Uphill idealist

Ash Wednesday is a holy day that brings reflection and contemplation to the center of life. Perhaps for me it's a day to reflect on spiritual matters that I am too busy to notice. Or maybe it is the meeting of slowing down and preparation with the Lenten season being married to the coldest and bleakest times of year in my region (WNY). Either way I love this slow and sad day. It's a sadness that marks the shadows and valleys of life and instead of diminishing or avoiding them - embraces death wholly and if even so bold to mark its presence with a mark on our foreheads. Ash Wednesday and Lent is a time to be honest about our vulnerability and limits. This marking of who we actually are is important, and good, and sad - and probably why I love this melancholy day. As Lent has begun for 2015 I think it will be a time of relenting for me. Relenting seeking something-anything more. Relenting from being better, seeking perfection and longing for someone to see something special in me...

I'm not good at silence. In fact, I'm so much of a talker that when I have to focus, I sometimes have to remove myself from people in order to meet a deadline. It's not that I can't focus, but it's that I really like people (most days) that much!  I am one of those people that used to get comments on their report cards like... Is a good student that needs to apply herself.... Needs to spend less time talking with her neighbor... and so on. My Dad gave me the nickname 'Tigger' as a kid too. Not only was I a talker, but a bouncer as well. Tigger image found at Pankblog I think you get my point. I'm not that good at silence or sitting still. While I like to think I listen to people fairly well, my prayerful listening could really use some work. While I'm fascinated by "centering, contemplative, and reflective forms of prayer", I'm usually to restless a person to manage silent prayer for more than a few minutes. Howe...

The challenge for week 1 of Lent with World Vision was to, "Sacrifice what surrounds you." I decided to tidy up a corner of my office and set up a prayer and reflection station for myself and others to use. I know that my office may not be located on Main Street, but I hope this space will be a place where folks will feel welcome to pause-pray-and draw closer to God. If you are on Facebook and would like to follow along with the online group, join us here: ACT's Lenten Group. Peace, T

The first week of Lent is in full swing. Soda, chocolate and sweets are beginning to pile up!Lent and it's practices are something relatively new to me, as I did not grow up in a Liturgical minded church. When my classmates were excused to attend worship on Ash Wednesday - I recall thinking, "I love God, why can't I have a smudge on my forehead too!" In my search for practical applications and participation in this season, I came across a great article by Nadia Weber-Boltz . This article give a tour of acts of sacrifice and prayer practices for the Lenten season, but it's very much geared for adults. To visit Nadia's website click here: Nadia Bolz-Weber. (Thanks Nadia for helping to get the idea for this blog going!) What I was looking for were Lenten ideas that would work for families with children. It is my goal to find and list prayer practices for Lent that parents at my church would be able to do at home with their children! So, after reading Nadia's...

Week One Challenge: Sacrifice What Surrounds You from World Vision ACT:S on Vimeo .

Earlier this week, I told you about my "sacrificial" efforts with giving away and selling off some old books,working to establish an online group to discuss and work through "sacrifice" for the Lenten season, and my frustration because of not knowing what specific thing to sacrifice for this season of reflection. I was overwhelmed with possibilities, and decided to draw that feeling out in a sketch yesterday. As I began to process the feelings and words that spilled out on the page, I realized that it might be good to have a way to work through some of those ideas and feelings. So, I took out my markers - got out an old notebook - redesigned and added some color to yesterdays sketch - and made a space for me to express these things. I made a re-cycled journal to re-purpose some of my time during the Lent season. Time is often the thing I'm least likely to use to refill my own well, and that needs to change. It's not that I'm giving up a tangible thing fo...

A few days ago I came across a great resource to help frame Lent in an interactive and interesting way. World Vision is hosting a website throughout Lent to bring people together around the challenge and action associated with "Sacrifice". I'm in the process of encourage a local group of folks to also participate in the weekly question, take the weekly challenge and see where the adventure takes them (us)! Today's challenge was to post something about what sacrifice means or what kind of sacrifice you would like to make for Lent. I've been hard pressed to find something to choose for feeling there are too many options. So I decided to start there. This sketch is an attempt to let go and open up my hands in order to receive something new from God in the new 40 days of Lent. I'm still working on my short "practical" answer to what I'm giving up for Lent, but I feel a little lighter for throwing all those possibilities out of my hands - to pray for...

Image found at Flicker via sharing rights / By photographer: austinvan "So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you." Romans 12:1-2 A little while ago, I started sorting through a bookshelf in my living room. The truth is, I love books and the process of sorting through them is a difficult - but necessary task. The shelf had become so heavily loaded with books, that I could no...

Image from www.honeymooners.ie When you think of paradise, what picture comes to mind? For me, paradise can place a picture in my mind of palm trees swaying in balmy sea-side breezes while the bright yellow sun beams across a white sandy beach. On a cold February day, I really can’t think of a better way of spending some time than on a get away to paradise. Is anyone else ready for a little vacation from the cold and the snow? Each person’s picture of paradise could be any number of things. However, the idea of paradise usually holds some universal elements for people: it is a place of beauty, it is a place where the cares of life don’t have a passport, and it is a place that seems to be very far away in time or in miles. While some people may have the resources and time to hop a jet plane to their own personal paradise, for the vast population of humanity, such things are the stuff of fairy tales. Paradise, speaking purely in earthy terms is a place very few have the chance to travel...

(Image found at Delicious Earth .) Spring provides an opportunity for us to make a transition to spending more time outdoors, being more active, and spending less time in our winter state of hibernation. We are in a time of change, growth and shift in these early cool days of spring - but I think we are at a place of being ready for some waking up. The crocuses are peeking out of the ground by the walkway by my house, a robin or two have been spotted, and the last "official" day of winter is now behind us. I think it might be safe to say that Spring has arrived! (Just don't get to hasty on the shorts and tank tops yet!) In the church calender we have approximately four more weeks of Lent, before the time of great rejoicing and joy: Easter. This point in the Lenten season, it can become more challenging to stay focused on Ash Wednesday pledges and commitments, so I was considering shifting my perspective within lent to a more spring-like point of view. I've been thinki...