A Healing Space Friday Five

Over at RGBP, Deb posted: Today is a good day to focus on where, as RevGalBlogPals, we find healing, peace and strengthening. As a chaplain, there are days where I never seem to catch my breath, and invariably, those are the days that I need it the most! [RevDragon input: And this has definitely been one of those weeks where I need to catch my breath, so perfect timing, Deb!] So with all this in mind, share with us these healing things:

1. A piece of music: Jonathan Goldman has an album called Chakra Chants--this is my go-to background music when I most need healing. I find it quieting and peaceful and simply present with me.

2. A place: My chair space. Even though my chair isn't there any more (long story), when I get to sit in this place beside the window, it is healing. 

3. A favorite food (they call it "comfort food" for a reason): Soups are my comfort food. This week a) a neighbor home-made some veggie chili, b) my spouse made cauliflower cheesy soup, and c) last night was a different chili. I have needed some "healing space" this week, and I believe the soup itself has helped keep me going!

4. A recreational pastime (that you watch or participate in): Reading is healing. It's quiet. And solo (introvert!). I can enter a different world. 

5. A poem, Scripture passage or other literature that speaks to comfort you: There are many. Sometimes it's Julian of Norwich's "All shall be well..." Other times it's Emily Dickinson's "Hope is a thing with feathers... Yet never in extremity / it asked a crumb of me." And always it is "Be still and know that I am God." 

BONUS: People, animals, friends, family - share a picture of one or many of these who warm your heart.

the Prayer Shawl (and "my chair") attracts all kinds of love

waiting for second breakfast

Friday Five--Personal Maps (There Be Dragons!)

Over at RevGalBlogPals revkjarla posts:

Happy Friday friends!!
  Today, our Friday Five is about YOU....and if your life were a map, well....


1. What is beyond your boundaries?

There be dragons! Good dragons. I am getting ready to seek beyond those boundaries to discover what's out there. I pray for good dragons... there are good dragons, right?


2. Where are the cities or neighborhoods that need "redevelopment" or attention?

Self-care. Isn't that always a neighborhood in need? I'm working on knocking down some crumbling facades and drawing up plans for new foundations. I think it will be beautiful, but first: break some sweat.


3.  What are the verdant valleys?

That's a hard one right now. There hasn't been much rain, yet Isaiah's text teases me with it's assurance that I'm wrong about my current drought. 

For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there until they have watered the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and succeed in the thing for which I sent it (Isaiah 55).

4. Where are the deserts?

Sometimes it seems they are throughout the region (see #3).

5.  Where is the hidden treasure?

Ahh, now, that is also throughout the region! It may seem hidden from me right now, but it's very present. I can feel it close... (thanks be to God).

 BONUS!  Where is the coolest place you have been on the globe?

A couple years ago I had the honor of serving on a mission trip to Venezuela. The people and experience were amazing. I'm not very good with mission trips (you might say they're "outside my boundaries"), but it was my first time outside the U.S. and was heartwarming as well as eye-opening.

Friday Five--5 Good Things

Over at RevGalBlogPals, Deb posted this week's Friday Five:

Frodo: I can't do this, Sam.
Sam: I know. It's all wrong. By rights we shouldn't even be here. But we are. It's like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger, they were. And sometimes you didn't want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it's only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn't. They kept going. Because they were holding on to something.
Frodo: What are we holding onto, Sam?
Sam: That there's some good in this world, Mr. Frodo... and it's worth fighting for.


===oOo===


In these last few weeks there's been all kinds of bad news. Tornadoes and a blizzard. Gun violence and a legislative body squabbling like toddlers over budgets, health care and who knows what else. For those of us in the US, it's tax season. Yuck.


We're only in the second week of Lent. Easter's a long way off. And here in the Mid-Atlantic region, the weather can't seem to make up its mind. Is it winter? Is it spring? Will it snow? Will it rain? Are my daffodils doomed if they actually BLOOM next week like they are threatening to?


So this week's Friday Five is courtesy of my good friends Frodo and Sam. Tell me 5 things that are good in our world. Or your world. Photos are a bonus.


===oOo===


1. Soft snow. Despite how much I long for spring, Colorado has needed precipitation to offset the dry conditions we've had all year... and it snowed all day yesterday! Not only did it snow (almost) non-stop, is was soft, dry, delicate snowfall, so it was quite pretty, and easy to get off my car as needed.
2. Animal companions. When I come home from a difficult day, or when I'm sitting with my coffee in the morning, there is nothing more comforting than a furry creature on my lap. They trust us to care for them and love us for who we are. I think they make the world a better place.
3. Passion. While I can get frustrated when I interpret some people's passion as single-mindedness, I'm grateful for how they try to change the world for the better, for God's realm on earth.
4. Creativity. Art makes us think. It makes us pause. It makes us use a different part of our brains. Visual art, written art, sung art--all of it is "good" in this world.
5. Wee ones. I'm not a parent, but I have the joy of having kiddos around me often. They most assuredly are "good" in the world. When there is bad news, they bring us a different perspective. When I'm in pain, having to focus on one of them takes me out of myself. 

Second Friday F5

It's the Second Friday of the Month Friday Five...

...and you know what that means--yet another edition of a Random Friday Five!

So, without further ado, let's get our random on!

Sadly, I’ve been away from the F5 for so long that I didn’t know what that meant… but I do now! Thanks, RevGals, for the random.

1.  If a spaceship landed in your back yard, and three very cute little aliens knocked on your door and asked you to show them around Earth, where would you take them?  (Remember, you have superpowers from last month's Second Friday Five, so if you need to use them for transportation, feel free to do so.)

Ocean. Stand on the beach and watch the waves through a whole day and night.

                Desert. Beware the prickly pointy plants that have adapted to survive!

Mountains. Breathe (if they do!) the thinner air and feel the cool of tree-shade and bare sun.

                City. Know the thrust of human imagination.

2.  What is making you grumpy these days?

My body and its achiness; my mind and its slowness to respond to my body’s desire for better health. Wah.

3.  O.K., so now that you got the grumps out, what is one thing today that will be sheerly joyful for you?

It’s my day off! And I’m preparing for a week of continuing education, so I will find a new-to-me book to take with me and just walk around town (I love just walking around town).   

4.  I am pitifully, once again, trying to grow a garden.   Last year I only harvested one cucumber.   This year, I have zucchini, cucumbers and tiny tomato plants.   Everything is abloom, but the jury is out whether there will be any yield.   So, do YOU have a garden?  What are you growing?   If you don't, what is your favorite fresh summertime vegetable/fruit/flower?

I do not garden. Plant life looks at me and laughs until it dies. However, I love other people’s gardens (which, happily, are all around my home!). I’m also fond of their fresh herbs that they share with me.  

5.  If the aforementioned aliens suddenly demanded all the contents of your closet, OR ELSE (as in clothing, shoes,  etc.) but kindly said you could keep three items, what would they be?

This is not a fair question—aliens would never be so cruel! Therefore, I cannot answer. (oh how sad for me)

Random Friday Five

Over at RGBP, revkjarla  writes...

Hi there~~
Happy Friday to all of you.  Today's Friday Five has no theme, other than randomness. 
That's o.k., right? 
So, just to get to know each other a little bit (even more) here is the meme:

1.  What is the first thing that comes to your mind (right now) that you want to share about yourself. 
     I handwrite everything first :)... even my F5... with brightly colored sharpies (this morning it was a pale purple) in a spiral notebook.

2.  What is your favorite piece of jewelry or accessory? Why?
     I think my only 2 accessories ever are earrings and scarves...I love earrings! And scarves! Flowy and free. Although it might be fun to try what the darling here ---> has done :).

3.  If you could have a starring role in a T.V. show/movie/series, which one would it be, and what would your character be like? 
     I've always wanted to be a hospital chaplain on E.R. Every time I watched it I'd yell at the t.v., "No doctor would do that! Where's the chaplain?!!"

4.  What is one thing you will eat this weekend? 
    Church meeting=Potluck. So it's all up for grabs (but I can bet on some type of salad).

5.  How do you waste time? (If you do, that is...)

     Reading wonderful fiction (and some fun non-fiction). Some favorites I most recently finished are: Pigs in Heaven; Bless Me, Ultima; Let's Pretend This Never Happened; Caleb's Crossing; The Next Queen of Heaven; Where Rivers Change Direction; Still; more more more!