Words Worth Sharing

These words from 6 Year Med M.D.

"You're the first person who has taken this seriously. I just want to thank you for that."

Sometimes, when you don't believe there is any hope left, you must speak it into being.

This mother was doing that for her daughter. I don't believe that she thought I was taking the complaint seriously. But I believe she saw that I had the potential to do so.

Sometimes, you must speak it aloud. Even if it is in a whisper, or an unintelligible groan.

Truth needs air.

Compassion Bloggers September Assignment

This is a post of love.

It is with pure love I tell you how much it has meant for me to be the sponser of Hakiza and his family. I haven't blogged about it before because I wasn't sure if I should. Does that sound crazy?

Then I got the email about the September assignment from Compassion International telling me to blog about the child I sponsor and what it has meant to me. I've been thinking about how to describe this experience. Instead I will just share my little one with you.

This is Hakiza. He is 12 years old and is in grade 3. He has 4 brothers and sisters and his parents work as farmers when work is available. His letter was dictated to a child development officer but Hakiza signed it himself.

"Your beloved son Hakiza says hello to you and sends love plus greetings from all his family members. He says he has drawn these good patterns for you to know so far what they study in "Writing" subject. He says he loves you so much.
He says they are now having some rainfalls unlike before when it was windy and sunny. Hakiza says he has a verse for you from Romans 8:35. He says it helps him to know that nothing should separate him from the love of Christ.
He says he likes playing football these days especially when it is games time and he is at school. He says he is requesting you to pray for him to work hard in class and make it to grade four next year.
He says he loves you so much and wishes you a lot of God's blessings.

from your child H A K I Z A"

In his first letter he asked that I pray that he would not "fall sick". His area is a designated HIV/AIDS high risk region.

How is it possible that I can love a child I have never touched, heard or held? I love my little Hakiza and I want the best for him: food, shelter and hope for the future.

I know that my $32 every month makes a difference in the life of his family. And I am happy to be one of the 256 bloggers for Compassion International.

I picked Hakiza because he had been waiting the longest for a sponsor.

Click here for children who have waited over 6 months for a sponsor.

Words of Gratitude, Kindness, Friendship

Thank you for encouraging me to do what is good for me. And for helping me to understand it is not selfish to take care of myself. You've been a friend when I needed it most: listening patiently, offering a hug, allowing me to cry.

Thank you for understanding the give and take of friendship and knowing, somehow instinctively, when I had nothing left to give.

Thank you for understanding my food allergies. (Does Hallmark have a card for that???....well they should...). I didn't even know what gluten was until I found out how sick it was making me. Thanks for taking it seriously.

Thank you for your positive thoughts and energy. Thank you for your prayers.

Thank you for every moment we have spent together. Time with you is joy, laughter, life itself.

Thank you for being my friend.

Have I told you about Biscuet?

I live in China. I teach. I blog. I love people.

I like this blog. Check out his archive, especially the video blogs of life in China and the photo gallery. Oh and...I got an email from him! ( I can say for sure, if you email him...he would email you too)

...........this was the draft post I had sitting waiting for me to finish, and then Biscuet (he has a real name too) posted this about dreams. I love these words (used with permission).

Dream Bigger... Dreams of hope and joy invading our lives and the world around us. Dreams of doing something extraordinary so that when you leave this earth it has more of a flavor of heaven because you dared to live fully alive.

There seems to be a constant lesson for me to hold loosely to my dreams. I’m not into planning out my life, but i do love to dream about it. I love to dream about what stirs me, changes me and shakes me up. Sometimes i want all the answers and sometimes i just want to dream. Lately, i’ve been wanting to see the next step so i can take it. The honest truth is that the next step is right here. It’s today.

Click here to read the full post.

The Wisdom Women

Just got home from our first night out with the girls...I mean women, from The Bakery. So I must blog about it!

I decided to call them The Wisdom Women because of our collective life experiences.

wisdom

The ability to discern or judge what is true, right, or lasting; insight.

1. Common sense; good judgment: “It is a characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things” (Henry David Thoreau).
2. 1. The sum of learning through the ages; knowledge: “In those homely sayings was couched the collective wisdom of generations” (Maya Angelou).
   2. Wise teachings of the ancient sages.
3. A wise outlook, plan, or course of action.

That definition definitely applies to these women. Wise choices all around: food, place and people. We met at The Bakery in the late afternoon and I do think the men were a little envious although they would be loathe to admit it. What would we talk about?, was asked as if this male couldn't imagine it would be any different from the words we exchange while in The Bakery. But it was.

As the light changed from our restaurant window overlooking the river we sampled the food of Lebanon just as we have all sampled the experiences of life. We shared the platters of appetizers, entrees and desserts while we simultaneously shared the stories of our lives and how we all came to be in The Bakery.

I'm not going to tell you what we talked about but there was lots of laughter along with insight. And no tears although we did get serious for a minute or two. And we're definitely going to do it again. The only question is: Greek food or Southern BBQ?

The Wisdom Women of The Bakery. All six of us.

Do not covet thy neighbour's life.

That's one of the commandments, right?

Well, almost.

The Pioneer Woman isn't my neighbour but I wish she was. And sometimes I wish I had her life. Even though I know that's not a good thing. First of all I really don't like to be close to horses. And my knees aren't strong enough for ranching. But it seems to me she rides around in a car or pickup truck quite a bit taking pictures of the Marlborough Man and her punks(that's what she calls her kids). I could do that. Here's a post about the punks' horses (click to link),

Before I start sounding all jealous and bitter....let me say I think she's awesome. And she just makes her life look so dadgum good. And she gets to use words like dadgum because she lives on a ranch. I don't even know what dadgum means and I've used it three times already. See I really wouldn't make a good Pioneer Woman. Here's a few words about The Pioneer Woman herself:

I hope you enjoy my website, ThePioneerWoman.com. Here, I write about my decade-long transition from spoiled city girl to domestic country wife. I post photos of cows, horses, and my four weird children, and frequently include shots of cowboys wearing chaps.

Now even though her blog is copyrighted, I think she'll appreciate me sending more people over. As if she doesn't already have enough when you see hundreds of comments...hundreds! Really. I'm not jealous. OK so go over there if you want for a few minutes and look at the latest pictures of Marlborough Man. I'll wait here for you, no problem.....................

........................................gee, you took a long time. Are you coveting yet? It's hard not to like pictures like this:

and this:

Look at her baby boy on the big horse! Oh my! There's more of these right here including a picture of the baby calf she's feeding since it was rejected by it's mom. Awwww....

So I know I've blogged about this before (only once) but I just wanted to share my endless fascination with ranch life. There's lots of good reading and recipes, photography tips, homeschooling, home renovations, horse riding, giveaways, contests and good clean fun. Except when they are roping calves. And then everyone gets kinda dirty. She apparently does a lot of laundry. Very entertaining. And she can sing like Ethel Merman too. Dadgum, this girl's good.

My coveting is just thinly veiled admiration. With a little innocent blog envy.

Chosen.

One word can transform a life.

At church we routinely say a prayer for vocations. That includes the married and single life. The first time I heard it I understood something about my own life.

Every 2 weeks we pass that prayer around the parish and a volunteer diligently prays daily for vocations. It includes the line:

...those who are chosen to live the single life...

It asks for the special graces needed for each state in life.

Chosen.

That's the word my friend heard for the first time. She was chosen to live the single life. Since then she no longer wonders why no one wanted to marry her. And she gives her time: in the church, in the community and especially in her family.

One word transformed the purpose of her life.


Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind.
~~Romans 12:2