further evidence of warmth!

december 29

as noted, it is dec. 29th. even the date sounds chilly, doesn't it?

be that as it may, i am on my front porch, in my jammies (not even the warm, wooly sack!), with my bare toes sparkling their christmas pedicure (alternating red & green - so fun) into the humid air. it's overcast, and will probably rain again, but it is so glorious out you'd think it was spring! it's a gift today, this balmy weather, and i intend upon soaking it up...even if it means i have to walk in the rain.

what'cha up to for new years eve? we are invited to 4 things, but i think we'll keep it simple... go to the pj party and chill with friends. but thanks to everyone else for asking! :) it's nice to be invited!

if you live here, go outside! if you live in the cold, well, sorry 'bout that.

love actually

i just stayed up past my bedtime to watch 'love acutally' - for maybe the 5th time. i love this movie... love the breadth of it. yes, it's romantic, but it's about the real stuff of love, too, and not just between lovers. sisters & brothers, parents & children, the hard places husbands & wives find themselves, the choices we make, and the people we make them for. it's got enough silliness to make me laugh, and in the end i'm smiling from ear to ear with warm fuzzies all over in my heart.

the truth is, real love - the powerful kind - is a choice as much as anything else...not just the goose bumps & big moments. that's one of the bravest statements the movie makes, particularily in the story of the sister whose brother is institutionalized & the wife who finds the necklace her husband gives another woman.

"If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing. Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not celebrate injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. "

most satisfying present

if you know me, you know i'm a chilly girl. always cold fingers, always looking for a blanket or filling the tub with hot, hot water. so look what my lovely husband bought me for christmas! it looks like this..

and is shaped like this...

as he says "it takes leopard print nighty to a whole new level." :)

meg amazed me...

she just brought down the Christmas card she wrote for her dad, and this is what it says. (she crosses her heart & promises that it came out of her own head...)

(outside) "life just never turns out the way i want it to every day!"

(inside) "but on Christmas, the love, the joy and the family fills my heart with Joy all because of the hugs you give me!"

and someday they will be running things...

(the car passes BB&T - a local bank)

meg: what does BB&T stand for?

kyra: (without pause) "best barbeque & tootsie rolls"

meg: (long pause) you know, you've got a 95% chance of being right.

me: (smiling) how do you figure that, meg?

meg: (without pause) because what else could it be?!

i'm with dorothy....

there's NO place like home!

wednesday

a very successful, happy day. and then i had chinese take out for lunch, and the fortune in my cookie said, "wednesday is your lucky day"! i don't put much...well, any...stock in those things, but it made me smile none the less, and it's only 2 sleeps til i get to go home!! hooray!

it's been a good, good week. but i miss my family and friends...

This is from an interview with Anne Lemont in Relevant Magazine Online... it's so human, and so real...

"What does it mean to be a believer?

I have a very pathetic and innocent relationship with Jesus. [The things] I’m sure about are the things the kids in church sing: that I’m loved and never alone. I am a complicated and worried person. To know that I can just say “hi” and “I am so lost,” and He says, “Hi, hon. No, you’re not. Let’s breathe. Get a glass of water. Do you want to call a friend?” Simple works for me. I love to read profound, theological, brilliant, stunning stuff that throws the lights on for me, and then I write about it so I can disseminate it. But I don’t have brilliant, theological thoughts. The difference my church makes is that I still get lost, but I find my way back sooner."

i have to say, while "pathetic" wouldn't be descriptive for my journey, "innocent" totally would. i am sure about all the things the children sing... and my life is richer and better for it. :) never underestimate the value of a childlike heart - but remember c.s. lewis - the heart of a child, but all the rigorous intellect of an adult. (sorry to paraphrase his wise words... i can't find the quote online, and i'm without my library temporarily)

i seem to have ...

... turned a corner. hooray!

my bouyancey has returned, and i, for one, am relieved. i have moved back into excited and anticipatory. i feel more like me.

i know you had something to do with that - thank you.

love rae

i've been meaning to quote this for a while now ...

"Jesus said that our foremost sign of discipleship would be our love for one another. 'A new command I give you: Love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another' (John 13:34-35). His teaching is unequivocal here. We would be known as his followers not because we are chaste, celibate, honest, sober or respectable; not because we are church-going, Bible-toting, or Psalm-singing. Rather we would be recognized as disciples primarily by our deep and delicate respect for one another, our cordial love impregnanted with reverence for the sacred dimention of the human personality." - Brennan Manning (emphasis mine)

Am I known "by my love"? Are we, "Christians", known this way? Oh, I know we follow the letter of the law - we're really good at keeping score of what we do & don't do, but doesn't that sort of leave you feeling like we're missing something very, very important? It leaves me that way. Maybe there's something more important than keeping score... maybe Jesus wasn't kidding when he said those things. You know, in all his teaching, he doesn't actually "command" anything but this... that we love one another.

How are we doing? I think it just may be a life or death question...

day 1

it's cold here! i just walked the dog, Evie, and my ears are still tingling from the chill! you can see your breath and everything!

today is a 'recovery day'. there will be napping, and i'm not even dressed yet. (yes, i walked the dog in my pj's - you got a problem with that?) it's exactly what the doctor ordered...lovely.

in other news, a couple in england were banned from taking pictures of their own 11 month old daughter on the swings in a public park, where a uniformed officer told them it was illegal to take pictures of children in the park. obviously a reactionary law to the crimes perpetrated against children, but still - ridiculous. what is our world coming to?

1:30am

is not a great time to play boggle online. or post a blog. but i am doing both, anyway! i am tucked into my bed at mark & tina's... snug as a bug in a rug. just keepin' you in the loop. more when i'm more coherent.

xo

leavin' on a jet plane...

you have no idea how reassuring it is that all my peeps 'have my back'. you guys make my life possible.

love rae

this is feminism??

what is the world coming to?

this article reports that a WAG (a british term for the 'wives & girlfriends' of soccer stars) is writing a book of fashion & style tips geared toward 10-12 year old girls.

this article makes the excellent point that feminism (which, let me be clear, i have some issues with anyway) has been twisted to the point where "the new female imperative is that it is only through promiscuity and sexual aggression that girls can achieve admiration and recognition." and i think it's right.

would the world come to an end if a 10 year old wore mismatched clothes? would it collapse if she played outside in the dirt instead of worrying that her shoes don't match her backpack? does an 8th grader have to "put out" to be worthwhile? isn't smart sexy? don't intelligence & character play a role in here somewhere? why is it that "inner beauty" has become a tongue in cheek insult?

the pendulum has swung far enough in this direction. i don't know how to push it back, but for the sake of my daughters you'd better believe i'm going to try.

december 10

there is a pile of flip flops at my back door. all the windows in the house are wide open. we just went out for lunch and ate on the patio in the sunshine. i had to change into a tank top to rake the leaves. which i did in my bare feet. the forecast high today is 78F...

merry christmas, north carolina!

makin' my heart happy

i was just driving home from blockbuster with our 'date night' movie, when i noticed a happy trend... multi-colored christmas lights! almost all the houses on our street with lights out have long strings of brightly colored lights out, making the neighborhood look so festive! i whole heartedly support the fun light trend - yes, the white is peaceful & timeless, but sometimes, as my friend heather says, you just have to put the "k" back in klassy!

heads or tails?

oh. my. gosh.

i was just opening the blinds for the morning, when out of the corner of my eye i noticed window writing leftover from my party that i had missed! i'm not sure if that's the sign of a great party or poor housekeeping! :)

happy saturday!

some things never change!

man - when i was a girl, i had a poster of don johnson on my wall. i loved miami vice! i thought it was the coolest, most provocative show i'd ever seen. so i am sitting here, waiting for curtis to come home, and what do i see on the 'guide' but... miami vice! hooray! until i turn to it, and realize sonny crockett is wearing a pale blue tapered denim jacket, with the cuffs rolled up & the pockets ripped off. with his feathered hair and high waisted jeans... mmmm! HA! oh wow! new scene - the neck of his tshirt is even ripped! this is sweet! jeepers - maybe i still love miami vice!

painful!

good morning, everyone.

as a public service announcement, i feel the need to say, "Don't go see 'A Christmas Carol' at the Raleigh Memorial Auditorium." i went with kyra's 5th grade class last night - and it was a waste of my evening. the classic story, which has endured the test of time for a reason, was rewritten into snarky one-liners based largely on television commercials & current news items. for instance - nephew fred says to uncle scrooge, "getting christmas spirit is so easy, a caveman can do it!" and a caveman ala geico walks across the stage shaking his head. or when scrooge crawls into bed, he find his teddy bear, "mohammed". there were also big musical numbers (which i am not opposed to on principle, mind you), that at one point had scrooge in a las vegas elvis white jumpsuit. and let's not even mention that the ghost of christmas future was "marilyn manson" - leaping from his coffin in full manson get up. and to top it all off, it ran almost 3 hours.

kyra had fun...and i loved being with her. she looked so grown up ("dress to impress") and beautiful. but i'd rather have taken her for dinner & had some quality time.

at least the tickets were free...

painting the sky

this is the sky last night.... painted a reckless pink that colored even the light in my livingroom, changing all the colors to something warmer & rarer. I know, in my head, that the light refracts through the atmosphere and all that... but in my heart, I think God must take such joy in creating that sort of sky - he who created the atmosphere surely knew what it would do when the dying light of day hit it just right - demonstrating the merest drop of his great beauty. i, for one, was taken in by it...

imetmark

there are not enough words to tell the story of my brother-filled weekend. suffice it to say that there were birthday gifts .... (i love this thing!! does anyone know if it has an official name??)


... there was a party... a very, very loud party ...

....and there were prizes...

there were also flight delays & cancellations, approx. 7 hours of sleep in 2 nights, and much laugher, mockery & general goodwill toward man.

now if you will excuse me, i need to take a nap.

the boys

so -my brothers arrived last night, and due to a late plane for one of them & and early departure for the other they both got here within 40 minutes of each other... after midnight. needless to say, i went to bed before they did...the sound of the two of them giggling like little girls music to my ears (tho i was sad they were having fun without me!!! but i was so tired i almost threw up, so... ) now it's saturday morning, and they are still abed. :) so now we're off to the girls piano recital without them, and hopefully they'll be full of beauty sleep and our day will "begin"!

this is a beautiful thing, this sort of celebration. Even if it makes me tired....