Go

The time has come for us to go out and bring peace to everyone.

Where you go and what you do is your choice. But in order to make the world a better place, wouldn't it be nice if we each took the time to share peace? And not just share it with those we know and love, but to share peace with those we don't know.

It's not always easy. In fact, most days it's a pretty big challenge for the average person, but we have to try. We have to go and do. Sitting here, complacent, will do nothing and things will continue to degrade.

Go is my benediction for this journey. It's not the end, it's the sending forth with a mission. Go and reach out to help each other. Go and love one another. Go back and read each word from the last forty days and insert it after, "go…"

Go on, what are you waiting for?

Refuge

For me, going to my parents house is a refuge.

Until we play euchre. Then it's more like a stronghold.

Going back home to our house is also a refuge.

Our church is another place of refuge.

Campgrounds are always a place of refuge. The only exception is the one down in southern Indiana that used to be part of a mental facility. The large living quarters were still there and it was creepy. That place was not a refuge for me.

Where do you find refuge?

Prosper

I suppose writing this blog should help me prosper in many ways.

Perhaps make me a better writer.

Or teach me patience.

I could make money and prosper through advertising. Perhaps that would help my blog viewership prosper too.

How much do we prosper in our lives? What is worth living for?

I know that I look for joy, finding ways to help others to the best of my ability. That is how I look to prosper.

Breath

The only way I remember the difference between breath and breathe is mostly due to my favorite band, Needtobreathe. Thanks to their name, I only have to think about how they spell it and I know whether or not I am trying to spell breath or breathe.

As far as Lent and this challenge, I'm not sure why breath is the word.

Is it a little strange that I'm just now questioning who came up with these words and why they chose these words? We're not to Good Friday yet. Jesus has not taken his last breath. He's still breathing. In fact, he's about to share a Passover meal with his Disciples.

Which makes me wonder how bad their breath must have been. We've come a long way and I'm happy to celebrate mouth wash and good dental hygiene.

Peace

It's been awhile since I wrote a haiku, so what better time to share one? Here you go, enjoy.

I sit in silence.
Peace and quiet surround me.
Peace I share with you.

Call

Being a child of the 80s, of course the first thing that comes to mind is,

"Who you gonna call? GHOSTBUSTERS!"

But since this blog is currently about Lent, I should focus on God's call. Or when I call out to our Almighty Creator.

Yes, I have heard God call me. I ignored the call.

Wouldn't it be nice if it were as obvious as a phone call? A ringing bell, or some kind of sound that we couldn't miss. Instead, God's voice can be small and quiet.

The call I received was repetitive. Some people hear their call through another's voice. I heard God calling me, and then listened to several people tell me to answer the call. Finally I listened.

Did you know that I can be stubborn?

Of course, so were several (all?) of the Disciples. And Moses, he tried to back out a couple of times.

Warning: I'm about to flash-back to the 80s again.

It's sort of like Arnold saying, "What'chu talking' 'bout Willis?"

What are you sayin' God?

Okay, insert a ridiculous amount of movie quotes, you get the gist.

Me? Are you talkin' to me?

That's it, I'll quit while I'm ahead.

Sometimes we have to stop, focus, and listen to hear God's call. Other times, it's a loud gong. Either way, are you listening?

Live

This Lenten journey has been side-tracked by the death of my grandmother. She lived a good, long life. Ninety-four years old says so.

Forgive me for being distracted when the words for this journey are like today's word, live. During the funeral today, the pastor said that Grandma will continue to live both through each of her family members and in eternal life.

Isn't that what we all hope for? To be remembered for how we lived and what we passed on to those who knew us.

Grandma will continue to live in me through her faith, her love of gardening, and her propensity of writing in a journal every day. I have a strong faith, a love of gardening, and a propensity to write in my journal every day for the last several years.

Bill was a little unnerved as he listened to the pastor describe me in my grandmother.

What can I say? It's in my genes.

And I say, live life to it's fullest. For me, that's spending time in my garden, writing, and sharing my faith.

Celebrate

Today, I will celebrate that this is the last time I will write about the word celebrate.

I will celebrate that there is one week left of Lent. We will celebrate Easter next week.

We had our Palm Sunday Brunch and Youth Auction this morning. People were excited to celebrate winning baked goodies and lots of other fun items.

We are watching Formula 1 racing again, which for us is reason to celebrate. 

MSU is in the Final Four, if you're a fan, that's a good reason to celebrate.

The weather is still cold, so we're having a fire in the fireplace to celebrate.

Wait, that's not right. We're not celebrating the cold weather. We are ready for it to warm back up to average temperatures. Then we can celebrate.

See

See what I've been making in the kitchen?

First, I nuked some Peeps in the microwave. Then I used them to make krispy treats which I'm calling...

...Krispy Peep Treats. I layered them in a pan. You can see the layers in the photo above. Once they had cooled, I cut them into bars and put them in baskets with dyed coconut and not nuked Peeps.

I also baked Emily's Best-Ever Oatmeal cookies. I'm known for them. By five people.

I also made my Famous Brownies, aka Amazing Brownies. The same five people call them by their proper names.

I also made seven layer bars. Which, if I count, are really only six layers. I guess they're technically seven layers because you melt the butter and pour the graham crackers over that. See how that works?

These are all things for the Youth Auction being held at our church tomorrow. I also made a coupon book, but I forgot to take a picture.

Tomorrow is also the Palm Sunday Brunch. There will be pancakes, sausage, and eggs. Yum! I hope to see you there.

Meditate

Yes, I was too busy meditating yesterday to write about meditate.

That's sort of true.

When I got home from work, I worked out (I ran a mile without stopping). By the time I finished my workout, Bill was home.

We went to dinner and the theater.

It was a high school production of "Curtains". It was very funny. We enjoyed the show, even though we got home way past our bedtime.

So it was as I was lying there, almost asleep that I realized I didn't blog.

I'm a week away from the end of Lent. Only missing one day ain't half bad. That's a 2% error (or however you want to look at it).

Excuse me, now I have to go write today's post before I forget or get too busy.

Seek

Grandma turned 94 years old yesterday. Since last Friday she had not been eating anything. She had a TIA prior to that. Since last summer she had been living with my aunt. This was because she had gone outside to enjoy fresh air and decided to start weeding. She ended up on the ground and couldn't get back up. She crawled back to the house and was able to call for help. That was not the first time that had happened, so the decision was made for her to stay with my aunt.

Grandma passed away in the early morning hours today.

I do not need to seek anything at this moment. I am at peace for many reasons. Mostly because she lived a good, long life. I cannot recall a time that she ever complained about anything or anyone. She was generous and, like any good grandma, always had something ready to eat. She was independent and wise.

Unfortunately, I did not get any patience from her. She was very patient. I remember her raising her voice once to one of my cousins (and he deserved it). I remember how calm and collected she was when my grandpa died.

I do think I learned a lot about faith from her. Not in a Bible preaching sort of way, but through letters while I was in college and how much she volunteered in the church.

She was the matriarch of a large family. She was a great-great grandmother to several kids. She will be missed, but I know that there is much rejoicing among her family who has been waiting for her.

Truth

The truth will set you free.

Unless someone is asking you if that [insert piece of clothing] makes them look fat.

Which means the truth will set you free from their friendship if the truth is yes.

Yikes.

If I were you I would say no. Telling the truth is for everything else except questions like that. Can we all agree?

Thanks.

Mercy

One of my favorite verses is from Micah 6:8

"He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
    And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
    and to walk humbly with your God."
                       -New International Version (NIV)

I had to search different versions to find the one that uses the word mercy instead of kindness. Obviously either word will do but for today mercy is what I'm writing about.

I first remember hearing this verse when we lived in New Jersey. Pastor Greg preached on the verse. Then, I heard it again here in Grand Rapids when Pastor Jennie preached on it.

Pair this with what Jesus said is the greatest commandment and I bet things would be different. People would be different.

This goes right along with the book study I've been participating in, "Whose Gospel?" by Dr. James Forbes. I wrote about his visit and his visionary, or progressive, teachings.

This last Sunday we were challenged by Pastor Bob to reach outside our comfort zone. When we are comfortable we are not changing. When we're not changing things aren't getting worse, but neither are they getting better.

It's uncomfortable to ask someone what's their name. It's uncomfortable to offer someone your umbrella when it's pouring down rain. It's uncomfortable to invite someone to church. It's uncomfortable to sit next to someone you don't know.

And we've gotten use to being comfortable.

We show kindness, or mercy, to those around us when we treat them as we would want to be treated. Do you want to be ignored? No, I hope not. Don't you want to know that person's story? Even if they talk your ear off, maybe they just needed someone to listen. Or maybe they talk everyone's ear off; show them mercy and listen.

We are too ego-centric. We are too self-centered. We care about ourselves and our comfort too much.

This verse reminds me right at the beginning my flaw. "O mortal", it says. Oh, right, I'm reminded of my limited time on earth. I start to ask; what matters here, the sweater I'm wearing? How many pairs of pants I have hanging in my closet?

Or does the "pay-it-forward" mentality mean more? Sharing with someone in need, not want. Cooking a meal out of love? The immortal and intangible things we share matter more then the materialistic and consumeristic things that just take up space.

We are call to show mercy to others and show mercy to our planet.

Forgive

Last week on, "Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me" they were talking about cats. They said cats don't forgive. Paula Poundstone begged to differ and offered an example of her own cat.

I completely agree with Paula Poundstone. Our cats forgive us. I've stepped on Atticus' tail, he forgives me by sticking his wet nose in my face.

Yesterday, I sat on Juliette! She has forgiven me, because she's sitting next to me right now (not to mention that she came right back and sat on my lap after I tried sitting on hers).

We have started shutting the cats out of the bedroom at night to prevent any more mice incidents as well as giving ourselves a good nights sleep. If you have a pet (and you've let them into the bedroom at night), you know what I'm talking about. The tiniest pet will suddenly be able to take up the entire bed. Leaving the humans a sliver of space, a strip of covers, and either fart in your face or breathe directly into your face.

We should all try to forgive as freely and lovingly as our pets.

Celebrate

I really didn't do this on purpose, but without further ado here are pictures of the guest room project. It's time to celebrate! Who wants to be our first guest?

Here is the room when we had our house guest living here.

 Then, Greg moved out and before we moved furniture back in, we started the great remodel.

 We had new glass installed in the bottom sashes of the double hung windows. It's double thick glass, so it will be more efficient.

This is Bill fixing the weights in the windows.

We've scraped the paint off the walls. The crown molding still needs to be scraped.

I guess I never took a picture of the entire room scraped. Or I can't find it in my thousands of photos.

Nor do I have a picture of the entire room in primer. That's okay, it was all white. You can picture that. The above photo is a painted ceiling and walls. Next, the floors were refinished. Then, we got the window treatments installed. 

We played around with the layout. We thought this might work, but that bookcase was too tall to go under the double double hung windows so we put it at the end of the bed.

We didn't love it there, so we moved the room around (picture taken from the door).

In the meantime, Bill was a saint. He painted all of the bookcases and he refinished this table that was from his friend's grandfather. 

And now we have the finished room. Here it is before the furniture was moved in, I wanted you to see the gorgeous floor Bill painstakingly restored all by himself!

Look at that smooth ceiling. It's beautiful.

The large bookcase fits right here.

The table and chair will soon have a lamp (photo from the door).

We still have pictures to hang, but you can see Juliette has settled right in.

It's time to celebrate! Who's going to visit?

Still

I'm going to have to write about the opposite of still. Because I wasn't still all day.

From the time I woke up this morning, to this moment now, I have not been still.

I went up and down the stairs doing laundry. It's clean sheet day so I undressed and redressed the bed. I baked a cake for Sunday school. I washed dishes. I made a birthday card for my Grandma (she'll be 94) and a thank you card for a friend. I cleaned up my scrapbooking/card making stuff. Bill and I placed the furniture in the guest room (pictures are coming). We also put all the books on the bookshelves. I cleaned the bathroom and ran the vacuum (upstairs, Bill ran it downstairs). We made and ate dinner (burgers and fries). We went to the Adoption Ministry Hoe-Down at church. I danced.

And even now I'm not still as I type.

Did you see the moon tonight? It's not still because it's orbiting around Earth, but it sure looked still when I saw it. It was a giant sliver. That's a good oxymoron.

I would like to be still. I have practiced that off and on in my adult life. I appreciate being still. Maybe that's what I'll do next year for Lent.

Place

I do not look at the words (and remember them) ahead of time. So when I sit down to blog and I see the word I'm going to write about, many things go through my head.

But I have to sort through them and decide what I can make sense out of and what needs to be discarded.

I have gotten back out and have been running/walking this week. The temperatures are warmer and the snow has melted (mostly) off the sidewalks. As Bill starts his new job, and I can convince him to go with me, we'll start walking regularly. I'm not sure what regularly will look like. I would still like to run three times a week. If I can get him to walk three times a week, I would make that work.

I digress, while I've been running I have time to think. I've thought of many things to write about, but so far none of them have had to do with place.

I could talk about where the cats' place in our bed is; right in between us or on top of us.

But alas, I just took a long time checking my email and now it's too late to write any more.

Light

Tomorrow marks the first day of spring. It will occur at 6:45pm (EST). I don't know how the Almanac figures that out, but that's what the website says.

There will be equal parts day to night. Or dark to light.

Days will be longer. The sun will continue to warm us with her light.

We will need to adjust the lights in our home that are on timers.

I hope that through my blog I am sharing a little bit of light. Which I hope is then shared by you, which is then shared by others.

I saw darkness tonight and I object!

Where is the light? Where is the hope? Where is the love?

I know we're all human and some days are just not good days, but we have to try. We have to reach for the light.

When I catch myself driving with a scowl on my face, I start looking at other drivers (which is easy driving in the city, not so easy driving in the suburbs, or the country, or the highway) and I look at their expressions. It often makes me smile, if not laugh a little. I can't help it, I like to smile.

Share the light!

Believe

I believe I can make it through Lent, blogging everyday.

I believe that I will be able to run 2.5 miles again without stopping.

I believe in Hope.

I believe that believe is one of those words that stops looking like the word after you type it a few times.

I believe that Atticus will eventually kill all the mice living in our house. (Seriously, how many can be left?)

I believe in Faith.

I believe that God answers prayers.

I believe that Bill and I will finish the guest room this weekend.

I believe that Love wins.

Endure

Last night, I made stuffed cabbage rolls for our St. Patrick's dinner tonight.

It was quite an involved process. And before you are disgusted by the thought of cabbage rolls, they were stuffed with bratwurst and covered in a spicy bacon, tomato sauce.

Bacon makes everything taste better.

I cooked the bratwurst in the morning with the rice. Then, after work, I steamed the cabbage. While it steamed I cooked the bacon, onion, red pepper, and simmered those all in tomato puree.

After the sauce was ready, and the cabbage had drained, I took the bratwurst and rice mixture out of the fridge and started stuffing the cabbage leaves.

As if all of that wasn't involved enough, the next part got more so.

The recipe instructed me to cut the main vein out of the leaf, scoop one-third of a cup of the bratwurst/rice mixture into the leaf, and then roll it like a burrito. Except that I just cut out part of the leaf and rolling it as suggested was next to impossible. No matter which way I rolled, stuffing kept falling out through slits. Or I was rolling it in such a way that the stuffing to rolled cabbage ratio was uneven.

But I knew I could endure. I continued stuffing and rolling. I eventually filled my 9 x 13 baking dish with ten rolls. I covered them with the sauce and tucked them away in the refrigerator until this afternoon when Bill took them out for me.

We were also able to endure the forty-five minute wait while they baked.

Bill and I agreed that the cabbage rolls were worth the process.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!