Uphill idealist

I've been on a reading binge the last two weeks for books written by Anne Lamott. Bird by bird has a permanent home on my bedside table. Once a friend of mine who sells used books, and I told to hold all the Anne Lamott titles for me asked, "...Is it because you have the same almost the same name that you like her books so much?" My middle name is Lamont - hers is Lamott, close but not quite. I'd misplaced my copy of Traveling Mercies about a year ago, and found a hardcover copy in another used book story this weekend for only $3.00. I knew I'd be ready for another one of Anne's books as I was in the final chapters of Blue Shoe on Friday. I started Traveling Mercies on Monday and I'm already halfway done reading it. Anne Lamont's books, both the fiction and non-fiction have a way of getting under your skin. I find myself thinking about the characters in her fiction, wondering how they are and then remember they are fictional. Then again, when I read he...

After a sun-filled, activity filled holiday weekend I came home and plopped myself down on the sofa in our living room. Within a few minutes I was out cold and snoring away. It's not very often that I find myself waking up on the sofa, to find it to be the morning after. Usually I can get comfy for a cat nap, but this time around I was totally surprised to find myself still wrapped up in a blanket hearing the morning birds chirping away. Uncharacteristically dozing off on the sofa reminded me of the beginnings of the idea of "sleeping with bread". Bread was given to displaced children during WW2 to help them to sleep knowing, "Today I have bread, and I will have bread tomorrow." Last night I think I better understood the contentment of these war ravaged children, as all weekend long I made great attempts to live in the now - not looking back to the past or forward to the future, but living and soaking up all the present offered me. I'm working on being inten...

When I was a young girl, I recall collecting stamps for camp each Sunday I was in Sunday School. At the beginning of summer break it was each child's goal to fill up the coupon book to earn a discount for summer camp. Ahh... summer camp. For me this was my only understanding of a summer holiday in the classic sense of things. We were not poor, by any means, but we were not the type of family that went to Florida on spring break either. Summer camp represented many things for me: adventure, independence, new friends, a culturally diverse community, art projects at the craft shack, singing by the campfire and swimming. Oh how I loved swimming! Then beyond all the bug juice and taco lunches was the time and space to unplug from life at home (once the homesickness wore off) and really listen to God speaking into my life. There are moments from camp that still seem tangible to me. One summer, the theme was, "I wanna be a hero." - spinning off of the Steve Taylor song by the sa...

"Wanting to be someone else is a waste of the person you are." Kurt Cobain On talking with at youth group tonight, we discussed ways in which God has helped people grow. One person commented on how they were able to better be themselves in relationship to growing closer to God. I think when we truly begin to understand God's love for us, we realize the person we are is something very unique and worthy of being. Popeye spoke the truth and Kurt didn't do so bad either. Don't waste who you are, you were designed to be good to the last drop.