eudaemonic- (adj.) producing happiness and well-being

Monday, April 30, 2007

My weekend

- The zoo (I like elephants)
- Laundry (clean clothes are good... except just remembered... forgot them in the dryer)
- Prepare portfolio (be gone 4 ft. stack of papers!)
- Clean house (pinesol... mmm)
- Dinner with friends (yes, very good)
- Lively conversation (you too? me too!)
- Read a whole book (not good, not bad)

Monday, April 16, 2007

In among the magazine shelves, the newest self-help books and the editorial on Good Morning America...have y'all noticed this?

In the past year, going "green" has turned hip.
In the past month, I've seen morning news show hosts "ooh" and "aww" over a wedding table placement made out of recycled materials and no-ship flowers (driving the pretty pretty petunias hundreds of miles from the farm to the florist lets loose a lot of pollution).
Tax commercials are even getting in the gig, showing prospective customers how they can get money from Uncle Sam by using solar power in their homes.
In the past week I've seen a Glamour magazine article yelling the same message...

"We must care for what we have."--- HEY!!! Me too :)

Wow... when did this happen? When did being environmentally conscious become a t-shirt logo.

I think it's AWESOME that people are taking notice to water usage, except, when something takes hold in this society... it normally turns militant.

I'm envisioning a paper-plate burning to make a statement about our disposable culture.

hehehe, probably not :)

Also, I guess... I'm just a little disappointed that the whole idea has turned so... popular, rather than care-driven. But, even if it's for the free recycled soda coozy, I'm glad that people who didn't used to care are now donning a reflective orange vest to pick up trash on the side of the road.

Celebrities like Madonna and Al Gore are getting the credit, while agriculture (the original naturalist) still doesn't get any props. I think about all the work the Texas Parks and Wildlife, Texas Cooperative Extension, Farm Bureau do in the name of education and research for environmental quality. For no lip service.

I'm such a snob... they don't need any back pats, but I'd like to see ag at least mentioned in the national mind for being partly responsible for the cool new burlap bag shoes in Foley's window.

Ag is hip to the green push.

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

My hometown church served Lord's Supper at Easter.

Yes.

Good.

Why?

Because...

I had been thinking about how... how can I write this. I had been thinking about how a lot of Christian teachers say that to make God happy, or for you to be happy in your Christian walk, or to make God really love you, you need to be perfect. Sinless if you will.

(***Disclaimer, I know that we are called to be like Christ and Christ was perfect, alas, we are to be perfect, but there's a line there... I think it falls right beside the fact that I'm not Christ. Huh... who knew? But, still I know you can go too far with this way of thinking, just like you can go too far with the drive to be perfect. So, walk with care.)

So, if that were the story: if us being good made God happy... then... why do we celebrate Easter? If us being good made God happy, then why did God feel the need to send Jesus to earth? If us being good made God happy, then why did Jesus have to die.

That's not a hard message to send out.

Hey, kids: Be good or you're not my favorite... and we all know where my non-favorites go (points down)

No, rather God's message was, what?

I come to give you life.

It is for freedom that I have set you free.

I'm tossing your sins as far as the east is from the west.

Drop off your burden at the cross.

I don't come for the healthy, but for the sick.


Yeah? I think Christianity has become too synonymous with morals and conservatism and Ann Taylor with pearls (although I love Ann Taylor and pearls). God's love is unconditional even for those who struggle.

You think so too?

So, next time you hold the bread and grape juice (hahaha) remember that Jesus wasn't sent to remind us that we better behave or don't dare approach the throne... he came to say he is love and then he died to take that sin we won't let go away from us.

I love Easter. Spring seems to be a time for starting anew, but that fresh start is offered any day of the year.

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

There's something deliciously exorbitant about having your fingernails and toenails painted the same color... especially when that color is pink... and you're eating yogurt.

I'm not and they aren't, but still.

I think commercials have finally penetrated my psyche.

It's a strange combo of Yoplait and Talbot's

Sunday, April 01, 2007

Leave it to other people to put into words what's swirling around my head.

Had dinner with a friend Friday night. She came in for a funeral -- for a 20-year-old. He was eating at Texas Roadhouse with his girlfriend in College Station when he took a breath and died right at the table.

Right at the table... probably before he ate his favorite green beans.

I don't say that irreverently... you'll understand after you read what my friend said.

"Stephanie, it was like God just bonked me on the head... was his life any less real... any less fulfilling... any... less, just because he hadn't gotten married, had kids, gotten a job... all the things that I want?"

(that was a paraphrase, by the way)

No, his life wasn't any less real. My friend said he was a believer. At the funeral, she said his mom kept a smile on her face, because "she knew that he was in a better place."

First off, wow, I that's insane, where I am now, I don't think I could smile. I would be doing good to keep breathing myself... Jesus must have really been working in her ... second off, true, so true, he is in a WAY better place.

It got my friend, and me, thinking... why do I work so hard at things that don't matter. I'm not talking about working hard at a job or working to keep my butt equal to my jean size. I'm talking about every breath I take that isn't spent furthering something. I'm talking about idleness (a stark comparison to working, but it's applicable for me). I'm talking about "I'll do it tomorrow-ness."

If I don't do the things I want to accomplish in my life -- get married, raise a family, live out of the country, write interesting articles, blah blah blah -- will my life be any less?

Not if I don't live that way.

That means I need to drop the burden that I have to control all of this ... I need to drop what I can't control and life my life.

Like what-ever-his-face-with-the-famous-name-I-can't-remember-Christian-writer pointed about in his book-title-I-also-can't-remember... When God gave manna to the children of Israel He gave enough for the day.

Well, that's all we're promised... Manna (aka: strength) for today. He's given me enough to just take care of April 1, not enough to also worry about April 2.

I just took a deep breath... my chest rose and fell and then did it again. My lungs filled. That means I'm still here. That means there's still time. That means I'm going to do something for Jesus