When I got up to go running, it was 23 degrees outside. YIKES. With my ski gloves on, I made it work and was a happy camper for our long run this morning. Hard to imagine that you all are still smokin' hot there...
Here are a few pictures I snapped as our group ran down to cheer Sally on and to see the chilly race this morning. It was fun to think about us last year running in the half together and having the running group down on Lake WA Blvd. cheering for us. :)
I had to take this picture for you of the sun shining down on the pot of gold here. :)
(Anna with my parents before we took them to the airport today)
As we've had some crazy extremes in temperature this week, it has been a reminder of the extremes you all are dealing with daily cross culturally. I am praying for God to give you grace to continue to adjust accordingly, to learn to be patient with one another when you are hungry, angry, lonely or tired (or all of the above!) (HALT!), to be as flexible as Gumby when needed and to keep on learning to love each other well...
Change of one sort or another is the essence of life, so there will always be the loneliness and insecurity that come with change. When we refuse to accept that loneliness and insecurity are part of life, when we refuse to accept that they are the price of change, we close the door on many possibilities for ourselves; our lives become lessened…. Life evolves; change is constant. -Jean Vanier
B & E- food for thought today for sure... This seems to fit into the conversations we have had about mindfulness and acceptance, and I am thankful for your help & support as I try to understand and practice some of these things... May the changes that you all face each day be ones that lead to possibilities you did not know were before you...
We sang this song this morning in church and my eyes welled up a few times in singing it. I remember this song being on a Veggie Tales Worship CD that we played for the kids when they were little so when they started singing this song, I thought I knew it pretty well. But until today, I don't think I had paid attention to the first two verses. When it's plentiful, blessed be His name. When there's darkness, blessed be His name. Amen.
I am choosing that today and am thankful that we can sing this with you across the ocean no matter what may come....
As I was driving the other day, I heard this song and prayed for God to lead you to streams of mercy when it feels like you are in a desert there... (and I thought this was so appropriate in light of the fact that you all have been out of water this week... So glad it's back now though!!!)
Waterfall, waterfall and on another note, Eva and Anna both got an email from Liam about Juke... Hope that it has been a fun addition to the Hutchinson family! :)
This reflection was written by my friend Susanne Hassell (my mentor in Knoxville who started the St. Brigit prayer group that we based our small group upon.)
In everyone's life, there is great need for an anam chara, a soul friend. In this love you are understood as you are without mask or pretension. The superficial and functional lies and half-truths of acquaintance fall away. You can be as you truly are.... Theanam chara is God's gift...
John 0'Donohue
Just as Jesus lived in community, we are created to need one another. Within His wider community, Jesus walked closely with twelve disciples and even more intimately with Peter, James, and John. He invited these three to share in His high moments, like the Transfiguration, and His lowest points, like Gethsemane. Everyone needs a few deep friends - those who know who we are, as well as what we do; who laugh and play and pray together; who intentionally offer support and encouragement, reminding us of our true belovedness before God. Such a healthy, interdependent friendship reflects the love of the Trinity.
Over the years I adopted so many masks and roles that I lost sight of who I really was. When I found the courage to speak my questions and doubts within a small group, I was not taken seriously ("You're too hard on yourself") or my feelings were dismissed with pithy phrases ("Don't feel like that. God knows what's best for you.") I longed for a few friends with whom I could re-discover my true self and learn to speak my truth.
Such relationships don't just happen; they require a prayerful desire, searching, and intentional sharing of hearts. The Gaelic name for this type of friendship is anam chara, meaning soul friend. The anam chara acts as mentor, companion, prayer partner, and spiritual guide. The emphasis is on spiritual companionship and direction instead of today's romantic notion of the "soul-mate." The relationship is much deeper and often lasts a lifetime.
Read how important having an anam chara was for Celtic Christians:
Go forth and eat nothing until you get a
soul-friend, for anyone without a soul-friend is; like
a body without a head; is like the water of a
polluted lake, neither good for drinking nor for washing.
That is the person without a soul-friend. St. Brigit of Kildare
Bill and Elizabeth, we miss you all so much and life is just not the same without you here. We give thanks that God has given us you all as treasured soul friends -- even across the ocean.
p.s. In looking for an image for this post for you, I stumbled across this lovely tattoo below.
Just so you know, I really like you all, but I'm not going this far...
"In the thirty-first
chapter of the rule, St. Benedict states something so remarkable that I keep
coming back to it each night as I stack bowls and dry plates. He says, “All the
utensils of the monastery and in fact everyting that belongs to the monastery
should be cared for as though they were the sacred vessels of the altar.”
All the utensils.
I take the spnge and rinse
the silver sink. Nothing in this skinny kitchen is all that special. And I’ve
been living as if my task as a mom, those daily, mundane tasks- the brushing of
my son’s teeth, the wiping of his bottom, the dressing of his body, the kissing
of the scraped knees, the soothing of his wild terros—as if they were nothing
significant, as if they were simply normal, what every mother does.
I’m mesmerized by St.
Benedict’s words, that the monks should care for every toodl in the monastery,
from garden hoe to the kitchen cleaver, as if they were the very chalice of the
Eucharist, the tool that brings the blood of Christ to the lips of
believers.
I am undone.
I’m not sure why I’ve been
waitin for this. I’m not sure why I needed someone to say it to me this way.
But with Benedict’s words, I feel my world has been reborn holy. Suddenly my
life, all these small daily instruments I am packing in my home, and the very
sippy cup I fill with milk and raise to my boy’s lips, is an instrument of
worship.
How did I miss it before?
How was I so sure that God did not value my umimpressinve daily life?
I see my refelction in the
dark night window. My short hair is bobby-pinned out of my face. My red
sweatshirt hangs loose from my chest. And in the refelction of the glass pane,
I see it.
I am a priest. I am a
priest of the gospel, holding the chalice to the lips of my son. Carrying the
plate of bread to the hungry. My life has value because God has touched every
mundane moment with the glow of holiness. It matters. It all matters."
–Micha
Boyett Found I shared this with Tamara yesterday when we went on a walk and thought of you all in this too... As you look around the house, go through Liam and Micah's school backpacks, help with homework, pack lunches, as you garden, as you go to the market, pound the pavement in Blantyre, as you ride in the back of a truck holding a baby, as you see the equipment at the hospital (or lack thereof)....may you know that it is all holy. These can all be instruments of worship. It matters. It all matters.
pointing to a map at Skip and Cyd's dining room table
Anna made this with the arrow on it. :)
(from dinner at Skip and Cyd's house on Monday night this week)
