Okay, I am aware that it is Saturday, but I couldn't seem to find 5 minutes to think quietly yesterday, let alone write, so I'm fudging a bit and doing a 5 minute Saturday.

1. Write for 5 minutes flat – no editing, no over thinking, no backtracking.
2. Link back to 5 minute Friday and invite others to join in.
3. Most important: visit, comment, encourage the person before you.

Open…

Open mind, open home, open heart, perhaps this is the Lord's message for me as 2012 dawns in just a few hours.  I am not a resolution maker because I know I'm in need of improvement all year long.  But I do like the idea of a fresh start, a new beginning, a new work in my life.  

Maybe being open, honest, giving, transparent, real, hospitable, forgiving, understanding are all areas that need to open up in my life.  It is easy to become like a little walled-in fortress protecting ourselves from the slings and arrows life and other people throw at us.  I don't like to be vulnerable, out of control.

But if I really want to open up my life and heart to others I need to be willing to be hurt and rejected too.  I need to be open to God's plans and be willing to take risks even at the risk of falling flat on my face and failing.

So maybe I do have a resolution for 2012; I will try to be open.

My Holiday Reading

I'll Be Home for Christmas: The Library of Congress Revisits the Spirit of Christmas During World War II by Michael Shohl




I'll Be Home chronicles through journal entries, letters, interviews and many photos what life was like for Americans both at home and overseas during the Christmas seasons of the World War II years.

The book is touching and inspiring without being overly sentimental.  I've really been enjoying this book and wishing that this same type of closeness and attitude of banding together for a common cause still existed in the U.S. 


View all my reviews

The Reason for Christmas

 But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.  Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord."

Luke 2:10-11

Christmas Countdown Update

 Here's where we stand as of 11:36 p.m., December 23:

I finally arm-wrestled my sons into putting up the tree. No ornaments yet.  
A few more items for the stockings still need to be purchased.
No cookies baked.
No cards written out, addressed or mailed (but I did buy them).
Nothing wrapped.
House status: not clean.
Still need to buy some food items for the Christmas buffet.
Two knitted gifts still in process (not looking good for Christmas completion).

Amended List

• Forget about those blasted cards,.  I'm now considering them to be New Years cards so they can go out next week.
• Some things are wrapped.
• House status:  tomorrow is cleaning day.
• One knitted gift may, just may, be finished tomorrow.  The other?  I'm now considering it to be a New Years gift.

And then, we will look like this for Christmas:

Well maybe not,  but we're hoping to have a lovely day anyway.

Not Ready Yet

Here's the List:

I finally arm-wrestled my sons into putting up the tree. No ornaments yet.
A few more items for the stockings still need to be purchased.
No cookies baked.
No cards written out, addressed or mailed (but I did buy them).
Nothing wrapped.
House status: not clean.
Still need to buy some food items for the Christmas buffet.
Two knitted gifts still in process (not looking good for Christmas completion).

Despite all that, I'm still excited about Christmas and can't wait for Sunday.

Connected

Connectedness is so tied in to the idea of Community that I wrote about earlier this week.  We desire to be connected to the people and world around us and thereby we create communities.

John Donne said, "No man is an island."  We desire to be a part of something and a part of someone.  We are not effective human beings if we are little islands, no matter how tropically beautiful we might be.



God created us to be connected to each other and more importantly to Him.  He created Eve for Adam because he saw Adam's need for companionship.  God created us for Him, because despite how grubby and messed up we are, He desires to spend time with us, to be connected. 

Amazing that the creator of the universe would want to be connected to so many disfunctional sinners.  But He does.  Deep down in our souls we have an aching desire to be connected to Him too.  We just keep losing the way.






Join In!

Community

Last summer I was waiting in the car to drive my husband home after he left our other car at the repair shop.  I happened to be parked outside a tobacco store, the kind of little specialty shop that sells cigars and pipe tobacco.  

As I idly watched men go in and out of the shop, different ages, different races, greeting each other with back slaps and handshakes, I was struck with how these men, sharing a common interest, had formed their own community.

Since that day, months ago, I have been obsessed with the idea of community.  I realized how much we all seek community.  We seek to belong somewhere.

I started musing about different types of communities.  Gang members form their own communities.  Not based on values or standards that most of us agree with, but they are looking for a place where they can be accepted.

Churches, civic groups, interest groups like hiking clubs and knitting groups, motor cycle clubs, sports teams, volunteer organizations and families, are all different types of communities.

There is even the 21st century world of online communities.  Groups of people who will  probably never be in the same room at the same time, but join together from around the globe to discuss the thing that draws them to each other.


Why is community so important to us?  Belonging.  It is essential to our souls to belong.  We crave love and acceptance.  We want to be wanted.


I keep coming across the concept of community.  Almost every day I hear or read about someone else talking about community.  Somehow I know I'm not finished contemplating community, what it means to me and what it means to others.  
As my last year homeschooling speeds toward its conclusion, there is a new transition in my life. I find myself looking for a new community.  For 17 years I've been deeply woven into the fabric of the homeschool community and I identity so closely with homeschoolers that I am feeling community-less.
What will be my new community or communities? 
I don't know where it will all lead but the Lord has planted the idea of community into my brain and it just doesn't want to leave.  So I know there's more for me to learn.

Color, What Does it Mean to You?

Here's something new to me that I've been meaning to try since I learned about it several weeks ago.  Five Minute Friday involves writing for five minutes, nonstop, just writing on what ever topic the gypsy mama chooses.  Here goes.....


Color
What would the world be like if all we saw were black, white and shades of gray?  Would we think in color or black and white? 

All I can imagine is that it would be like continually living in November on a cold, bleak, rainy day with bare trees.

Color adds so much richness to life.  It makes our food such a pleasure to eat.  It makes gardening the fulfilling and satisfying thing that it is.  It makes dressing so much fun.


How would we describe people?  "Oh, I was talking about the grayish colored person with the grayish color hair."
Color has the ability to control our moods.  Refer back to my November statement.


Well, that was it.  Lot's of thoughts still bubbling in my brain, but boy, those five minutes went fast.

I'm Back

Due to life's busyness I've been away from blogging for a while.  Lots of thoughts and life-stuff to share.  I hope to be back on board this weekend.