Spreading love, joy, peace, faith & unity

Archive for January, 2014

Create Nostalgia

In the January 27, 2014 Time Magazine article by Lily Rothman, the author quotes artist, Brendan O’Connell, “Nostalgia makes memory warm.” O’Connell stopped to say parenthetically, “That’s actually a significant thought,” and I paused. Hmm – memories, nostalgia, warmth. Yes, it’s true. Not all memories are warm, but all nostalgic memories are warm. Do you agree? When you think of warm memories, what comes to mind?

Childhood

Climbing
Hillsides
Into
Lands
Dense with
Hidden
Occupants
Ordering Hot
Dogs.

Hah! That’s my whimsical acrostic for today – looking back on yesterdays.

But, how about Making Memories Today?

Image

There’s no better place to make memories than where you are right now today! For me, whether it is in the warm desert on vacation in the southern California sun or back home in the cold snows of Montana, each day is a memory in the making. The climate doesn’t determine the warmth of the memories. The people I am with, the events we choose, the lessons I learn, the visions I absorb. Those are the nostalgia of tomorrow. I am making warm memories today – wherever I am!

A roadrunner just ran in front of me… oh my! Look up! Watch the world around you.

Live Love! Create Nostalgia today.

Category:

Love

The Power of God’s Love

The Power of God’s Love is beyond human comprehension. It is more amazing than the power of anything we know – even the power of mathematics (which, as demonstrated at this YouTube link, is beyond MY comprehension… http://www.youtube.com/embed/h60r2HPsiuM). Take a minute right now; copy and go to that link – and then come back, my friends.

Your hands are God’s heartststrings on earth. The love of God is demonstrated by YOUR love. I just finished a New York Times bestseller by Bob Goff titled “Love Does.” My granddaughter loaned it to me at Christmas time with the highest of compliments: “I know you’ll enjoy this book, Grammy. I want you to read it and be sure to return it to me when i see you in February. I have other friends I want to loan it to, also.” How wonderful that she knew this book would resonate with me. Chapter by chapter my husband and I enjoyed the book more than you can imagine. We vowed to read a chapter a day. There are 31 chapters. Some days we couldn’t put it down. In 20 days we were finished with the book and now we are going back to reread some sections and internalize the messages. You will want to do the same. Here are a few excerpts:

“…make a difference by getting to the ‘do’ part of faith…love is never stationary…love doesn’t just keep thinking about it…Simply put, love does.”

“The world can make you think that love can be picked up at a garage sale or enveloped in a Hallmark card. But the kind of love that God created and demonstrated is a costly one because it involves sacrifice and presence.”

“What I’ve noticed… is that almost every time I type in the word love, it gets changed to live. It’s a kind of reminder to me… Fully loving ad fully living are not only synonymous but the kind of life that Jesus invited us to be part of…”

So, I am off to be fully loving and fully living today. I will put God’s love into action today by sharing it with friends and looking for ways to live the way Bob Goff does. The subtitle on the cover of his book says, “Discover a Secretly Incredible Life in an Ordinary World.” I want to be secretly incredible today. Don’t you?

Love Does. I like that title. It’s my walking orders. The power of God’s love is in your hands and mine. Let’s go DO God’s love today. You with me?

Category:

Love

Tagged with:

Welcome

Welcome to the new year. Welcome to new friends. Welcome new ides. Welcome new insights –  revelations – growth – enlightenment. Life is good! I am having a wonderful time here in the fun of the sun in southern California. My pup loves it, too. So does my husband. Back home in Montana I am told they had one hundred mile per hour winds today. Yuck! Cold I can take. Snow I can appreciate. But raging winds? No thanks! I am happy to be here.

Thanks for coming to visit my blog today. I will try to find time each evening to share with you a few of the fresh insights that this new year has offered.

Image

Come walk and talk awhile. Let me share my first couple stanzas from last Sunday’s sermon notes – taken at Bloom in the Desert Ministries in Palm Springs. Rev Kev is quite the pastor. As I recorded his words through my poetic filter, I heard him say:

We welcome all who welcome all.
We open our hearts to you.
We see ourselves from the inside out.
We love as God loves you.

We gather in the presence of God.
We are His Light.
We hear the Word, receive Good News,
Imagine the fun of Snoopy’s flight…

And then he launched into a Snoopy, Linus, Red Baron story to illustrate other points he was teaching and preaching, but my mind took flight. Rev Kev read the scripture about Jesus’ baptism, the meaning and importance of baptism, and the way in which we mortals put our own spin on things. We over-think. We over-define. We see one another, too often, from the outside – make judgements, never give ourselves the chance to really see one another as God sees us. We limit ourselves and others in the process.

Once upon a time Bob and I left a church because the minister, Reverend Diane, decided to marry her female partner of a decade. How do you react to that? Hmmm…?

Come walk with me. Talk with me. Churches are splitting over this issue. Families are splitting over this issue. People are being threatened and killed over this issue. What would Jesus say?

Rev Kev introduced us to his husband. “We welcome all who welcome all.”

Bob and I talked as we walked in the desert. TazE, our sweet Boston Terrier, was a great listener.

Image

Welcome! Come walk and talk with us. See you tomorrow?

Category:

Love

Tagged with:

Tag Cloud

%d bloggers like this: