Well here’s to the weekend friends.
I hope we all find simple ways to rest, recoup and celebrate life.
Lets start right here – – –
A Good Word
On Redefining Success
A Good Look
“Sit back, sink in” Find more of this loveliness here
A Good Idea
There Are No Small Acts of Courage
When my mom came out of anesthesia from her bone marrow transplant she told me that she lay in her curtained off section of the recovery room listening to the conversations around her. She felt terrible. But she told me that she was sure it would all make a good story one day. So she wanted to notice the details. The families chatting around her. Kids bringing crayon cards to a sick parent. A husband rubbing his wife’s feet. Nurses whose laughter gurgled like bubbles blown through liquid sunshine. She lay in her bed and noticed the sounds of life around her because she wanted to translate her pain into a story.
I think of that moment often when I think about courage. That invisible moment, hidden behind a curtain, when a bald woman with a shrunken frame imagined the world in all its vivid pain and beauty so she could paint it with words for her daughter later that day.
I don’t know what life looks like for you right now. I just want to offer a reminder not to discount your so-called small acts of courage. No matter how invisible they may seem. No matter how fleeting.
Holding the hand of a paper thin and weary parent. Driving the surly teenager. Pushing through the toxicity in your office with grace. Writing a letter of recommendation for someone else’s job while you’re still desperately unemployed. Telling someone how sad you are. Asking for help. Listening to a friend without trying to fix them. Cleaning the mildew in the thankless shower. Believing the best about someone who believes the worst about you.
There are no small acts of courage friend. Your “tiny” brave is mighty.
A Few Good Reads
Looking Back At My Ministry from Hospice Care
by Karl Travis
So my feet hurt. Well, my foot and two-thirds. The podiatrist tells me that blood-starved nerves cause pain and that, given my prognosis, amputation doesn’t make sense. I have a prescription, and it’s helping. Still, my feet hurt. All the time.
The pain sits just on the edge of real discomfort, which means that it can sap a lot of mental attention if I let it. The trick is not to. Stimulating conversation, a good book, or a cleverly written television show can provide just the right distraction – – – keep reading
13 Reader Comments on Relaxing
from Cup of Jo
The past few weeks have been a little hectic, and I’ve been craving some time to unwind. We love learning about ways to de-stress and recharge, so here are 13 reader comments about relaxing…
On at-home routines:
“Listening to history lectures as I drift off to asleep. Diving deep into the Middle Ages or the ancient Greek world takes my mind off present woes, and also reminds me that people have come out of very difficult times before.” — Erin
“Every evening when I make it back to my studio in Harlem, I say aloud, ‘Hello, beautiful home!’ As an essential worker, I’ve found that my gratitude for a calm, safe and stabile home has deepened so much.” — Margo
“When I put my girls to bed, we do the senses game: name five things you can see, four things you can feel, three things you can hear, two things you can smell and one thing you can taste. My girls are three and five, and sometimes their answers are so funny! ‘I can taste my tongue. I can smell the wind.’ They love it and it definitely calms them down.” — Kelly
On one-on-one moments:
“On weekends, my dog and I are the first ones up, so I make a cup of tea and we check on all the plants. Sometimes that means watering and pruning, sometimes just sitting together and enjoying the peaceful greenness.” — Rachel- – keep reading
On Sea Changes and Souls at Sea
by Nikki F Thompson
We recently made a sea-change. Sounds exciting doesn’t it, the stuff of reality TV and life adventures. Actually, it was more like a series of hiccupy jumps, gulping for air, rather than a seamless transition. Together with our three children under eight, we moved from the deep inner-city surrounds of Sydney and the bustling communal environment of Bible college, to Toowong, a Queensland suburb close to the bush, where it was rumoured a giant python regularly sunned himself on the street, and finally to the very outer-edges of Brisbane, where land bumps up against water, and every sunset demands a camera. And if you think that sentence was long to read, imagine travelling all that distance.
Our kids call this place we have landed ‘the island,’ this space of swaying-headed palm trees and ever-shifting tones of blue-green water, of sunsets that ripple over waves that do little more than lap gently at the shore. We eat ice cream all the year round here, and sweaters are only for the early ‘winter’ mornings, or after dark, when you stand by the edge of the water and let the breeze whip through your hair and anything else it is able to take with it – – – keep reading
Have a beautiful weekend friends, rest up, do something you love xx
Water Into Wine 