by Sharon O | Nov 29, 2016 | Uncategorized
Now that Thanksgiving is over we can adjust our schedules towards the season of Christmas.
I love the decorations, the music, the festive time of year.
Oh I do realize this is also a difficult season for many who are alone.
It is mostly centered around family activities and family focused programs.
But really Christmas is all in the ‘season of your heart’, whether alone or not.
It is the magical time of year for little ones who wait with anticipation of what is Santa going to bring.
It is the thrill of the possibility of snow, or church programs or seasonal services.
Many malls have activities and or decorations that are fun and beautiful.
We used to go out and cut our ‘fresh’ tree when our children were little. It became a family tradition.
There are endless possibilities should someone be wondering what to do in this time of giving.
I challenge us all this year to look at this season in a new way.
Perhaps for you, it’s the first time celebrating the reason for the season.
We know God sent His SON to come in a humble way, using Mary a simple teen, and Joseph a simple carpenter.
To tell the story.
For us to receive and hear and experience the whole reason, is the power of his love.
We cannot have Christmas without the reason, without the baby’s birth and all the orchestration God designed to get the story told and finished.
It is a season of celebration, of family and friends.
We sing the songs of worship. Oh little town of Bethlehem, and Oh Holy Night.
And one more year we allow the simple truths to ring clear in our hearts.
The reason for the season is Jesus.
by Sharon O | Nov 21, 2016 | Uncategorized
As we enter into the week of thanksgiving.
I am thankful for a husband who walks on the rough roads with me.
The quiet paths and good times too.
The journey of walking together in one direction.
We remain thankful for 43 years of being together.
Life is beautiful and mysterious and magical and questioning at times.
On this Thanksgiving week I ask what are you most thankful for?
For life and hope and relationships and family?
There is much to be thankful for even if we don’t know what we can say, we woke up alive, that is a good thing.
We breathe, we have health, we have hope, we are real and down to earth and enjoy our life as we know it.
Give thanks with a grateful heart, give thanks to the holy One.
Give thanks in all things and for all things.
by Sharon O | Nov 12, 2016 | Uncategorized
In Shelly’s book, she says “home is not a structure, it is a place that resides in each of us.”
Think about this for a moment.
Each of us have homes where we live in, and feel safe in.
What if, that place of peace was taken from you, or removed in some way? How would you respond?
What she is saying, home is a place within your heart that is comfortable, and safe, and not messed with.
Home is in your heart, and in your relationships, and the world you reside in.
Ever heard the saying, “I feel at home with them?”
Yeah it is a good thing.
She talks about how Sabbath is an invitation for intimate conversation and intentional quieting.
Intentionally setting aside time for a friend, a husband, or a child who needs you without distractions.
It is learning to carve out time for the important.
I love the concept.
It is so different than what we have told ourselves for years.
She says in the book, “sometimes you have to slow to a stop and rest before you can experience divine presence.”
I say, it is learning to listen.
Learning to say, today my soul needs the waves of the ocean.
Or time with a treasured friend and I don’t care if the dishes are not done or the laundry is heaping in the basket.
It is not being selfish, it is nurturing to your spirit.
Even when I was a young mom and life was busy and noisy and cluttered, I took a nap when the children did.
I restored my soul.
I love this book of Shelly’s, for it gives me reason to choose to do the life giving important things that feed my soul.
Becoming intentional takes a lot of practice.
It also teaches us to breathe.
My husband and I take walks often and when we walk, I force myself to breathe in deeply the air in my lungs.
Intentional deep breathes.
It is good. It is healthy and healing.
I pray that this book finds a place at your table and I also pray you realize how to be intentional in breathing, moving and listening.
by Sharon O | Nov 10, 2016 | Uncategorized
Today I am writing at the beach, on my husbands laptop.
It is very different for me. But it’s good and if I get tired or bored it is always a good beach to view or walk on.
My husband is retired and now he is helping out down here at a camp, one day a week.
He is in his happy place keeping busy and I am too, as I always love the ocean.
It is a place of therapy for me.
I have been reading a book that was written by an on line friend of mine, on the Sabbath. She explains how we need a day set aside for quiet, and rest for renewing our heart and spirits.
It is called “Rhythms of Rest” and her name is Shelly Miller.
I highly recommend is as we all need time to slow down and regroup.
She teaches how to find the spirit of the Sabbath in a busy world.
I have read part of the book and have taken notes so I can go back and reference the amazing words she writes. How often do we even think about taking a break, taking a rest, allowing ourselves time to slow down and center inward? It is important.
She talks about how to be intentional on creating and carving out time. For soul renewal, and spirit restoration.
Have you ever been so tired you couldn’t even think, or so emotionally drained it was difficult to even think of moving from one chair to the other?
I have been there. In that space.
What saved me was first realizing life happened, all around me and I didn’t have to be the ‘force’ to make it. I could stop and slow down and it would be ok in fact it would be fine.
I had a good therapist tell me one time, “if wear yourself out you will accomplish nothing.”
My health at that time dictated that I slow down.
Stop, and learn to say No.
It was empowering.
Saying no was the best lesson I learned for in saying NO I learned to say yes, to rest, to prayer time, to slow introspective thinking.
It became my place of healing on many levels.
Shelly says, “Sabbath is a gift to be embraced, not a spiritual hoop to jump through.” When I think of embrace, using her word, it speaks to me of moving closer, and into, a choice.
The beach is my resting place.
I find renewal in my spirit as I listen to the waves, move across the surface of the sand.
It’s a peaceful place, it restores and revives me.
Do you have a place that is restful to your soul? Peaceful to your spirit? Calming to the heart?
I pray you find one. I also recommend this book to help guide you in a process of finding genuine rest.
“Rhythms of Rest” is a wonderful book.
It is life giving encouragement to stir us on, and into deeper places of the spirit. Let us slow down and be more intentional in our choices and in our life decisions.
Let us find a new ‘rhythm of rest.’
by Sharon O | Nov 5, 2016 | Uncategorized
Tomorrow is Sunday.
We just got back from the beach, a small time away for our 43rd wedding anniversary.
We had a nice ‘day’ he wanted to help at a Christian camp, set up some tables and chairs for a banquet and then they broke down a beaver dam.
He was totally in his realm of happiness, and I sat in our trailer and had quiet time reading a book and taking notes, and enjoying the outside beach day.
We went out for dinner later and had a good time, after 43 years we don’t need to entertain each other each and every moment.
It’s nice.
To say, I want to do this and is that ok? and then agree on ‘the decision’.
Forty three years ago we were young, 18 and 19 and our world was revolved around ‘what we were expected to do’. Not anymore.
I do not walk that road of expectations or obligations anymore.
We had a great time giving each other time to stretch out, and work or rest and then resume our time together.
It was OK. Now that we are retired we are with each other all the time with some time alone.
It is fine to say, I need some guy work time, and I need some quiet read time.
We understand each other. It is healthy.
Tomorrow we will worship in the church we have chosen for the past 11 years.
We will perhaps sit with our daughter and her daughter sometimes all three.
We will enjoy the teaching and the music and the time spent together.
Forty three years we have learned to adapt, be flexible and now say to each other,
“not my circus and not my monkeys”, when things are not looking the way we would like them to look.
Happy anniversary to us. God gave us forty three years together may we pray for at least 20 more.
