Lingering a while...

I have been almost a week at the Oregon coast. The purpose was to be able to clear my head of all the chaos and noise and to be able to put together what God is leading us to offer for the reFresh Lent Journey this year.

There are people who know me well that question if going away by myself is a good idea... they are right to question. This much alone time is very challenging for me. It causes me to force myself out of myself and go seek connections with others. It causes me to come face to face in deeply emotional ways with my Saviour who is always with me, It causes me to see how I run to TV or facebook when I am lonely. It causes me to reach out to friends I have not reached out to for a while. It causes me to saunter and linger more. It is not so easy for me to frolic when I am alone... just being honest. 

I find as I am ending my time here, that I am not as productive as I thought I should be. And then I realised that I put the level of productivity on myself. And I wonder why I thought I should be at a certain level for this time....  At a retreat I was on a few weeks ago we talked about the Nautilus shell and how it has to grow from its current space into the next space to survive. 

We grow and shift and change with life. 

We are becoming who God is shaping and calling us to be.  

 When Saturday arrived, so did the people... the beach which has previously been quiet except for the sounds of nature was interrupted by children and parents and dogs. It was really only the little yippy dogs that were jarring to me. There was one that was quiet vocal and I found myself resenting its encroachment on my space. As though it was my space to be protective of....

 It is continually amazing to me how much we see of who God is and who we are when we take time to stop and linger. I don't always like what I see... but I know God loves me even with those not so pretty parts.

I am so excited what this year's Lent journey with reFresh. 

I hope you will join us. 

I can do it all myself....

Growing up I, as many women, learned that I needed to take care of myself. 

Out of life circumstance and the society I grew up in, I had no choice. 

My grandfather taught me practical things like how to hammer a nail and use other tools well. 

My mother taught me to take care of my car and fix a toilet that is not flushing.  

I developed courage and confidence to travel alone by car, by train and by plane great distances and in foreign countries. 

I learned how to shoot a gun and how to build a fire.

 I learned how to chop wood and tend a garden.

 I learned how to change a light bulb and how to reset the fuse.

I learned how to cook and sew and clean and organize and ride a bike and care for children.

I learned how to drive a manually transmission-ed car, how to pump my own gas and how to drive in snow, rain and ice. 

I can kill spiders and take out the trash and mow the lawn and open my own doors.... 

Yes.

 I can do it all my myself. 

But is exhausting. 

And when my man does some of these things for me, I feel cherished, valued and respected. 

I am learning to ask for help. I am learning to let go of needing to do everything myself.
Thank you Robert for being a real man.

The third Sunday of Advent

Today, 

December 14th, 

is the 3rd Sunday of this 2014 Advent Season. 

Here is the link to the our reFresh reflections:  3rd Sunday of Advent

Advent Reflections

Each Advent season we at reFresh offer some reflections to help ourselves and others enter this time of the year with intentional hope, joy, faith and peace.

I began celebrating the Advent season more consistently when I was in Europe. It is very normal for those countries to intentionally celebrate the Advent season. Some do not know the meanings and some experience the deep meanings... and of course there is every variance in between.

Here I am posting the first two reflections we are sending out. We are offering them free as a gift this year. I hope and pray that you find them useful and a blessing.

1st Sunday

2nd Sunday

I will post the others as they come.

If you would like to discover other ways to UnhurryUp! Your life visit the reFresh website. :)

mysoulrefresh.com

Time is precious...continued from FB

On Facebook I wrote the following....

"Time is so precious because there is a finite amount of it. There are only 24 hours in a day. We need to sleep and eat and drink water to survive. We work to provide for the food we eat and the places we sleep etc... We each need different amounts of sleep and different people take longer to eat than others. Introverts need time alone to recharge. Many other things pull at our allotted time.

The gift of our presence to others is so precious because we are giving them our time. I have been thinking about the quality of that time. Is it exhausted, depleted time i give to the ones I love? That does not seem right to me. I want to give the best of myself to those I love.  ... this is becoming longer than I intended... read on at www.melissawright.org"

So here we are.

I remember a former roommate who would give her best self to the customers she served during the day at work. Upon returning to our home, she was the depleted and most unkind version of herself. We are dear friends and we worked through that years ago... but it has left me thinking of what I offer to those I love the most.

It does not seem loving or kind for me to give my best to everyone else in the day and then the left overs to my roommate, my boyfriend, my mom, etc...

What do you think? I know I am not alone in this challenge. How do you give quality time, patience and kindness to those you love? ...especially when you have had a long day at work?