Day 11 of Wild and Precious Life/ Ordinary!!!

So I missed a week of the 31 days, and yet I am summoning the courage to appear again, despite my forgetfulness/not fulfilling the goal, etc... Why?  Because despite falling down in the race, I want to finish.  I think this is our ordinary human life.  We fall down on our goals.  And then this prompt came from 5 Minute Friday, and it was perfect for today.  ORDINARY

And the first thing that comes to my mind is Romans 12:1 in the Message Bible:

 "So here's what I want you to do, God helping you:  Take you everyday, ordinary life---your sleeping, eating going-to-work, and walking-around life---and place it before God as an offering"

How do "ordinary" and  "wild and precious" come together?  And I think that that is the whole point!  When I see that the eggs I fried for breakfast are God providing for this precious child,  the figs I picked off the tree are God's beautiful art in my back yard, the cutting and sewing and emails I do today as God's grace to help us through my husband's unemployment, not JUST a mundane list of tasks to be accomplished....Then I know how precious I am.  And as I sew Little Red Riding Hood outfits today, I will think on that and on the precious little girls who will wear them and pretend and be delighted. 

5 minutes is up!!!

Have a day of beauty and knowing you are precious, always!!

Day 4 Your One Wild & Precious Life

"You are blessed when you're content with just who you are---no more no less.  That's the moment you find yourselves proud owners of everything that can't be bought."   (Jesus...Matthew 5:5  in The Message)

I love this translation.  It is often written as "the meek"  the "gentle and lowly"....the humble.  But that word humble used to have a very dark meaning for me...it was about being humiliated.  This opens up for me that humility is being at rest with the person I am, the one God created, with my inadequacies and fears and downright deficiencies.  It takes me to a place where I am very very clear that I am not God, and I am made for a reason, but not to be all in all as God is....God knows very intimately my fears and brain injury issues....and loves me deeply AS that. It also takes me to a place where I don't need to compare me to others who I think really have a ministry, or .... When I am in acceptance of this,  I am in possession of a LOVE deeper and wider than the ocean, that will not EVER let go of me.  I am in possession of great serenity and peace that lead to an UNself-consciousness which always has more to give to others than a self-conscious me.

31 Days of One Wild and Precious Life

A new adventure for me, this 31 days of writing.  Honestly, a huge challenge to myself to really start writing again, however that comes out, after this last post-brain injury decade when I have been so afraid to write.  And the topic, it was a God moment last week when I saw a shirt with the quote on it.  It so woke me up, that I cannot stop thinking about it even now...." what will you do with your one wild and precious life?"

Wild

for me wild is not worrying about the fashion rules; it is dressing in what is comfortable and the colorful way that I usually love to see, because this unlocks how I live the rest of my day..free of what I think you must want from me, free to be who I actually am!...wild is letting joy in when we are wildly poor.  It is living out what matters most to me whether our house goes into foreclosure or we go bankrupt or the government shuts down.  Wild takes me to the homeless with joy and gratitude to serve the Christ in each of them.  wild picks the flowers that are growing ad doesn't worry about what I didn't get done in this year's garden.  wild walks, even dances in the rain, has big boots, probably thrifted, knits colorful wool hats for children who need to stay warm, gives them to orphans in Siberia and homeless in the windy city.  wild sews her crazy best, but doesn't worry over being enough!

Precious...precious knows that God made me and treasures me.  percious knows that this is NOT affected by my abilities and inadequacies.  Precious knows the touch of the big feathery wing of my angel sent to hold me.  Precious sees those around me...their eyes..their love and their pain and reaches out to both...it lets in the everlasting lovingkindness (hesed) of God that will not let me go

and heart deep knows that it does. not. matter. to. God whether we are "successful, productive powerhouses"  God just treasures each child and sees who even I am and loves me.  Just that.

Once upon a time I had great joy while living in poverty, no posessions to tie me down.  Just a VW Bug and a suitcase or two...life was sitting and talking with "the least of these" , the God-followers, God-questioners, the chased, the givers, the sanctuaried...all loved by One God...all speaking love and cherished.  

 I am by the GRACE of God, taking that back!

One life...this is my one chance this side of eternity to choose...choose the clothes and attitude I put on each morning, to scream "STOP" to the accuser voice that tries to convince me that I am too small to matter to God, and to smile with love on this and every child of God....to choose to believe, each day, I am/you are child of wonder, child of God, given this gift of preciousness, set free to love, to dance, to create, to forgive, to cry and have joy.  to share that.

I don't know if anyone will read this and that's ok...but if you do, I would love to hear from you on this .  I don't know where these 31 days will take me.  Grateful for day 1 today!

Your One Wild & Precious Life