Honey, Lambs, and Hodgepodge

Welcome to another addition of Wednesday Hodgepodge brought to you by From This Side of the Pond. A wildly eclectic assortment of questions are on tap today. If you're not a Hodgepodge participant, be sure to put some of your answers in the Comments section so I can have the fun of reading what you would answer!

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1. What's something you're never too young or too old to enjoy?
We're never to old to enjoy FUN.

2. Share one happy memory from your high school years.
Hmmm. Graduation? Actually, high school was okay, so how about playing the Role of Tiny Tim in our Drama Club's production of A Christmas Carol.

3. A nationwide strike of fast food employees took place in parts of the U.S. last week...they're calling for higher wages and the right to unionize? Your thoughts?
I think everyone has the right to try and unionize, as long as coercion isn't involved. I'm not sure about higher wages. That type of job isn't meant to be a long-term career, but a stepping stone.

4. September is National Honey Month...what's a favorite dish you make or eat that calls for honey?
I make our daily bread. It is whole wheat and I always bake it using honey.

5.  If you notice someone with a tag sticking out, a button unbuttoned, a shirt on inside-out, or some leftover lunch stuck between their teeth do you say something or do you keep quiet? 
If I know the person, I'll say something.

6. What movie always makes you cry?  Or at least makes you feel like crying?
Return to Me starring Minnie Driver always makes me cry. It is sweet, but not sappy, and revolves around family and community. Two of my favorite blog subjects. It features great music and a group of old guys who remind me of my uncles.

7.   'Mary Had a Little Lamb' was written in May of 1830, and published in Juvenile Miscellany in September of that same year.  Now for the fun part...create your own four line rhyme using that same tune.
Leaves are starting to fall down, 
to fall down, to fall down.
Leaves are starting to fall down,
and that makes me sad.

8.  Insert your own random thought here
I started a new job Tuesday. It is great, but I'm exhausted.

A Place Where We All Belong

Welcome to Five Minute Friday. Today's writing prompt is Belong.

Ever since my tobacco store adventure, I've been obsessed with the concept of community. There

is no denying that we want to belong. We need our connection places where our opinion counts, what we think matters, we are nurtured, loved, accepted. The places where we fit.

After the day community became embedded in my brain, I saw it everywhere: church, gangs, clubs, orchestras, teams, families, online groups, on television programs, in movies. Our connecting places are our happy places where we feel most secure and cared about.

My family is probably tired of hearing me shout out, "Community," every time I see another manifestation of it. I can't quite help myself as I continue to plumb the depths of our desire to belong. It is a heart cry, an aching desire to be a part of something - just as God intended.

He means for us to be family. The family of God. Where everyone belongs.





Image: stock images/freedigitalphotos

Easy as A to Z

It's that time again. Sign-ups start today for the 2013 Blogging From A to Z April Challenge at the official  A to Z Blog site.  Blog writers on all subject matters under the sun are invited to link up their blog. 
And here's the fun part - you have to post every day in April (except Sundays), using the letters of the alphabet as your theme for each day. So on April 1, your blog post theme should begin with the letter A, on April 2 your post should center on something beginning with the letter B and so on until April 30 when your post is all about something starting with Z. This is all explained so much better here.
Not only are you challenged to post daily in April, but highly encouraged to read other's blogs as well beginning with the blog below yours.   There are tremendous benefits to reading as many of the other blogs as you can in April. Because of last year's Challenge, I met some writers publishing their first novels and had the opportunity to read advance copies and publish reviews on my blog. I learned about topics I wouldn't normally encounter in my reading. I learned new words. And I discovered many of what have become my favorite blogs that I still follow faithfully, my own little blogging community.
I've been thinking about how I'm going to handle the Challenge in 2013 and still stick to my basic theme of life transitions, and I believe I have it figured out. All I have to do is start researching and writing. Join the fun, it gets crazy but it's worth it.

Real Church

Real Church in a Social-Network World: From Facebook to Face-to-Face Faith is a title commanding attention. With people experiencing a growing disconnection from the actual world around them and becoming more entwined with a virtual world via their computers and smart phones how can the church effectively reach out to share the love of God?  Does the church need to change how it engages the world?  How can the church bridge the gap and become relevant, real, to a social network population that is staying away from the church in droves?

These were questions I hoped to find answered while reading Real Church and why I was disappointed.  While it is certainly an interesting book, discussing God’s relationship with and love for us, ideas of faith and belief, the desire of God to interact with and be a part of us, the title does not accurately reflect the content
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Author Leonard Sweet, author of more than 20 books, touches on the ideas of community and connectedness, words that appear over and over again when reading about what people desire from relationships in the 21^st century.  However the main thrust of the second half of the book centers more on the Word of God and God’s love for us without necessarily connecting that concept to how the church can function in a meaningful way in our social network world.

Perhaps listing the book’s chapter titles illustrates the point more directly: Faith Versus Belief, Following Jesus, A Longing for Love, Person or Proposition?, The Right Relationship and Telling a Better Story. Again, all tremendous thoughts worthy of exploration and study, but not strongly tied in to reaching people who are more comfortable with Facebook than the book of Revelation.

If you would like to read a book about faith and belief and relationship with God this book is a fine choice but, if like me, you were expecting to delve into a book discussing the church’s relevance in the 21^st century as the title and introduction appear to suggest, this would not be the best choice.  But, you can decide for yourself.  Click this link to download the first chapter.

I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review.

Is There a Place at the Table for Me?

When I started reading blogs,  it seemed like they were mainly written by 20- and 30-something year old women.  They were interesting, but I’m past the stage of raising young children, struggling over the problems that the first decade of marriage brings and feeling concern over the loss of identity because of transitioning from professional woman into a SAHM.

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Then I began blogging and tried (and still am trying) to determine who I was going to be as a blogger and what I could bring to the table that would be of value.  I was searching for a community to belong to.

Frustrated, I wondered if there was a place for me.  Was there anyone out there  who read blogs that weren’t about raising children, politics, crafts, travel or cooking?  I enjoyed those blogs too, but I was striving to find my place at the table and find people who could be blessed and helped by what I had to say and were willing to engage in a dialogue.

Transitional-Woman has gone through four phases as I’ve slogged, skipped and slithered along the blogging road.  From a personal blog about my transitions, to a blog about mid-life transitions, to a blog exploring  life transitions experienced by people of all ages and to its current phase as a blog about not only physical life transitions, but transitions of the heart, soul and spirit.


I am slowly finding a community. 


And while I don't want to only read blogs by people with interests exactly like mine, in my stage of life and near my age (I mean, how boring is that?) it's great to discover there are other bloggers I can identify with.  There are also people of many ages I think I can bless and help with my writing.  And there are people out there willing to share the benefit of their experience.  Slowly, we are finding each other.


Happily, I discovered in the last couple of months that there is a place at the table for me.  So, where's dessert? 

Blazing a New Trail

Today, Heidi from Heidi'sbooks and I are having a blog swap.  She shares some of her thoughts about a transition she's approaching on Transitional-Woman, and I'm reviewing The Chosen on her blog.

Last year I read an article in Forbes Magazine listing the top women executives. It was a fascinating article showing where each woman worked, how much money she made, and what assets she controlled. It also told each woman’s age. All of them were in the 48-60 age group.

I’m approaching that age group and also headed for a major transition in life. How is it that you can work yourself out of a job in 20 years? You see, I’ve homeschooled for 18 years, organized co-ops, lead 4H groups, planned community service projects, lead support groups, edited newsletters, etc. In a few short years all my students will have graduated, and I will face the empty nest (sort of)—and in the process lose my full time job.

When I think of all the possibilities, I get giddy with excitement.

As I look around my church at what the other ladies in my age group are doing, I realize that most of them are working full-time jobs. Most are doing jobs they enjoy. Some work long hours, commute, and arrive home late at night. Saturdays are filled with laundry and catching up on everything that gets pushed aside during the week. Kudos to them. They work hard, and are salt and light in their workplaces. But they have relatively little time for community outreach, ministry, or helping others in the church.

What if I chose a different path? What if I used all my past experience to work for the church and community just like the business woman moves up the corporate ladder? I could continue down the same path moving into an expanded position. What if a group of the first wave of homeschool-mom-retirees put their experience to work in the community and church? That’s a tour de force volunteer army. I think we could see a fundamental shift in our society.

What needs are not getting met in our communities? How many elderly have visitors at the nursing home? I don’t even know most of my neighbors, and church visitation has become a thing of the past. How are the older women teaching or helping the younger women? There are so many needs and people are going it alone. Maybe it’s time to bring back that sense of community.

I would like to wear a business suit and carry a briefcase, but maybe it’s time to blaze a new trail.

Heidi from Heidi'sbooks is a homeschool mom with five children who loves reading and talking about books.  For the past few months, she's been diving into the great Russian authors.  Whew!

Learning Communities

I have explored the concept of community before, but I can’t seem to get if off of my mind because examples of what community is, how it works and what it means to various people keep popping up everywhere.

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As my youngest son plows his way through reams of virtual paperwork while working through the college admission process, community rises up again.  His university requires students to become part of a Learning Community.  The school is trying to match up freshmen with similar academic interests, enable them to live near each other and meld them into support groups.

It makes a lot of sense.  Some students don’t know how to handle the sudden freedom from parental oversight, but others can.  Some have no clue how to manage their time or money without mom and dad masterminding the schedule and finances, but others are very adept at it.  Some are very introverted and don’t know how to reach out to strangers and make friends, but others make a new friend every day.  The students are there to help and support each other.  I don't imagine the students in the communities will all become instant and intimate friends, but this university is trying to make sure no one feels isolated and alone.

I don’t know when they initiated Learning Communities, but it sounds like a wise decision particularly in light of the shooting at Virginia Tech in 2007 and other college shootings that have taken place since then.

If no student is allowed to be an island, if they are required to meet with their communities regularly, perhaps troubled young people can be discovered and helped before another tragedy occurs.

So, here’s another example of community.  I suspect I will continue to explore the subject as I continue to look for new communities of my own since my place in the mommy and homeschooling communities is ending. 

And if he lets me, I’ll also share some of my son’s new experiences of community as he transitions into a college student. 

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.