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Wednesday's Word: Falling To Rise

10/23/2013

 
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I love the fall: the crisper air, the honking of geese flying south; the glorious colors that overtake the trees, as if by surprise. (It helps, too, that  my birthday  is in the fall, but that's for another post...) 

Unlike summer, when I run indoors for air conditioning, the fall seems more welcoming to me; the landscape more open. I take long prayer walks and breathe deeply the world in transition.  I bake cookies and bread.  I cook large pots of soup from leftovers. I light fires in my fireplace. 

At the same time, I am reminded of those who find the approaching winter isolating and lonely. I cannot fully enjoy my blessings without blessing others.

How do you invite this wondrous and changing world into your everyday  experience?  How do you celebrate the different seasons?  Dorothy Bass, author of Receiving the Day asserts that "time itself is made holy by the presence of God."  When we view time as a gift, and not a burden, we can become more open to live life more fully. But it's more than that: Sharing our time means that we are willing to share our lives, and shouldn't we?  The Resurrection of spring;  the excitement of Christmas; the harvests of the fall--all are meant to be shared, meant to be holy, meant to bless others. 

Each day brings its own grace.  Each season brings its own celebrations.  May we fully enter this season, join the celebration, and find joy at every rising of the sun.


Wednesday's Word:  Your Beach Body

10/9/2013

 
I had the pleasure of basking in the Caribbean sunshine last week.  I had intended to drop that last five pounds before I hit the beach looking less than bikini ready, but didn't.  So I purchased the swimsuits that promised to tuck and tighten where my ab crunches had not.  I did not want to show the bulges; I wanted to  hide what I viewed as my body's imperfections.  

Other people at the beach had a different approach.  A fellow sun bather whose bathing suit did nothing to hide her less than firm places was preparing herself to enjoy the tropical warmth--I wondered why she hadn't gone for a striped look (that's supposed to slim one down, I hear).  Then I saw it.  The pink survivor's cap. She had lived through breast cancer.  She had lived to see another sunset, another sunrise and another glorious day on the beach.  She had fought for the right to flaunt her body at the beach. 

What about you?  Have you survived what life has thrown at you?  If you have lived to see another day, the world needs to see you.  The world needs to know that you, like the rest of us, are imperfectly perfect:  flabby abs, horizontal stripes and all. Don't tuck.  You had the baby. Don't tighten. You got through the surgery, the radiation treatments, the unemployment, the chemotherapy  and the divorce.  Don't camouflage.  We know that it hurt, and you've got the scars to prove it.  We don't want an illusion. We want to know that we, too, can survive.      

Show us your beach body.  Show us who you really are and we will celebrate in the sun, together, scars and all. 

   
 
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