Books, Friends, and a Good Meal: Friday's Fave Five

Friday August 19, 2011 Can you name five blessings from your week? Susanne from Living to Tell the Story hosts Friday’s Fave Five each week. Click on over and see her if you’d like to join in!

FFF Friends, I've been so busy my first week back at school! I'm hoping to get around to leave more comment love this weekend.

Here are my favorites from this week:

1. Chicken pot pie. This was my son’s last week at home, so I cooked for him. One of his requests was Chicken Pot Pie. It had been a while since I’d made it, and I’d forgotten how good it is! We all enjoyed it that night, and I took it to school for lunches a couple of days, too. (Barbara, I think this recipe came from you!)

2. Community. Being back at school is its own kind of community. I do love the people I teach with. I love their hearts. It’s been great to be together, laugh together, and worship together this week.

3. Friends across the country. Sometimes it seems no matter where our boys go, someone we have known is there. Our youngest is stopping to stay with friends in Atlanta on his way back to college—a beloved football coach who’s married to a good teacher friend of mine. What a blessing to have friends like that, who take your kids in on short notice.

4. The pile of books by my bed. It’s a little frustrating knowing I can’t dive into them at will, but there’s a book lover’s security in knowing a book is waiting. (That probably sounds crazy! The other day I told the librarian I needed a book to get me through the weekend.) There’s a certain anticipation that goes along with that stack that sits by the bed.

5. This quote.

"A waiting person is a patient person. The word patience means the willingness to stay where we are and live the situation out to the full in the belief that something hidden there will manifest itself to us." (Henri Nouwen)

Earlier this week I posted Keep Me Listening and Keep Me Faithful—all about waiting. This quote really spoke to my heart, especially the part about staying where we are and living the situation out to the full. A good reminder.

Hope your week ahead is filled with good books, good friends, and a homecooked meal or two!

No Mom Is an Island

Monday January 24, 2010

Is January taking its toll on you?

I know – it’s hard to get out. You don’t spend time at the playground or the park like you do in spring and summer.

It’s easy to get a bit closed off and neglect your need for community, for fellowship.

Don’t wait for warm weather to come. Reach out now. Chances the mom you call will be longing for community, too.

Maybe you’re out there every day – at work, with others. But you’re still going it alone. It gets lonely. You start thinking you’re the only one who feels the way you do. But don’t believe the lie.

From time immemorial, moms have doubted themselves. The best way to expel those doubts is to express them to another mom. You’ll quickly find that you’re in familiar territory.

And there’s safety in numbers – or at least, empathy.

John Donne said it best as he penned this in his Meditation XVII:

“No man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less…”

So, remember. No mom is an island. Not one of us is perfect, but we can be there for each other. We can learn from each other. If one be washed away or disregarded, motherhood will be the less.

Reach past the mid-winter blues, past the sameness of January, past all the self-doubt just piling up – and reach out for another mom or two. You’ll be glad you did.

Can you remember a time you were bolstered by community?