Month: January 2010
Slow Down
Slow Family Living is a revolution in the way we think about, embrace and implement family living. It was born out of our belief that family life is being hijacked by society’s messages that more is better, faster is greater and that you and your children are at risk of being left behind, unless you buy in NOW.
It is about allowing family life to unfold in a way that is joyfully and consciously connected. This means slowing it down, finding comfort in the home, and creating the space to see and honor the family as an entity, while simultaneously keeping sight of each member as a unique and valuable individual.
We believe that family life can serve as the incubator for deeper compassion, creativity, love, harmony, humor, appreciation, respect, fun, ingenuity, conflict resolution, peace, friendship, growth, communication and,perhaps above all else, true, unending and powerful joy.
As we intentionally give value and space to family life, we are thereby creating a force — with a sum greater than its parts — that can then flow out into the local and the global communities.
We hold this as truth, that the peace and the harmony we want to exist within the world, can be created within the family first, by bringing it home and lovingly, consciously and intentionally slowing life down.
~ via The Slow Family Manifesto (emphasis mine)
change in plans
Good morning! Happy Saturday. How’s your weekend been so far? I’ve had a pretty great time and it’s already Saturday morning. Last night after work I went to pick up a few things for my valentine exchange partner–so fun! It felt like I was filling a stocking for myself. I also popped into a health food store to pick up a few things including my beloved LaraBars. I don’t generally buy them because they are PRICY–$2.29 each and it makes Matt want to shout Swedish curse words at me. A few weeks ago I made my OWN “Lara Bars” at home. Victory! But yesterday I saw Cinnamon Roll AND chocolate…so I had to by them. Hi my name’s Cait and my special treat is a LaraBar. Sigh.
I also picked up some cashew butter. It’s like peanut butter but a million times better. SO.GOOD.
We went to waterloo for a last minute dinner with a group of friends. We drank wine out of juice glasses, ate a delicious meal and laughed a lot. Did you know that researchers think that on average children laugh 300 times a day? I think I laughed at least 300 times last night.
Our plan was to head out for our long run today, but my knee has been really bothering me since the end of last week’s long run. I managed to run hills Monday, but took Wednesday off for good measure. Because it’s not feeling 100% I am going to take today off too. I’m scared of getting an hour out there and deciding I can’t run any further and being stuck walking home in minus 10 weather. Not a good idea. So, no running until our ultimate game tomorrow. Boo.
But of course that does free up a couple hours–so I am going to work on a craft for my package, eat some more toast (with cashew butter, naturally) and drink tea…a photo taking walk might also been in the cards.
Tonight we’re heading an hour and a half into the boonies to see other friends…with a hot tub. BONUS.
To sign off, here is a photo of Matt from Monday night after an ordeal of locking the keys in the trunk at the place where we run hills. Our car has no trunk pop anywhere inside the car. We also have only ONE set of car keys. Matt lost the other set. Needless to say, took about 3 hours and endless calls and missions to finally get someone who knew how to get keys out of a trunk without being a locksmith that cost over $100. I think Matt was tired at the end of the ordeal.
I don’t know what the church is either…
Hell, I don’t know what the church is. Jesus said something about the fact that He was going to build the church. He did say that nothing would prevail over it . . . even the gates of Hell, but He didn’t ask me to build it. And He certainly didn’t ask me to define it. I believe the church is at work in the world only because of my faith in this Jesus person. Trouble is, I don’t know what Jesus is up to or where His church is. That’s good because if I found the church then I’d give it a name and start running it.
Will Campbell, “Interview with The Wittenburg Door,” in Writings on Reconciliation and Resistance, 71-72.
do you think?
A thousand words
One of my 10 in 2010 is to take more pictures…
Paint the Solar System on the back of your hand…
deb introduced me to spoken word performance and since, i have come to love it.
this one is particularly beautiful. and true.
I hope you enjoy.
BizNAZZZZzzz
Things that do not matter
Some things do not matter. In fact, a lot of things don’t matter. For instance- nice cars, how many facebook friends you have, your fashion sense, how nice your house is, what your job title is, whether or not everyone likes you, what you look like, what you do on a Saturday night. A lot of things don’t matter.
Here are some things that do matter; your family, your friends, your partner, the health of all of these people, the safety of all of these people, justice, peace and doing what’s right. Grace matters.
Ironically, I spend 90% of my head space worrying about the above list and 90% of my time taking advantage of the lower list. Why are we so drawn to the trivial? Why do we spend so much time fighting for things that don’t matter. Social media and facebook in particular are terrible for us because so often people post about the most asinine things. About what they bought or what they wish they bought (I’ve been guilty of this too). Heck, half the time this blog is a random grab bag of the most RANDOM things inside my brain. Often trivial things. Sometimes not.
The question becomes, how do we make sure that we’re spending adequate time loving the people in our lives? Being happy they are safe and well. How often do we offer gratitude to the One that makes it possible or to the universe? Today I spent a fair amount of time worrying about not going to a work event- I felt guilty…like I would be deemed ungrateful. I was worried about what people would think of me. But then I came home and turned my brain on and realized that tonight I am choosing to be with the people who matter to me, with my friends. I am choosing to do this knowing full well we all won’t always be together, there won’t always be nights like this; nights where the main goal is to celebrate life.
We’ve all seen the total chaos in Haiti…and the crazy thing is–is that Haiti can happen in our own lives… We live in a broken world and we cannot escape the brokenness. Here’s what we can do. We can pray for those who are in need; who need healing and love and food and their health. We can dig deep and really love the people in our lives. We can let go of grudges. We can look for little pieces of God in every thing. We can take big breaths. And exhale slowly. We can stop trying to GAIN MATERIAL possessions and start gaining some character…we can stop being losers on facebook.
And tonight we can celebrate life, humbly, not knowing what the future holds.
Further Down the Road 