On Sunday, I posted John 14:27, "Peace." Because I needed to hear, absorb, focus on, and drink in that gift of calm and courage and trust.

We are moving to Colorado in ten days. Add to those days two birthdays, Father's Day, a high school graduation, a niece's wedding shower and out of town family gatherings. And packing the house. I wanted to keep up with the blogging. Sanity and time present with family take precedence.

I'll be back, not sure how long it will take, but I will return.

Enjoy your first days of summer! Look forward to seeing you on the other side...

Peace

"Peace I leave with you;
My peace I give to you;
not as the world gives,
do I give to you.
Let not your heart be troubled,
nor let it be fearful."

John 14:27

joining with www.deidrariggs.com for a quiet Sunday moment of peace

The Same Difference

Do you remember a time when you realized you were uniquely different than anyone else? A time when you knew that no matter what, no matter how close you were to someone, there would be a distance between you?

I remember a conversation with a friend. "I see red as red. What if you see red as yellow? We have no way to know if we are really seeing the same color. We each would have learned the name of the color we see as, 'red,' but how do we know they are the same?"

Another time, I watched my brother walk out of the room. I knew, clearly, at that point, that we would always see things differently, through our own eyes, our own perspectives. They could never be exactly the same, because we saw through different eyes.

Do you remember a time like that?

This story, one of my short shorts at 497 words, is about Mattie's experience with realizing her unique difference.

Click here to jump to the short story, "The Same Difference."

Important Moments

"No moment is without meaning."

This quote, shared by the minister leading up to the exchange of rings at the wedding ceremony, stuck with me. It has applications that filter through my day. Moments I take for granted, like washing the dishes or folding the laundry, have value. Their significance needs to be discovered, searched for. As I take a deeper look at the value of daily tasks, or the value of the relationships around me, the moments of my day, all day long, are not without meaning.

Take away the double negative.

"Every moment has meaning." 

At the wedding ceremony, overlooking the lake, the rocks around us, the sun soaking in to our skin, the peace and the quiet of the moment reflected the beauty of the event.

Each item on the table settings at the reception had significance. The books, the rocks, the flowers, grasses and pine cones collected locally, the game activities - all expressed a part of the couple's life together. More than just decoration, their value made a statement, "This is important."

My daily, mundane moments have significance, meaning. As I care for my family and build these relationships, I say, "You are important."

The significance of each moment is too easy to take for granted. When I am critical or complaining or ungrateful, I don't want to face the negative meaning I put on those moments. I need to look deeper and find positive meaning, value and significance by a switch of perspective. Take away the negative, turn it into a positive, and say, "You are important."

Understanding the meaning of ordinary moments, to give them value, is to say, "This is important." This moment, appreciate its significance, and dance with it.

Really See

Friday Five Minutes, by www.thegypsymama.com. Today's topic is SEE. Write, five minutes, loose and billowy and blowing in the wind. SEE where it goes.

SEE

I love to hear Ann Voskamp's voice in her video promoting the book, One Thousand Gifts. I go back and listen to it once in awhile just to hear her, to be reminded to see, really see. "To be able to be aware, awake to all that life has to offer." To see, really see, and not miss out...

It is one thing to look at something, the view across the valley, the petals on the flower, the hot pink of the wave petunias, the sunlight shining through the tomato, the hummingbird glistening in the sunshine. But to see, really see. Deeply see. That is an art.

An artist must see all the shadows, shades, color variations, blendings of shape and form and light. A writer must find the word that draws the picture with letters and sounds, giving life to a character, a scene. Both the artist and the writer take a 3-D scene or situation, turn it into a flat composition, which then recreates the 3-D scene in the viewers mind. Enables them to see, really see what they saw in their mind.

Fascinating. The art of conveying art from one mind to another, from one eye to another. It happens when one person sees - really sees. They take that vision, that eye for detail, and carry  it, transmit it to someone else. A deep form of communication. Beautiful when it happens.

This weekend, I hope you can see, really see.

Breathing

Last night we dropped our son off at his event, then drove fifteen minutes to the beach. We walked out to the edge of the ocean and sat on the sand. Others walked or jogged by, their long shadows across the sand, but it was our evening to sit. To sit and watch the waves, a couple of surfers, the couple with their little dog who wore a bib, "Adopt me," the sun drop lower in the sky.



I listened, attempting to put the sound of the waves into letters. It was as if the ocean was breathing. The waves broke on the sand with an exhale, "Wwhhrshsh."

The waves, pulled back out to sea with an inhale, a whistle, like someone softly snoring, "Sssfftt."

Rhythm. Consistent breathing, in, out, in, out. Motion, a reliable pattern. A painting or a photo of the ocean is only one tiny time slot, a small still life of the perpetual energy, always changing, alive. I could sit for hours, listening to the slow breath of the ocean against the shore, the rhythm as it exhales, then inhales.

The real purpose of going to the beach was to pick up a jar of sand. (Well, my purpose is always to watch the waves, to listen, to enjoy the feel of the wind and smell the salt in the air.) Our son is getting married this weekend in Arizona. We will drive there, taking sand from the Pacific Ocean. His fiancee's mom flew in from Houston,Texas, where she grew up, with a jar of sand from the Gulf. As part of the ceremony, they will combine the sands, west coast and southeast, symbolizing the joining of their past and combined lives. A symbol of the rhythm of life, the breath of their new married life, together.

Steeped in Prayer

"Great God,
In public and in private,
In sanctuary and in home,
May my life be steeped in prayer,
Filled with the spirit of grace and supplication,
Each prayer perfumed with the incense of   atoning blood.
Help me, defend me,
Until from praying ground
I pass to the realm of unceasing praise."

                                                             -Valley of Vision

joining with others at www.deidrariggs.com for quiet Sunday worship