Quote for the Day

Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, “Do it again”; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, “Do it again” to the sun; and every evening, “Do it again” to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we.

This quote is by G.K. Chesterton and was up on Without Wax's blog today. I've never heard it before but found it beautiful. Here's to recovering our appetite of infancy.

Identity

If you were to create your own name, what would it be?

Desert wanderings

Why is it that, generally speaking, when we humans have no big goals on our to-do list, we put off doing the few things we can do like cleaning up the house or going to the grocery store or whatever it may be? When I'm bored, I just can't seem to do a thing for myself, and then it becomes oh-so-easy to wallow. Know what I'm talkin' about?

Well, my tolerance for occupying myself with meaningless activities (and for wallowing) has officially run out. I mean, really, there's only so much Solitaire a person can take, and I have a higher tolerance for repetitive activity than most. So these past two weeks I have been making an effort to be more intentional about how I spend my time. And, quite honestly, it has not been easy. I've been feeling aimless for too long, and it has become comfortable in its familiarity, even if it has not made me happy. It is SAFE.

Last night I went to a Bible study that focused on Exodus 16. I'm sure many of you know the story, but I'm just going to set up a little context here for the sake of my own story. God had delivered the Israelites from their lives as slaves in Egypt, and at this point they were a month into their wanderings in the desert. Already they were beginning to suggest that maybe they had been better off in Egypt as slaves. (I think the desert must have made them delusional.) So God responded to their grumbling by giving them a daily supply of manna. Each morning, they had only to go out and gather what they needed. The only catch was, they could not store up more than they needed for the day because what they didn't use in a day would rot (with the exception of the day before the Sabbath). Well, the Bible study compared the manna--the Israelites' daily bread--to God's Word--the daily bread we have today. It reiterated the importance of spending time with God every day and not spiritually starving ourselves. Because as much as we would like to, we cannot store up God's Word one day out of the week and expect it to sustain us any more than we could survive by eating only one day a week.

It really hit me last night that I am experiencing a time in the desert--literally, a time of wandering aimlessly. Yet I have been refusing to gather up what God so graciously gives me every day and have been waiting...for what? For something even more miraculous than daily grace? So I am trying to be faithful in the little things. After all, if I can't handle taking care of my house and my husband when I have nothing else to do, how can I expect to be entrusted with anything bigger? I don't think I can.

So, God willing, I will be sharing more with you in the next couple of weeks about new work and volunteer opportunities I'm hoping to pursue. I've started to ask about a few options. Now I'm just waiting to see how the chips fall, and I can go from there. And I can hardly wait.

What's the most meaningful work or volunteer project you've ever been privileged to be part of?

Greatness

Apparently, according to Malcolm Gladwell (author of Tipping Point, Blink, and now Outliers), it takes 10,000 hours before anyone can become great at anything. (Well, maybe not anything. I'm guessing something relatively simple like laundry or watching TV doesn't apply. Or does it? I do know a few people for which movie watching is an art form. But for now, let's confine this statistic to anything that requires a certain degree of specialization.) As someone who finds herself reevaluating her life and what she wants to contribute to the world--and as someone who has to put up a fight so as not to shut down in the face of failure--I find that figure more than a little intimidating.

Would you agree that greatness really takes that long to develop? I guess I did probably put more than 5000 hours into my college degree, and I definitely wouldn't argue that having a bachelors makes me "great."

I wonder how many hours it takes to become, let's say, better than average at something. To make into the 75 or 80 percentile range. I think I could work with that for a while before aiming for greatness. Now if only I could commit to what that "something" should be...

Is there a skill you're attempting to master? Do you think you've worked up to 10,000 hours yet?

A clean Christmas slate

It seems most everyone's blogs have gone quiet lately, mine most certainly included. I hope that means everyone is filling up their time with Christmas festivities--and enjoying themselves thoroughly. Justin and I had a great time in Atlanta for Thanksgiving and then I stole away with him to Tampa, where he had to go for a few days for work. I just soaked me up some Florida sunshine. Eddie took the trip with us too and behaved himself for the most part.

Now I'm caught up in a few Christmas festivities, myself. I spent the vast majority of today in the kitchen, baking cookies for a cookie drive for the enlisted airmen living in the dorms on base. I must confess it was a great way for me to try out some new recipes. I wasn't a fan of all the flavors I chose, but I'm giving them away and, more than likely, someone else will be a fan of them! It's a win-win situation.

I was reading something today that got me thinking about what a privilege it is to be rather newly married and able to forge new traditions as a family. It's easy to be somewhere new and missing the old traditions I've always known--especially at Christmas--but I'm blessed to have the chance to build something new with Justin. I was fortunate never to really feel like I was waiting for marriage, but at the same time, I think not looking for marriage left me unprepared and even unappreciative of some aspects of it. Forging new family traditions is one of those aspects. I better not waste the opportunity, and if you're in the same boat, I hope you don't waste it either.

This year Justin and I are going to Williamsburg as our gift to each other. I don't think that will become a tradition...but anything's possible.

So what's a favorite Christmas tradition of yours: past, present, or one you're dreaming of beginning in the future?