On Being A Little Dude

This is my heart and soul...he is such a little dude, isn't he? Actually, he is a "Warrior and one who resembles God" - our Marek Michael.

Mom resemblance: big Finnish cheeks, quick to laugh and smile, loving, ambitious, funny - also, impatient and fiesty, at times.

Dad resemblance: handsome, big blue eyes, good with the ladies, passionate, strong, determined, content.

Lord, just give us the wisdom to raise him to follow his own good heart - and yours.

Regenerating Jen

One of my many means of regenerating who I am...to read each of these is to know what stirs my soul. Thank you, Jesus, for these little love notes, reminding me who you've called me to be and inviting me to be that, in every moment. I look forward to finding many, many more of these precious gems -- in unexpected and romantic places.

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The Invitation
by Oriah Mountain Dreamer

It doesn't interest me what you do for a living. I want to know what you ache for, and if you dare to dream of meeting your hearts longing.

It doesn't interest me how old you are. I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love, for your dreams, for the adventure of being alive.

It doesn't interest me what planets are squaring your moon. I want to know if you have touched the center of your own sorrow, if you have been opened by life's betrayals, or have become shriveled and closed from fear of further pain.

I want to know if you can sit with pain, mine or your own, without moving to hide it or fade it or fix it. I want to know if you can be with joy, mine or your own; if you can dance with wildness and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes without cautioning us to be careful, be realistic, or to remember the limitations of being human.

It doesn't interest me if the story you are telling me is true, I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself. if you can bear the accusation of betrayal and not betray your own soul.

I want to know if you can be faithful and therefore trustworthy. I want to know if you can see beauty, even when it is not pretty every day, and if you can source your life from its presence.

I want to know if you can live with failure, yours or mine, and still stand on the edge of a lake and shout to the silver of the full moon, "Yes!"

It doesn't interest me to know where you live or how much money you have. I want to know if you can get up after the night of grief and despair, weary and bruised to the bone, and do what needs to be done for the children.

It doesn't interest me who you are, or how you came to be here- I want to know if you will stand in the center of the fire with me and not shrink back.

It doesn't interest me where or what or with whom you have studied I want to know what sustains you from the inside when all else falls away. I want to know if you can be alone with yourself, and if you truly like the company you keep in the empty moments.

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But, If Not...
-Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

"If you have never found something so dear and so precious to you that you will die for it, then you aren't fit to live. You may be 38 years old, as I happen to be. And one day, some great opportunity stands before you and calls upon you to stand up for some great principle, some great issue, some great cause. And you refuse to do it because you are afraid. You refuse to do it because you want to live longer. You're afraid that you will lose your job, or you're afraid that you will be criticized or that you will lose your popularity, or you're afraid that somebody will stab you, or shoot at you or bomb your house; so you refuse to take the stand.

Well you may go on and live until you are 90, but you're just as dead at 38 as you would be at 90. And the cessation of breathing in your life is but the belated announcement of an earlier death of the spirit. You died when you refused to stand up for right. You died when you refused to stand up for truth. You refused to stand up for justice.

Don't ever think that you're by yourself. Go on to jail if necessary but you never go alone. Take a stand for that which is right. And the world may misunderstand you, and criticize you. But you never go alone, for somewhere I read that one with God is a majority."

{From the sermon "But, If Not"delivered at Ebenezer Baptist Church November 5, 1967. He was assassinated five months later on April 4, 1968.)

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Our Greatest Fear
-Marriane Williamson (from her book "A Return to Love")

Our greatest fear is not that we are inadequate, but that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness, that frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant,gorgeous, handsome, talented and fabulous?

Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you.

We were born to make manifest the glory of God within us. It is not just in some; it is in everyone. And, as we let our own light shine, we consciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

Isaiah 61:1-3

This is my life verse...God truly is an artist, a lover, a friend - He is beautiful. He wrote this for me, to me and about me...and for YOU - to be set free, to be released from darkness. To be restored, made whole. To be given permission, to be ordained, to be yourself. What could be better?

The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me,
because the LORD has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.

He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim freedom for the captives
and release from darkness for the prisoners,

to proclaim the year of the LORD's favor...

...to comfort all who mourn,
...to bestow on them a crown of beauty
instead of ashes,
the oil of gladness
instead of mourning,
and a garment of praise
instead of a spirit of despair.

They will be called oaks of righteousness,
a planting of the LORD
for the display of his splendor.