Uphill idealist

Picture by jmhook @ igougo Matthew 6:20-22 (New International Version) 20But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. 22"The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. On New Year’s Day I had some time to take a long walk outside in the snow and wind. The sun was out so I took it as an incentive to get outdoors. As I bundled up to head outside, my great nephew Eli came up to me and said, “I want to go walk with u Auntie Tara.” I was somewhat surprised by his desire to go out in the cold, but I got his snow pants and gear and bundled him up to prepare for the winter chill. He commented on how he walked funny in his snow pants, he pointed out all the Christmas decorations on the houses we passed, he said “Appy New Ear ady” to a woman shoveling her walk and when we returned to Grandma’s ya...

On Sunday January 11th, I will be formally installed as the youth minister at First Lutheran Church in Jamestown NY. There will be as casual reception in the parlors following the worship service. The installment will mostly be a series of questions asked before the church as a whole. Thankfully, I already know my answer - "With God's help, I will....". It would be wonderful for friends and family to attend this event. If you would like to come, please visit the link at Facebook for the event and sign in. If you are not on Facebook, you can check the info below and leave your note here in the comments. It's peculiar how something like this makes a person consider the road it took to arrive at one place or another and all I can say is, it would not have been possible without the faith, love and support of my family, friends, students and mentors and God who gave of themselves and gave me the opportunity of serving in ministry. Thank you for your support and may this c...

The word “Beloved” was one that I kept bumping into in books, music and other sources. The most impacting source for the word came after waking from a nightmare and looking to my Bible for some comfort. In Deuteronomy 33:11, I found this verse: “Let the beloved of the Lord rest secure in him, for he shields him (her) all day long, and the one the Lord loves rests between his shoulders.” A few days after this experience, I had the word tattooed on the inside of my wrist as a reminder that I’m loved and cared for. On doing some further research on the word, “Beloved’, I found that at one point it also meant to be able to “see love” as well as be a recipient of it. Seeing love, receiving love and giving love are so important to all of us, I thought what better a reminder to myself and those around me. For all the change in life it is important to remember that you are beloved! May this new year be filled with many opportunities to see, receive and give love. For more info on the shop wher...

Click here to join in on NaBloPoMo I'm so happy to say that I managed to blog every day for the month of December 2008 thanks to the help of some great fellow bloggers, meme's, and a personal desire to write more regularly. If you have some thoughts, suggestions, or ideas concerning my blog please feel free to comment. I hope you enjoyed reading it this month as much as I enjoyed writing. As for blogging all of January... I still thinking on that one. Happy New Year! Tara Lamont

Snowflake images from LUHY . This image is a close up of actual snowflakes - how beautiful! This morning I awoke to a new blanket of snow covering the green and mud that was there just a day ago. Let the cold white cover the things that need to rest, and help me to focus on what I need now, is best. Newness and white show the place where I stand, saying goodbye to the past and hello to a new year at hand. My blankets of warmth will carry me through, to a morning of spring flowers covered in frosty dew. Opportunity, possibility and a fresh start, begin at midnight in my life and my heart. New adventures await at twelve bells tonight - wish I may and wish I might. A blanket of snow covers the ground, what a lovely way renewal falls - like silent snowflakes all around. T.L. Eastman 2008 Click here to join in on NaBloPoMo 31 thankful posts down, 0 to go!

My friend Amanda made a great review of 2008 in her blog, "Life in a suitcase" and so decided to follow suit with an adapted review of my own. Here goes 2008... 1. What did you do in 2008 that you'd never done before? I finished my BA degree. I was laid off for a few months. I wrote, recorded and printed my first album. I had an article published online and a poem printed in a book. I ran a 5k and went to California for the first time this year too. One full year with book club and the friends that attend it - thanks for the time and thoughts you share on Tuesdays! 2. Did you keep your new year's resolutions and will you make more for next year? I resolved to make some improvement on my health and followed through. That is a road I continuing to go further on. 3. Did anyone close to you give birth? My friend Brian's wife had a baby girl a few months ago and I had the pleasure to meet the baby this last week. How do kids grow so fast? 4. Did anyone close to you d...

Image found at Max Ackerman Discomfort is the way the things I avoid, push past the boundaries I try to restore. Comfort is dinners with friends through all time with platters of cookies and a glass of good wine. Discomfort is wanting for what I don't have and comfort is knowing what I have is already grand. Discomfort pushes me to grow like a mile uphill, comfort is the running shoe that holds my arch still. Discomfort and comfort, I need them both. One to console and one to press on. While discomfort is a challenge, comfort gives me hope. Click here to join in on NaBloPoMo 29 thankful posts down, 2 to go!

Image found @ Rantings of a Creole Princess I've completed to excellent and very different books in the last week. One is 'Speaking of Faith' by Krista Tippett and the other (which I started and finished on Sunday) is 'I'm proud of you' by Tim Madigan. I first came across the word: ubuntu in Tippet's book where she explains it from South African friends perspective as suggesting " HUMANITY : Ubuntu says - I am through you and you are through me. To the extent that I'm estranged from another person, I am less than human." ( Tippet pg 182). In Madigan's book, he defines Ubuntu as: "I am because we are... my identity is such that it includes you. I would be a very different person without you." (Madigan, pg 7) There is the idea of "No man or woman is an island.", in the philosophy of ubuntu - but there is more going on with the word than saying we are not solitary. Ubuntu reflects the balance of relationships within...