No, Thank you!!

Happy Saturday! I started writing this post yesterday morning, but had to rush off to my 8 a.m. theology class. It's still important to me to be conscious of my blessings, so here's my list for this week:

1. Fallish weather

It's not brutally hot any more, and I am thankful. Yesterday I sat on a patch of grass in the shade and journaled. Feeling the grass underneath me and the breeze, even though it was in the 90s, felt like fall had officially arrived.

2. Birds

I wear dorky birds in my hair when I work at school. It started out for me....How can I be stressed or grouchy if I have a bird on my head? But then I realized it made other people giggle, so I started doing it more. I had not, until this week, ever taken my birds to Brite Divinity School. It's hard to have a serious conversation with a woman with a bird clipped in her hair, so to be serious, I hadn't worn them. I wore a bird this week and no one on campus missed a beat. It was just like "Oh yeah, that's Sarah. She's a little bit goofy, but oh well." 

3. Homework time

Every day after we walk home from school, the kids and I sit down at the dining room table and all three focus on homework. They are old enough to do their homework mostly independently, so we all sit together and think, think, think. 

4. Free lunch

On Tuesday I went to lunch with the church staff. We went to a brand new restaurant in Weatherford and it was delicious. Then a couple from church came to eat lunch as well. They bought all of our lunches. Woohoo! There IS such a thing as a free lunch. I had one this week and I am grateful.

5. Mr. Fix It

We need a new mattress on our bed, but we just don't have time to go buy one right now. I was complaining about back pain the other day, so Adam engineered some sort of reinforcements for the bed frame. We still need a new mattress, but thanks to his engineering mind and some 2X4s, we aren't waking up with back pain any more and can survive until our calendar allows us to get a new mattress.

6. Venus Fly Trap

A few months ago on an impulse, I bought a tiny Venus fly trap. I water it every day, hopeful that one day it will replicate the Venus flytraps of cartoon reputation. Although it doesn't move independently like in cartoons, it caught two flying insects this week. It's been fascinating to watch. One of the bugs is still sticking out of the leaves. I'm curious if that part of the bug will just fall off or eventually get sucked in. Either way, watching a plant digest a bug is fascinating. The plant came with a note not to feed it actual meat. Good to know

7. My personal library and our Little Free Library

We are bookionaires. (It's like being a millionaires with books.) We have books in every corner of our house. I am fortunate that since I'm such a fast reader, I am able to keep up with my theological reading as well as reading books for fun. As soon as I'm done reading a book, I put it in our Little Free Library in our front yard. We've met many neighbors that way and love sharing our love of literacy.

8. A drive long enough for pod casts

Because it takes me about 35 minutes to get to my church work, I'm able to keep up with several pod casts and friends' sermons. It's like I attend news conferences and several churches all at one time in my car.

9. Space to breathe

Adam took the kids on a Boy Scout's fishing adventure this morning. I have been left at home unattended. So far I've done some laundry, some homework, and some work-work. I've also had some space to breathe and think and pray and I am grateful.

10. No complaints

I have absolutely nothing to complain about right now. Everything is right in my world and I am grateful.

Bird by Bird, a book review

I discovered Anne Lamott when I was in college, working at Half Price Books.  I read Operating Instructions at the recommendation of a friend.  I loved it so much I still give it as a gift to new mothers.  I also started buying everything that Anne Lamott was tangentially related to.

One book of hers that has been staring me in the face since 2001 is Bird by Bird.  It's about writing, and I have been gearing myself up to read it for 12 years.  (I know this because it still has the HPB sticker with the date on it.)  After hearing her in person say, "Put your butt in the chair and write because today is all you have," I did just that.  I also decided now was the time to read this book.

The cover says the book is about writing, and truly, that's half of it.  The other half is about life and being real and immersed in reality, and paying attention.

Here are some quotes that resonated with me from the book:

She quotes G.K. Chesterton: "Hope is the power of being cheerful in circumstances we know to be desperate."

"Clutter is wonderfully fertile ground -- You can still discover new treasures under all those piles, clean things up, edit things out, fix things, get a grip."

"Geneen Roth says awareness is learning to keep yourself company.  And then learn to be more compassionate company, as if you were somebody you are fond of and wish to encourage."

"Perfection is a mean, frozen form of idealism, while messes are the artist's true friend.  What people somehow (inadvertently, I'm sure) forgot to mention when we were children was that we need to make messes in order to find out who we are and why we are here--and by extension, what we're supposed to be writing."

"Think of reverence as awe, as presence in openness to the world."

"There is ecstasy in paying attention....to see the world sacramentally, to see everything as an outward and visible sign of inward, invisible grace."

My absolute favorite quote is this one:

"A big heart is both a clumsy and delicate thing; it doesn't protect itself and it doesn't  hide.  It stands out, like a baby's fontanel, where you can see the soul pulse through.  You can see this pulse in them now."