for the senses...snow day!

In case you're wondering, yes, it's a rare occasion for snow in my neck of the woods. So when it comes, the kid in me stares in wonderment. It is beautiful and a great excuse to take it all in through the lens.

today's prayer

Remind me of my suffering and take it from me, that I may go forth in light and love. Amen

soulfood...self-rejection

Avoid All Forms of Self-Rejection
by Henri Nouwen

You must avoid not only blaming others but also blaming yourself. You are inclined to blame yourself for the difficulties you experience in relationships. But self-blame is not a form of humility. It is a form of self-rejection in which you ignore or deny your own goodness and beauty.

When a friendship does not blossom, when a word is not received, when a gesture of love is not appreciated, do not blame it on yourself. This is both untrue and hurtful. Every time you reject yourself, you idealize others. You want to be with those whom you consider better, stronger, more intelligent, more gifted than yourself. Thus you make yourself emotionally dependent, leading others to feel unable to fulfill your expectations and causing them to withdraw from you. This makes you blame yourself even more, and you enter a dangerous spiral of self-rejection and neediness.

Avoid all forms of self-rejection. Acknowledge your limitations, but claim your unique gifts and thereby live as an equal among equals. That will set you free from your obsessive and possessive needs and enable you to give and receive true affection and friendship

My Response:

God make me free.
Free to accept ALL parts of me.
Free to fly, to crawl, to dig.
Free to sleep, to run, to live.
Free from me
I long to be
Free

for the senses...dallas

This is just for fun. It's a digitally altered photo that I took of downtown Dallas in late August. I love visiting old pictures and making them new. Remember to take time and enjoy the view!

soulfood....powerlessness

The point of prayer is powerlessness, to name that which you cannot do. Only at the point in which we surrender our knowledge, our abilities, our mastery over our own selves are we open to genuine transformation. I can’t. I need. Help me please. But it must be sincere. It cannot come from a forced place of regimen and obligation. Desperation is its playground. Perhaps this is why we must be stripped, torn, punctured to recognize our own limitations. Only then can we even begin to comprehend the miraculous power of the creator to meet us in our beds, tuck us in, and love us the whole night through.

poetry...freedom

I walked around hiding

And now I’m coming out

Of the shell

Of the mask

Of the cloak

Of the doubt

Treading lighter

World is brighter

Turning inside out

It’s not the them

It was the me

Perceived “it” bondage

Internally free

Fear dispelled

No longer knotted

Embracing the other

The black, white, spotted

Truly living

Finally giving

Withholding none for me

Because I saw the light

Eternally bright

And now my spirit’s free!!!!!

soulfood...pray-er (n)

Pray-er (n): address to God; something wished for

What is prayer? For each person, prayer means something different, something far more descriptive than a dictionary definition. For some, it is the utterance of crafted liturgy, for others silent meditation or verbal banter. There are categories of prayer: thanksgiving, supplication, etc. Some have even crafted formulas and templates for it. But though it varies in shape, size, color, and font for everyone, for the Christ seeker, it unanimously aims at rest, peace, and assurance through a connection with God. Through prayer, one dives into the depths of self and discovers the one true sustaining love: God. Mother Teresa exemplified prayer-ful living, and recently I have become fascinated by her story. Though known for her contributions to the least of these, she was a bright contemplative, fueled by a deep connection with God through prayer. Mother Teresa believed that life without prayer was impossible, and prayer without silence equally so. I'll let her words speak for themselves.

"Be sincere in your prayers. Sincerity is humility, and you acquire humility only by accepting humiliations....and you will get humiliation all through your life. The greatest humiliation is to know that you are nothing. This you come to know when you face God in prayer."

"This is what we have to learn right from the beginning: to listen to the voice of God in our heart, and then in the silence of the heart God speaks. Then from the fullness of our hearts, our mouth will have to speak."

"What is essential is not what we say but what God tells us and what He tells others through us."

"This is prayer, that you turn your mind and heart to God."

-Mother Teresa from No Greater Love