Highlights!

The first time I was introduced to the word 'highlights' I was sitting in the dr.'s office waiting for a shot I had to get before I would be allowed into Kindergarten. I sat there practically hating my mother for making me get a shot so imagine my growing calm as I found a magazine that was most surely published just for me for just that moment. Highlights magazine became the only good thing about going to the dr...seeing if there was a new issue so I could freshly mar the pages with mom's pen. I couldn't wait to connect the dots, find the objects hidden in pictures and learn how to grow a bean in a day.

The second time I notice the word 'highlight' a teacher asked me to tell everyone what the 'highlight' of my summer was. I realized immediately that 'highlight' equals 'the best part'. Just like the best part of the dr.'s office was the magazine (not the sucker) What was the highlight---the thing worth mentioning more than anything else.

Now in our church staff meetings each Tuesday we 'highlight' upcoming church programs. We make sure everything that has the possibility of impacting church members and visitors in a positive way, happens. We highlight the event so that the experience is meaningful and memorable for everyone involved. And I can't get through that part of the staff agenda without thinking about connecting the dots, finding the hidden meanings and how we might help grow new relationships. Highlights...not just for the young anymore :)

The Treacherous Path

Often we hear of staying clear of the treacherous path. We are told that we sin and then we are on the treacherous path. Temptation, the direction of sinfullness...the bad way. Today I wondered about being IN the treacherous path. What if I'm just walking along and I see the treacherous path from a distance? I'm not necessarily a part of the treacherous path but I can see it....over there...in progress. Today I'm thinking about being on the curb of that path, seeing it in progress and then making the decision to stay AWAY...to not 'step in'. That path is in sight and I can decide whether or not to step into it or step away. People spreading their hate, people talking about things that don't involve them...a path that moves like a rushing 6-lane city highway. It can only be dangerous. Make the decision today to turn around and stay out of that path.

Daydreaming

I just realized I haven't blogged in a bit. Apparently I've been distracted...for how long I'm not sure. Oh well, here I am and I had a thought so I'd better get writing!

During the summertime, I tend to get distracted. I'm always distracted BY the same things and FROM the same things. Things that distract me are sunshine, playing outside, grilling, daydreaming, bird watching and napping. Things I'm distracted FROM are work, running errands, housework and spiritual study. It's like my brain is on a summer vacation for way longer than I've been allowed by my employer. This summer has been especially difficult and I'm wondering how I'm going to get back on track. I'm also wondering if I'm the only one experiencing this distraction. I mostly get concerned about the distraction from spiritual study. I haven't picked up a biblical commentary or study in two months. But I have been talking to God about what fun I'm having this summer. Amazement at God's creation as birds swoop through the yard and earthworms nourish and break up the ground. I'm wondering if maybe it's okay to take a little break, be a little distracted and experience the childlike side of spirituality for an extended period of time...just letting myself experience God rather than chasing God through paragraphs in a book. Just my thought for the day.

The (Right) Stuff I'm talkin' bout

July 20, 1969, man walks on the moon. I'm happy to report that I was only one year old and don't remember this amazing moment in our nation's history. But for some reason I've always been intrigued by the story. In high school, my favorite movie was The Right Stuff. I decided that year that I would marry Ed Harris or Dennis Quaid...whichever asked me first. I watched this movie and was amazed mostly by the rigorous physical trials these individuals endured in order to be chosen to be on the team of those worthy enough to participate in the space program. I also fell in true love with Sam Shepherd as Chuck Yeager. What a man! He had all the ability and guts it took to excell over the highly book educated candidates but was never even a contender because of his lack of higher education.

We all know different personalities of Christians and other religions for that matter. We know those who have really big theology brains...those who have studied, dialoged and commentaried on every theological concept imaginable. I fell deep into that well in college. I mistook heady theology for spirituality. Then we know those who are all experience...all emotion...and never seem to sober up long enough to 'think'; decern for themselves what scripture says and how it will be applied to our own life. I think of how in The Right Stuff, there should have been a candidate who was the perfect combination of Chuck Yeager and the college boys. One who had the heart AND the brain in perfect alignment. I wonder if that's what we strive for in our relationship with God and in our practice of growing spiritually....that most healthy and worthy combination of heart and brain.

Big Red

We spent last week with my parents between Sequin and Gonzales. Of course that meant a dip in the Guadalupe EVERY day. Ever since I was 7 and my sister was born we have made many trips to our pecan farm and now our parents live only 3 miles away. We did everything we always do...make our daily pilgrimage to the river loaded down with our plastic chairs, water and towells. You have to go slow in the summer because 1, it's hot. But we also have to keep an eye out for critters...snakes, ants and other creations of God I can't explain. When we were little the biggest treat of all was for Dad to take us to Goss'. Goss has a convenience store that looks like something out of Hee Haw. There was always fly paper hanging from the ceiling, there is no 'actual' door but a sliding piece of tin that was shoved aside during business hours. After crossing the threshold we knew the way to the soda water cooler. I'd lift the lid and fish around till I found what we wanted. A glass bottle of Big Red. We turn around avoiding the hound dog laying just behind us and walk over to the little window inside where Goss was sitting waiting to take our money. Goss always wore a cowboy hat and we knew he was there when we saw that old Caddy with the horns on the hood. There is nothing better on a hot Texas day than that red suggary concoction. This past week, Dad took us and we bought it again...against the better judgement of two grown up girls. Mr. Goss died last year but the store is still there still making the best Bar-B-Que chicken on Saturdays...go early, they run out early. Here's to childhood memories and great sisters.

My new bicycle

In 1974, Santa brought me a bicycle. The frame came from my grandmother's barn. My uncle rescued it from the snake pit, primed it and painted it purple. Mom purchased a white wicker basket for the handle bars, a banana seat with daisies on it from the Western Auto along with some new tires for my uncle to install. On Christmas morning, it was standing in front of the Christmas tree all gleeming and beautiful. In my Christmas stocking was the final touch...rainbow streamers to stick into those rubber thingies at the end of the handle bars. What a gift! What a showstopper that bike was. I never thought I'd be more excited to receive a gift than I was that day when I was 6.

On Saturday of this past weekend, I was amazed again at the joy of a new bike. Except this time, it was a REALLY NEW bike. Yesterday as I was listening to The Stones sing, "She's A Rainbow" and completing my first big outing, I realized the stupid grin on my face and decided I didn't care who saw me. The feeling of riding that bike really fast all on my own was so freeing and so exciting that I've decided I'm going again! ...as soon as my hiney recovers from yesterday. What other simple gifts are there? Where else am I missing the joy that should be so plain? That bike and the effect it has on me now forces me to look...look hard...for more simple joys.

The loss of a girlhood heroine...

It's Summer 1977 or 1978 in Pasadena, Texas. Kim Kelley, Melissa Padgett and myself are scrounging around the bayou near our neighborhood. We brought a bucket so we can pick wild dewberries...mom said she'd make a pie if we came home with enough but we always ate most of them as we picked them. When the berries ran out or we got bored with that...it was time to do what we really went down there to do - play Charlie's Angels! The terrain was perfect. In the Summer, the water running in the bayou was just a trickle so none of parents were concerned about us drowning. Just a lot of interesting sand piles at the top of the bayou and a bridge over the water made out of whatever we found. So we'd come up with a senario and decide what our mission would be. There were three of us so of course the only decision remaining was...who got to be Farrah! Melissa had dark hair and a haircut almost exactly like Sabrina's (Kate Jackson) so she didn't really have a choice - it was a given that she couldn't be Jill! So it always came down to Kim and me. After a few episodes of Charlie's Angels as filmed at the bayou we finally decided to take turns being Jill and the other Kelly. Many daring jumps across the 'raging river' and numerous shimmies across that elevated pipe that carried God knows what made for an adventure that I bet not many little girls have today. Gone are the days when parents can let their little girls hang out for hours near a construction site, let them explore a new house being built or play important women of the small screen fighting crime and eating berries.
Thanks Farrah for inspiring in me a sense of adventure and imagination!