken world, to live, all year long, in the true Spirit of the biggest Christmas miracle which took place two thousand years ago?  

I don't know.  If it's possible, I haven't succeeded yet.  I haven't made it all year long constant in the Spirit.  But I won't stop trying.  All of the heartache is worth it for these moments and the Promise that one day God will wipe away every tear from my eyes.  Death, grief and pain will cease.  In the meantime, let's cherish these moments that Glow. 

2015 is nearly finished. I send love to you, from my home to yours, and Merry Christmas. To all a goodnight. Lets wake up, drink coffee, or your preferred start up drink, open your door, breathe fresh air, and carry this glow into December 26th.

Birthday Pie this Thanksgiving Eve

Is this a Thanksgiving pie?  No... and Yes.  It was my birthday pie in September.  I often prefer pie over cake to celebrate my birthday. Following the lead of my 2.5 year old, it transformed from birthday pie into a pie of thanksgiving in a moment of Holiness. ("And a little child shall lead them.")

How fitting, as my little child loves to pretend with magic wands and poof one thing into another thing, transforming the first thing into a second, more awe inspiring thing.  

With delight, and with the help of her Daddy, she placed a birthday pie in front of me.  I took a deep breath, ready to blow out my candles, then paused... "Ummm, I don't know what to wish for!" I said dramatically, for her sake, yet sincerely asking the question in my own heart.  I continued aloud, "In recent years I wished for Samantha. Then I wished for Annabelle.  But I have both Samantha and Annabelle now and I don't know what to wish for now..."  A loaded silence filled the room, Chris, Kellie and Bryce, all witnesses to this scene.

Samantha stared at me thoughtfully for a minute. Then, with an air of sweetness and confidence that only a child can possess, she said, "You have to say thank you."

Jaws all around the room fell open.  Kellie sucked in the dramatic intake of breath representing the awe everyone felt.

I paused for a moment, my flesh struggling for only an instant.  "Do I give up my only opportunity all year to choose one important request in the presence of Whoever makes birthday wishes come true?" I silently asked my heart.  In the next instant, I smiled, the answer peaceful, obvious and wonderful, filling my soul.  "Yes, I said aloud, "My wish, this year, is to simply say Thank You."

And I blew out the candles.

The candle of  want:  GONE... "the Lord is my Shepard, I shall not want."

The candle of  worry:  GONE... "He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside quiet waters." ("Be still and know that I am God.")

The candle of  work:  GONE... "He restores my soul.  He leads me in paths of righteousness for His name's sake."  

The candle of  fear:  GONE... "Yes, even though I walk through the Valley of the Shadow of Death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me.  Your rod and staff, they comfort me. 

The candle of  hunger, sickness and thirst:  GONE... "You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.  You anoint my head with oil.  My cup runs over."

The guiding light of all five candles, gone cold.  Warm darkness envelopes. 

The New Candle, visible only to the Eye of my Soul, comes into focus.  This eye opens, awakens, welcoming my 37th year of life.