What I learned from the fish.

A few weeks ago, I was reading a friend's blog, about her incredible experiences during a semester abroad in Jerusalem.  She's inspiring and magnificent. Something that really stuck with me was what her friend, Basaam, taught her one day.

"He reminded me of a truth that I have forgotten, and that is that the older we get the faster the hours, days and months seem to go, only because we grow accustomed to everything around us. As a child, time seems to be drawn out because every second, every breath and glance, are filled with newness and discovery. The key to a long, successful life does not hinge on the number of years we are walking on this earth but rather to the state of curiosity and constant learning in which we walk day to day."

"Wow," I thought.  "That is so neat! Curiosity and constant learning, yeah!"
But then I misapplied the truth of it.  I turned inward and found myself wishing that I, like her, were writing in my journal in places where Jesus actually walked , picking olives off of real olive trees and making olive oil,  and taking classes like "Biblical Hebrew."   I started to long for my life as a student where I felt like I was constantly curious and constantly learning, rather than my life now, which is sometimes a Groundhog Dayish hamster wheel of mundane cooking and cleaning.  I chose to look around and look back, instead of look up, and it was gnawing on me and pulling me down.

And then, we went to the zoo.  We just took a little trip to the zoo to get out of the house and look at the indoor fish aquariums and pet the sharks. As we were looking at all the different kinds of fish, it dawned on me the vastness of the creations in the world and how much there is to learn about everything around us, all the time.   We started chatting with the worker in the shark-petting room and Ethan was asking her some questions, and she was encouraging his curiosity and asking him questions back.  We picked her brain for about a half hour and walked back to the big aquarium:
"What is that one called?"  "How come those eels don't eat the other fish?  How many fish do the dolphins eat every day?  How do you get all those fish?  Where do you keep them?"

It was so fun to be curious and to be learning! Duh, Em, you don't have to go to Jerusalem and make olive oil.  This is it, right here!  You can learn about fish.  And, you are learning so much every day!  You are learning to be selfless, you are learning to be kind, you are learning to love, you are learning to take simple joys in the God's creations, you are learning to care for a family, to deal with tantrums at the grocery store, to keep the attention of 6 preschoolers, to throw 5 year-old birthday parties...  You ARE constantly learning!

On the way to the zoo I felt tired of winter, tired of being "stuck" at home with two little kids, tired of so many responsibilities, and well, just tired. On the way home, I felt energized and excited about life and a teensy little bit smarter about one little thing out of millions that there are to learn.  I felt renewed in my perspective that motherhood is a privilege, and that getting to be around my kids all the time gives me such an awesome example of constant curiosity and love for learning.

So that was my epiphany at the zoo.  It's been fun since then to make a habit of asking a million questions wherever we go--I've learned things I never knew before about dinosaurs, fire trucks, and well, life itself.

Look Up.  Find the Joy.   
(not  "Look around.  Wish you were somewhere else."  ha ha)

Em

Scriptural Conversation Hearts

When I was in college, a friend in choir asked me on February 13th (partly kidding):
"So, are you going to dress in all black tomorrow for Single Awareness Day?"

I whipped around with a look of disbelief, and replied:
"No, I am not.  I'm going to wear as much red and pink as I possibly can, and walk around giving out chocolates and valentines to everyone I see. WHY DO PEOPLE THINK VALENTINE'S DAY IS ONLY CELEBRAT-ABLE IF YOU'RE DATING SOMEONE?!?!  Ugh."

He thought my response was endearing, and decided to join me in my craziness.  We raided Wal-Mart and each bought a "love bucket" to carry around our Back Street Boys Valentine's and chocolate hearts and pass them out to whoever we saw. We covered the chocolate hearts with foil and wrote on them with a red sharpie so that instead of "Be Mine,"  "Call Me," or "4 Ever," our hearts said "Suffereth Long,"  "Is Not Easily Provoked," and "Seeketh Not Her Own."  Oh, that was such a fun day.

I've toned down a bit since then (either I've gotten more mature or I've just become a fud, I'm not sure which), but I still really feel like Valentine's Day can be about a lot more than romantic love.

So, as you consider what to "give" the people you love for Valentine's Day (or any other day!) don't forget about the gift of true, Christ-like love. 

Here are a few thoughts:

Give someone the gift of "suffering long" with them.  Rather than being impatient, critical, or silent, choose to be supportive and understanding, not just with your words but with your THOUGHTS.

You can give the gift of not being easily provoked.  Rather than arguing over every little thing, keeping a tally of tit for tat, or getting defensive about things, choose to be calm, respectful, and gentle.

You can give the gift of being someone who "believeth all things."  I feel so great around people who believe in me, who believe in miracles, who believe in something bigger than themselves, and who believe in the power of love.  I view it as a gift they give to me when they choose to approach life in this way.

Well, I personally would choose these gifts things over chocolate or flowers any day. :)  You?


There's plenty more where that came from!  Here's an article I read in 2000 that has a really cool chart that details out each attribute of charity and ways that you can live each one, as well as obvious and not so obvious ways that we can know we're NOT living them.  I have a photocopy of the original article and I review the chart every few months just to see how I'm doing at learning to love the way God loves.
 Agency and Love in Marriage


Wouldn't it be awesome if conversation hearts really said, "Suffereth Long?" 
Well, if I ever decide to market scriptural conversation hearts (ha!) I will probably leave out, "Is Not Puffed Up."  I don't think girls would like to read that as they pop sugar into their mouths...

You can now leave comments on this blog! What a novel idea!

So one of my friends just told me today that he had tried to leave a comment on my blog but it didn't work.

"Hmmm," I thought.  "That's odd." 

So I went into my permissions and realized that I had not checked the right box, and so it was set-up so that nobody could leave comments.

Ha!  Great idea, Em.  Send a message out to your facebook friends and tell them to come check out your new blog but block them from being able to make any comments.  Call it a "Living Room" and tell people you want their insights, but then just deny them when they try to share.  Awesome.

Right now I kinda feel like when you are in the middle of telling someone something really important over the phone, and you realize they haven't said anything for awhile and so you say, "are you still there?..... Hello?...."

Silence.   You look at your phone and see the welcome screen.

And then you think,  "Good grief.  How long have I been talking to myself??!?!?!?!"

This is hilarious.  

Well, I think I have now successfully fixed the problem.  So you are now free to move about the cabin.  And leave a comment.  :)