Archive for August, 2007
sunday, sunday, sunday (sorry, i’ve always wanted to do that…)
i’ll be teaching along side pastor joe carmichael at community of hope church in mansfield, tx.
community of hope is in a “…like dummies” series and this weekend will be “working like dummies.”
we’ll be talking about the effects of stress and burnout, what happened to some people who got burned out in the bible, and steps you can take to prevent it and heal from it!
very mad church disease types of stuff!
so, if you’re in the area (or want to take a drive!) here’s the info. i’d love to meet you!
community of hope
1800 e debbie lane
mansfield, tx
(directions here)
9:30 am & 11 am services
not in texas (or not willing to drive here? i don’t know why you wouldn’t!) check out my speaking schedule here…maybe i’ll be somewhere around where you live in the next couple of months!
(prayers also greatly appreciated…please leave them in this container as you exit the blog…)
miles from home, i write from my lower greenville third place. i’ve watched people come and go. i’ve watched the sun set. my focus is lacking tonight as my list of things-to-write increases ever so slightly.
my heart; fickle as of late. questioning things. what? here? now? when? how? what? where?
i love the fact i cannot be spontaneous. it runs completely against my nature.
otherwise?
i’d be on a coast somewhere looking up at the stars. and nobody would know.
settle down, wandering mind…quiet yourself, duskdreamer.
For those of you who ordered the “be.” t-shirts, they were a little late in arriving than I had originally planned. We do have them and are preparing to mail them (it’s a lot of shirts!) however some brilliant person out there used my PayPal account to take money out of the savings account (to which it is linked) and until this “investigation” is done, I can’t access my PayPal account – which means – I CAN’T ACCESS YOUR SHIRT SIZE ORDERED, QUANTITY ORDERED, or MAILING ADDRESS.
If you are cool with waiting a while, let me know but if you feel comfortable sending me that information, please use the contact me link on the right either way.
Sorry about this. And I must say as frustrating as it is having your (small) savings account wiped out, Bank of America is handling the process quite professionally.
there are a few different thoughts out there on church membership. some people think a formal church membership (through taking classes, signing forms, and being listed on a record of some kind) is biblical. others think that church membership is subjective, meaning you are a member of a body of believers to whom you are committed, but no formality is required. others think it’s completely nonessential to technically be a part of a local body of believers. a “between god and me” kind of relationship.
what are your thoughts on church membership? if you have contextual Biblical references for such, don’t forget to leave them.
a pile of laundry awaits me to transition it from dirty-to-clean. our apartment needs a good vacuuming and dusting. i have quite a bit of writing i need to accomplish today, but with our second car sporting a fresh flat tire, i cannot drive to my favorite writing spot in the west village until after my husband gets home. words flow out of the woodwork there.
a year ago this week, chris and i were finishing the little things for our fall trip to scotland. i can’t believe it’s been a year. i miss it terribly. this year, we have been attempting to pay down our debt (credit cards – almost gone…medical…well, we still have a long way to go. thank you gallbladder.) our leisure travel has been limited to destinations on I-35…austin, oklahoma city, kansas city.
so, here i am…sunday daydreaming of three places i have never been, and desperately want to visit (american-ly speaking):
-new york city
-boston
-seattle
what 3 US cities would you like to visit?
every three years, i am supposed to have an EGD (esophagogastroduodenoscopy) because i have some nasty acid reflux and supposedly it’s wise to have doctors stick cameras down your throat. tomorrow’s the big day. it isn’t as terrible as it sounds…you get some really good drugs which put you in a “conscious sedated” state – meaning you’re awake, but really relaxed. on top of that, they give you a drug that makes you have short term memory loss, so you don’t remember what happened.
several years ago when i had my last one done, evidently i thought i saw squirrels in the corner of the recovery room. i asked chris several times what the results were. a nurse handed me some grape juice, and i kept saying, “where’d i get this juice from?” i don’t remember a bit of it.
i’d appreciate your prayers tomorrow morning. it’s totally routine and not a big deal, but i’m not a fan of hospitals or swallowing cameras.
sometimes, i see things that make me think,
“WHAT THE CRAP?!”
This is one of them.
The “Daddle.” The idea…potentially cool. But let’s make it a little less creepy, eh?
Daddle.com if you’re interested.
what brings 30,000 people a weekend to a spiritual center in india?
Mata Amritanandamayi is known as the “hugging guru.” Some days, she will sit for up to 20 hours straight as tens of thousands of devotees line up to feel her embrace and hear her whisper motherly advice.
Mata Amritanandamayi, aka the “hugging guru,” embraces everyone she meets in an effort to spread love and healing.
Followers come from all over the world to Amma’s ashram, or spiritual center, in Kerala, South India, to get a hug; many choose to stay.
“There are two types of poverty in the world, financial poverty and the poverty of love; the second is more important,” says Amritanandamayi, who goes by Amma, which means “mother.”
we read so much about what’s being done in the world; how much money is being given here — or there — and that is not a bad thing.
but there is a poverty of love that is world-wide in its spread. even in our iPod loving, “TiVo LOST for me, I have to meet my coworkers for $12 martini-nite, but email me what happens-i’ll get it on my blackberry” kind of society…we are so emotionally and spiritually impoverished.
how can you show love this week? how can you serve?
more importantly,
will you?
Perfectionism has always been a large part of my personality.
In first grade, my teacher, Mrs. Nelson, busted me for throwing away my homework when my grade was below a 97. I was afraid to take anything lower than that home – not because my parents are psycho – but because I didn’t want to let them down.
A couple of years ago, my husband and I were watching old family videos from my third/fourth grade era. I played in a piano recital, received an award and was “interviewed” by my camera-wielding mother after we returned home.
[off camera]
Mom: You did so great, honey! First place! Hold up your Beethoven (I won a plaster bust of Beethoven) so we can show your grandma and grandpa.
Me: (looking flustered and with a gap in my front teeth) Sigh. I didn’t hit all the notes on that one movement.
Mom: But still, you did great!
Me: It wasn’t perfect… (Huffs, puffs, walks off camera, upset).
Chris pointed out that I beat out middle school kids…I was a 9 year old in a sea of teenagers. My mad Mozart skills had trumped them all.
However I was reliving the fact I missed a note on one of my scales twenty years ago. It still made me mad.
Needless to say…always the perfectionist.
Lately, I’ve been realizing how unhealthy this method of operation is.
It stresses me out. Eats away at my sanity, my sleep, my free time (what’s that?).
Today, i received a nugget of wisdom from someone I’ve respected for a long time and it really kind of kicked me square in the pants…he said (my paraphrase):
“Don’t always make things perfect. Perfectionism doesn’t leave room for imagination.”
Um, wow?
