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I went along to a friend’s church today to speak briefly on the theme of Satisfaction. Without getting into the subject too much, the whole day was comprised of a hearty breakfast, Zumba workout, lunch, cake, me chatting followed by … Continue reading
Leave it to me to find a quality way of sending out 2009 with a bang- or rather a crunch! Rob and I were in California, 8 hours behind Big Ben, and I was shopping at a particular strip-mall in my hometown. Just before heading into the shop I noticed that it was about quarter to 4 in the afternoon and that our friends in London would be ringing in the new year in just minutes.
I headed into the store, didn’t find what I wanted, walked back out and carefully put the car into reverse. I was backing out like nobody’s granny (overly cautious not having driven in the last 15 months) under the watchful eye of my husband as well when all of a sudden I find myself engaged with a gentleman’s passenger door. Happy New Year I tell you. Thankfully insurance covered it all and nobody seemed too bothered, aside from yours truly who was and still am quite convinced he was at fault for driving too quickly. Eight hours later we celebrated our own new years in the safety of my mom’s home, cozy with lots of food to munch.
If you’ve followed my blog you’ll know that last year was a struggle. I’m content to see it leave it’s dusty footprints on the way out and looking forward to getting dug into 2010. Having only returned from our trip the first week of February it seems like we’ll have an 11 month year rather than the traditional 12. Fine by me.
I’m in the process of resolving some things. I’m not into resolutions because I don’t have the resolve to stick to a year’s worth of rules and don’ts just because ‘they’ say you should make them. Yet I am aware of the great opportunity to make things different in returning to London after a good deal of time away. If only I hadn’t been fighting a terrible cold for 3 weeks once we returned I might have made a better start of this. But nevertheless I’m going to start a rough sort of list of things I’m intending on for 2010 and beyond.
1. Having fun. I love fun. I’ve never been particularly un-fun. But I think my fun was spoiled last year and this year I refuse to give up my fun and I’m going to look at ways of creating fun every day. At least every week anyways. As a matter of fact, I’ve already applied for a fun job- playing games with adults (www.thefunfed.com)!
2. Creating. Not only will I create fun but I will make many more things- baked goods, meals, 
needlepoint, clothing, furniture, photos, things for the house, and a whole lot more. I’ve got off to a decent start having turned Rob’s old leopard print laptop case into a cushion, framed a pic we brought back from Venice Beach, begun a needlepoint project with dear ol’ Frankenstein and the phrase ‘What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Stronger’, and I’ve cooked homemade soup nearly every night for a few weeks. I’ve altered some clothing that’s been on the back burner for a while and I’ve got a jewelery project waiting for my attention on behalf of a friend.
3. Relationships. I majored in marine biology partly due to the fact that I’d rather hang out with fish who can’t complain and get all complicated on you. Clearly God has other plans for me and wants people and all their complexities and dirt and wonderful goodness to rub off on me. And I think I’m feeling more prepared to get dirty, with the help of both numbers 1 and 2. I am determined to make this work come riches or poverty!
4. Spend less time online. EnergySuckingLifeDrainingTimeConsumingMachineOfEvil. I love the internet but I spend half my time on it doing jack squat. I check my email wayyyyy too much, act as if Facebook is the ‘real world’, and just lose out on a lot of 1, 2, and 3 as a result of being online too much. I need restrictions. See my previous blog post on the matter.
5. Find Shalom. As stated a couple posts back I’m really aching for some serious shalom to park itself in the centre of my life. I want to learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I want to live freely and lightly. All this is found with the Divine Him and within my enhanced relationships. I’m endeavoring to do the Prayer of Examen every night for Lent in an attempt to evaluate my day’s successes and failures so that time doesn’t swish by so quickly and so that I can find that place of rest each day.
6. Get a haircut and get a real job. Why yes I did just use a George Thorogood song there… my apologies if that offends your musical sensibilities. I have, in fact, owned the cassette single of that song in my lifetime. Yikes. Anyways, yes I need a job to maintain my haircut, my household, my social life, to care for the people I love (the known and the stranger), to help my church grow, and to get out of friggin debt. If you’re hiring, I’m really lovely, quite employable, and fairly desperate.
7. Read more. There’s an awesome bookshop here called Daunt’s. There’s one up by Hampstead Heath that I love because of it’s location especially. Their books are all arranged by world region, as it use to be a travel bookstore but now it hosts other literature as well. I said when I first moved to the area that I’d like to some day read one book from each section at Daunt’s. I got about half way through Notes from the Underground by Russian author Dostoyevsky but it was a bit too bleak for me so I need to get back on that bandwagon. And armed with my library card I don’t see why not. Presently I’m reading Eyeless in Gaza by Aldous Huxley. I can’t say I’m making my way through it too speedily but I’m going to stick with it.
I’m sure that I could add several more to that list but seven seems like a really good number and a great start for the year (off the top of my head I could easily add ‘drink more wine’ to that list!). I welcome suggestions on crafty projects, recipes, good books, activities to do with friends, people with money to give/pay me, and just general hellos and relational type greetings of the interweb and non-interweb sort :0) Have a great year!!
Tea Towl image: dollarstorecrafts.com
Today I was doing some reflection, meditation and praying when a somewhat odd thought occurred to me: the comparison of zen versus shalom. I recall that zen is a Buddhist principle that has sort of slipped into the mainstream, echoing thoughts of harmony, peace, and happiness. I’m guessing that I’m like most people (correct me if I’m wrong) in probably not really knowing the first thing about zen but being guilty of boiling it down to a set of steps one takes to reach perfection, perhaps confusing it with nirvana, the highest state of enlightenment. What I find interesting is that it’s made its way into popular culture in new age philosophies and self help advice.
People are consistently looking for a way to achieve peace and harmony- to supersede their struggles and endure (if not overcome) suffering. It’s common to all that is human- perhaps it’s an essential component of our humanity. Yet the Buddhist idea of zen or nirvana takes the shape of working towards some high goal of perfection (going through cycles of karma to attain to it) and while my point isn’t to argue philosophy, theology or religion here, I find it personally to be daunting and terrifying that I could never reach such a state in my own power. How utterly hopeless.
And yet, in the Judeo-Christian context we have a state known as Shalom. I’ve heard it interpreted so many different ways: peace, prosperity, wholeness. To be true it’s probably an amalgumation of all those words- and how awesome does that sound?! And the ‘good news’ is that this personal freedom is not earned by one’s own strength or perfection- it’s a perfectly free gift.
As I thought about these two ideas, the words of Jesus came to me:
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and humble of heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30)
You may not be all that informed on farming practices of the ancient middle east (or even of today), so you may not know what a yoke is. It’s not the yellow thing in an egg; it’s the wooden piece that holds two oxen together as they plow a field or haul a cart. In that culture the word was often used to symbolise the teachings of a rabbi – a philosophy, set of beliefs or interpretations that determined the way a person lived. Some people today live by the yoke of Oprah or Doctor Phil. Some by the teachings of the Buddha.
What Jesus was saying is, ‘Take up my slant on things, my way of life. Follow me- my way is a way of peace and rest.’ Jesus was promising shalom to his followers. Check out The Message paraphrase:
Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me– get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me– watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.
Count me in! Life, rest, rhythm, grace, freedom and lightness. It just does my soul good thinking about it. I’ve been so wanting to find a rhythm in life, and who doesn’t! So many people feel there isn’t enough time for what they *really* want to do in life, pulled in 1000 directions. And if you go the route of most self-help guru’s you gotta work your butt off at getting that kind of ‘wholeness’ you crave.
Perhaps I’m a simpleton after all, but I’ll take Jesus up on his words and see if he delivers. And what really comforted me in reading that paraphrase was that he said he wouldn’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on us. How often does religion try to force a one-size-fits-all yoke on every single one of us? How does this make us struggle and stumble around and compare ourselves and judge one another? It’s a fact– I googled it– yokes are even to this day tailor-made to fit the oxen that will wear it. The maker takes into account the size of the animal, the work that it’ll be performing, and no doubt the animal’s yoke changes with time and growth. So how can we force particulars on people who decide to take up Jesus’ yoke? He’s the one sharing that yoke with them, standing immediately beside them, teaching them to move forward in life and to achieve that shalom. He’s the maker of the yoke they both share and he carries the brunt of its weight.
So while the idea of zen, nirvana and enlightenment may be applaudable on the one hand in that it encourages people to improve their lives and seek peace, it falls drastically short of the most necessary component in achieving wholeness and shalom: Christ.
