Empty with Possibilities

Five minute Friday, a word given by www.thegypsymama.com. We write for five minutes, simply, no editing, quickly, without over-thinking. Link up to the others, then compare and enjoy the other interpretations. Join us.

1. Write for 5 minutes flat – no editing, no over thinking, no backtracking
2. Link back here and invite others to join in.

Empty

A negative word, or is it? Empty isn't necessarily a bad thing. Empty leaves lots of room for possibilities. For potential. For room to grow. An empty nest is space waiting to be filled. An empty time slot is time to enjoy, to relax, to rest. An empty shelf, the stuff cleared off and removed, is space to breathe and see, and maybe fill with something new.

Empty makes me think of the chance to explore new ideas rather than all my preconceived notions that I am so sure of. The chance to re-think, to look at something with new eyes and see the potential.

Empty is the pot, ready to be planted, willing to allow for growth and fruit and productivity. The seeds need space to sprout and stretch out their tiny shoots that will plow through the dirt and reach for the sun, opening up to two tiny new leaves, an elongated stem, more leaves, then blossoms and fruit.

No longer empty, but beautiful and productive.

Time's up.

This week has felt a little out of kilter. Some weeks [days, months, years] are like that.

Perhaps it's the adjustment with a blind dog around the house. She is learning to navigate, making her way around with less confusion. Her diagnosis is diabetes. Another trip to the vet to learn to give the insulin shots, twice a day. It will be her boy's job, giving her the special care she needs. We are walking her every day, taking the familiar route, going farther each day. She enjoys getting out, learning new commands like "step," for curbs, "left" and "right,"  and listening for her boy's voice, feeling his nearness, using his eyes. He is enjoying the challenge, learning together with her.

He pulled out two of our favorite old dog books to read. Follow My Leader, by James Garfield, is about a young boy,  blinded in a firecracker accident. His trauma and adjustments are helped by a seeing eye dog, with the training involved for both of them. Another book our kids have read many times, is Inky, by Elizabeth Heppner. As a 4-H project, the boy raises a seeing eye puppy, adding lots of fun and action to their farm life, and the turn of events in his life.


I have been reading, browsing mostly, through three books I picked up at the library.
Real Simple, The Organized Home
Better Homes and Gardens Storage with Style
Restore, Recycle, Repurpose. (Create a Beautiful Home) by Randy Florke (A Country Living Book)

Lots of good, simple, "why didn't I think of that?" ideas.

An old, drawerless, useless dresser hung on a wall as a china hutch. Brilliant. (BHG Storage with Style)

Both of these home offices (BHG Storage with Style) are compact, efficient spaces. The top one shares a laundry room in a 6 x 9 foot space. Below, is in a 6 x 8 foot corner of a room. Love this inspiration. In this house, here,  I have the luxury of desk space in an open loft. When we move to a smaller house, these ideas will be useful and practical.

This is a little blurry, but can you see the plastic picture hanger on the wall and on the back of that frame? It looks like the frame would drop onto the piece on the wall. Any idea what this is? Have you seen it before? I can't find anything like it, or find a description of it.  (from Real Simple, The Organized Home)

Each week, I tackle an organization project. I start with the theme, "Get Rid of Half." I pull out the pile, empty the shelf, dump out the box, whatever it is. First, I separate it by half. Half of it goes. Not always easy to do. Then, I can take what is left and easily sort it where it belongs. The empty space, the order, the freedom of having less stuff is good. Traveling lighter.

Look Ahead

(This is a re-post from January 31, 2011, one of my frequently Googled posts. Since I have this book on my March list, it seemed appropriate to put it up again.)


Recently, while out driving, one of the kids pointed out a car that had a huge rear view mirror, probably 12 inches by 4 or 5 inches.  We'd never seen one so big.  Maybe she needed it to see the kids in the back seat, but it got us thinking about the difference between traveling through life with the rear view mirror in focus, or  focused forward through the windshield.  Seems much better to go through life looking ahead rather than behind.

One of the books I'm reading, The Slight Edge, by Jeff Olson, says, 

 "[successful people are] too busy moving toward the future to be staring into the rear view mirror....Review the past, but only for the purpose of making a better plan. Review it, understand and take responsibility for the errors you've made, and use it as a tool to do differently in the future."  

It was pretty cool to read that right after we saw such a good object lesson.

Are you living life through the rear view mirror, living by regrets or should have dones or could have beens?  Or, are you looking ahead, taking steps and pacing yourself to achieve your goals?

So, as we pull up to an intersection or a crossroads, we glance in the rear view mirror for safety, we check cross-traffic for those moving in other directions around us, then...

Green light, clear road ahead!

The Solid Rock

"When He shall come with trumpet sound,
Oh, may I then in Him be found!
Dressed in His righteousness alone,
Faultless to stand before the throne!

On Christ, the solid Rock I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand,
All other ground is sinking sand."

Edward Mote,
William B.Bradbury

joining with www.jumptandem.net for a quiet Sunday

On Vision

Last weekend she jumped rocks, maneuvered the trails and played in the lake beside her boy.

On Wednesday night, we laughed at her as she stood at the sliding glass door, which was open, thinking it was closed. She has a reputation for being a "blonde."

On Thursday, she ran into some walls, a chair, and we started to think something was wrong, she was being unusually clumsy.

On Friday, we watched as her sight rapidly deteriorated, becoming worse as the day went on, until she seemed completely blind by the evening, her eyes dark, unseeing.

A Saturday trip to the vet, referral to an opthamologist specialist, tests taken, awaiting results.

What would it be like, to have sight taken away so suddenly? Not watching the light change, shadows move, sunlight filtering through the windows, bright and dark, gone. Not having perspective, like wandering in a dark room at night, except even then, there is some light mixed in with the shadows. For her, just dark.

She has been confused, disoriented, lost. We make sure furniture is in its place, shoes aren't left in the middle of the floor, the path across the patio to the yard is clear. She steps gingerly, feeling her way, stiff legged. The stairs are scary, but she seems to have learned to count them, one, two, three, floor. She stays close to her boy, relying on him for reassurance, the sound of his voice, his touch. Outside, she moves freely in the yard, comfortable with the grass, knowing her boundaries by the edges of the grass. On the patio, she gets confused by the chairs and tables, the leaves of plants. Today was warm and we could leave the door open all day to make it easier for her, during this crazy adjustment time. Actually, she is learning quickly, seems to be handling it well.

At this point, we don't know, but from what we researched, it looks permanent. She is eight, not terribly old, still with good years ahead of her.

I remember a pastor, who asked for about a dozen volunteers. He had each person look up a hymn in the hymnal (he gave the numbers) and had them look for a reference to sight, or vision, or seeing. Each person read their lines aloud. Then, he shared that all the hymns were written by Fanny Crosby, a woman blind from childhood. A woman who wrote hundreds of hymns in her lifetime, her spiritual vision undimmed, her sights set on heaven.

We take so much for granted. Tonight, as the sun was setting behind the hill, I watched the light move across the patio, changing as it shined through the windows, illuminating the leaves and blossoms, reflecting off the walls. To not be able to see that, ever again? Hard to comprehend.

For her, though, her comfort is in her boy, her people, the home that is familiar and safe. We will have to take extra steps to protect her, but there is still plenty for her to do, plenty for her to enjoy of life. Her boy found a website, games to play with blind dogs. Lots of possibilities, new things to learn and understand. For all of us, a new appreciation of vision, of love and care for others.

Spectacularity

Five minute Fridays. A topic is given by www.thegypsymama.com, and we write for five minutes only, no editing, no over thinking, just writing as the thoughts flow. Then, we link up and compare. I wrote on yesterday's post about how different writers can come up with completely different results with the same topic.This is a perfect example of that happening. It is fun to read the other five minute posts and see how vastly different and creative we all are. The same with life. It seems two people can go through the same circumstances - one is bitter and the other grows stronger. It's all in how we see it. These five minute Fridays are fun, and a good reminder to take what we are given and run with it!


Ache

The first thought, of course, is pain. A toothache. A sore muscle.

Or, emotional pain. Loneliness. Disappointment. Discouragement.

But, I think, too, there is an ache as we see something beautiful. The sunset stops us in our tracks and we look, in awe, pausing in our busy steps to gaze at the sky. Spectacularity. Something hilarious becomes hilarity, right? So, something spectacular can have spectacularity. The water, cascading down the cliff in a thundering waterfall. The tree, the trunk so big you can't begin to reach around it, as you tilt back your head and look way, way up toward the tip, high above you. The stars, on a crystal clear, crisp cold night, alive and bright in the sky. The ocean waves crashing against the rocks, the spray arching into the sky. The bird, soaring, drifting. floating high above the earth.

All of these create in me a deep ache, a quiet of beauty.

Ooops, time's up.

What's On Your Plate?

You probably think this is about food. Nope. It's about words.
Here is a list of common words:

a  am  and  anywhere  are  be  boat  box  car  could  dark  do  eat  eggs  fox  goat  good  green  ham  house  I  if  in  let  like  may  me  mouse  not  on  or  rain  Sam  say  see  so  thank  that  the  them  they  train  tree  try  will  with  would  you

If you were an author, what would you write with these words?  If this was on your dish, what would you do with it?

Dr. Seuss wrote Green Eggs and Ham with this combination.


Louis L'Amour wrote that one of his  editors gave the exact same plot to six different authors, and they came up with six vastly different stories: romance, humor, horror, and adventure.

"The raw material is not important. It is what the writer does with the material. One writer will make you laugh, another can make you cry, and a third might write a horror story."

                                                                                  -Louis L'Amour
                                                                              A Memoir, Education of a Wandering Man


When we are sympathetic of a load someone is carrying, of the variety of struggles and challenges they face, we say, "He has a lot on his plate."

Life can dish up some pretty hefty stuff sometimes. Challenges we face that terrify us, discourage us, overwhelm us and weigh us down. How we handle those challenges makes all the difference. Each of us brings with us a load of baggage and even some good qualities. The variety of style, thought, and what we do with the ingredients we are given are what will create the story we are writing with our lives. What we choose to do with what is on our plate will tell our story.

So, what's on your plate?