Red Dress

There is just something about wearing red that makes you feel sassy! You feel like you can take on the world! This weekend I had the honor and pleasure of being a bridesmaid in my friend Claire's wedding. It was a lot of fun dressing like a princess for the day. I have NEVER had that much hair spray in my hair in my life! It was rather amazing what Eunice did with a curling iron and 30 bobby pins.

It was great fun socializing and eating wedding cake! I was so glad to be a part of their special day!

I hope that you and yours have a really special day some time soon!

Peace out,
Mary

Princess

Sometimes in life you get to be a princess! It is a lot easier to do when you are five and have costumes and plastic shoes at the ready. Luckily, there are times when you get to be a princess as an adult. Getting married is one of those times! But you know, it is sad that we treat people like a princess (or a prince) only at certain times of life or on certain days.

I think, perhaps, we should treat people like they are important, valued, and special every day! Perhaps that is a better and more healthy way to live life.

Can you make the waitress at your favorite restaurant feel valued? Do your children feel special, every day? Did you put a love note in someone's lunch box today? Does that special person in your life know, without a doubt, that he or she is the most important person in your life? Did you act, really act, on the feelings of love and affection you have? Did you do it today? If you didn't do it already, do it now!

One of my new favorite bands is SuperChik. You can check them out at http://www.superchickonline.com/_v2/index.php

The last song on their latest album starts off with a verse about a mother who didn't tell her son that she loved him before he left for the day. He died before he returned home that day. The chorus goes like this...

We live we love
We forgive and never give up
Cuz the days we are given are gifts from above
Today we remember to live and to love
We live we love
We forgive and never give up
Cuz the days we are given are gifts from above
Today we remember to live and to love

I am going to remember to live and to love today!


Off to make someone else feel important...

Peace out,
Mary

Prayer

I am taking a class about Jewish Prayer this semester. It has really pushed me to think about prayer in the context of the community. My Protestant Liberal mind has trouble understanding that I cannot do things alone. Here are some thoughts I had this week in my journal entry for class.

Peace out,
Mary

Prayer is connected in a deep and intimate way to the world, to God, and to the God's people. The interactions do not work like a flow chart but more like a web that binds the individual and community closer to God than the individual can do alone. Individuals pray but they use the words of the community and thereby engraft themselves into the community in prayer. Kaplan explains, “in order that our participation in communal worship shall enable us to experience the presence of God by bringing into operation our gregarious nature, it is necessary that we feel strongly our identification with the worshiping community and the totality of its interests.” The Jewish community must be a part of the individual’s prayers for those prayers to have context and to make sense. Heschel echoes that when he writes, “we start with a personal concern and live to feel the utmost, for the fare of the individual is a counterpoint in a larger theme.” It is within the community that the individual understands that he or she is a smaller part of an immense picture. It is when you stand beside the ocean that you realize just how small and insignificant you are. The relationship with God makes the individual infinitely significant through God’s love.

Similarly, it is as an infinitesimal part of the picture that we can see the world differently through prayer. Heschel also writes, “we do not step out of the world when we pray; we merely see the world in a different setting.” Prayer allows the individual to see rightly and to orient him or herself on God while out of God’s presence here in the world. Heschel also writes, “We constantly pour our inner light away from Him, setting up the thick screen of self between Him and us, adding more shadows to the darkness that already hovers between Him and our wayward reason.” The community shows the individual how to reorient the light and pulls back the screen. We need to know who we are and to whom we belong. Kaplan also echoes this thought, “The worshipper is made aware of the reality of God and His sway over the human heart, when he joins with the throng in public worship.” Kaplan also explains it this way, “Realizing that others share our needs, our hopes, our fears, and our ideals we no longer feel dependent entirely on our own efforts for our salvation.” We human beings think that we are the center of the universe, that we can control our destiny, and that we are created rather than creation. As Kaplan says, “We see God in relation to the community using it as a reference point.” The community holds up the mirror to show us that this is not the case, and therefore serves as a beacon on the ocean so that the individual can move to the right longitude and latitude to be in relationship with God.

I believe that I have been misinterpreting communal prayer for a long time. I thought it to be restricting, boring, and even trite on occasion. However, I must admit that I was wrong! I cannot pray on my own little island all the time. I need the community, the communion of saints to shape my prayers and help me orient on my creator.

Up and up...

What a great feeling that was, climbing to the top of my parents' magnolia tree with my sister and my friends. You could see forever up there at the top. The breeze was so invigorating! Sometimes the tree would be a pirate ship. Sometimes it was the Bat Cave. (We did have to suspend reality for that one...the elevator for the Bat Cave had to go up instead of down!) When you are nine years old, it is so easy to suspend reality. Perhaps, we adults should take a clue from the kids in our lives. Where is the joy in your life? Where do we put aside the harsh reality of life and enjoy it!

I am learning that you need to put down all the junk and live a little. I am listening to more music. I am taking better care of myself. I am spending time with my friends and family. I no longer am stuffing my schedule full so that I don't have to spend time on myself. I am spending time with myself and realizing that I am pretty cool!

I claim happiness! God created me to feel joy with the pain. I am choosing the joy!

Peace out,
Mary

Power of water

Today I did something that not many people get the privledge to do, I was used by the Holy Spirit to speak the word of God. Pretty cool actually! People say that there is nothing that can prove God's existence. If that is the case, then I could not do what I do. I am not the person who lives for public speaking. I do it with fear and trepidation. I lack some self confidence (which I am addressing with psychotherapy, I might add), the ability to tell jokes, lots of clever stories, and that sexy, velvety radio announcer voice. Luckily, all of that is irrelevant when you deal with the Holy Spirit. If you listen for what the HS wants you to tell God's people, you do a good job! I grasped tightly to that the whole time I prepared. It is so funny, though, that the HS told me to say things through my research. I was still nervous since my parents were in the congregation!

This is the message that the Holy Spirit wanted out and about: You do not have to stay as a sinful, ugly, jagged parking lot rock. You can ask Jesus to be your Lord and Savior and be immediately washed smooth through Jesus' sacrifice like a beautiful skipping rock is worn smooth in the power of the river. Jesus has some pretty powerful water to wash clean all my sins.

Life as a conduit is pretty darn cool!

Peace out,
Mary Frances

Joy

There are times in your life where joy seems like a tangible thing. Kindergarten seems full of those. When else in your life can you strip down to your underwear and paint whatever you want? No one has told you that you can't draw, so you draw these fabulous pictures. No one has told you that you aren't pretty or perfectly proportioned so you are still comfortable in your own skin. Everyone is your friend in Kindergarten, even the kid who spends lots of time in time out. You are beginning to get a handle on how this thing called life works. Everything is an adventure!

I think I am in the middle of returning to kindergarten. I have found a joy in life that has been missing for a long, long time. I am finally becoming comfortable in my own skin again. I have made a new friend who has opened my eyes to some cool stuff. I am being a better friend to a lot of people. I am beginning to get into an equilibrium in my life. I could use some adventure though!

Joy to the World,
Mary Frances

Fabulous People

Sometimes you just need to sit and realize how fabulous the people that surround you in life are. I have two creative, smart, wonderful, and beautiful children. I have some really great friends who have been there for me in tangible ways during the last two crazy years of my life. I have a best friend who has listened to all my stories. I have a new friend who just amazes me. My friend singing above has such a sweet spirit and encourages everyone she talks to. I am very lucky!

Life is good!
Mary

Hero

A hero. Some one you look up to usually because they are smarter or stronger or better looking. What is it that makes us need to compare ourselves to others?

My daughters met their heroes today. We drove three hours to see a concert at the Cotton Ginning Days festival. What a treat! The Peasall Sisters were lovely! The music was wonderful and the weather was just right for a festival. Life is good!

Peace out,
Mary

www.peacehall.com

Change

Catalyst...
9,000 Christian leaders all in one small space! What could be better? Not my best photograph but I was impacted by the conference. You would think that I could just ignore the speakers. But, no. One of the speakers spoke directly to me about something I have been struggling with. God is great and mysterious!

www.catalystconference.com

Peace out,
Mary

First timer

First days...
The first day of school...what a monumental occasion. Everything is new. You know no one. The world really is your oyster as you enter Kindergarten. Funny, that you hardly even remember such a beginning.

Here are thoughts and photos about my life and when my life intersects other people's lives.

Peace out,
Mary