“Friday” tells me that to be a truly successful blogger I must blog! I’ve got to keep it fresh. I have to keep it moving. Imagine that. All this fuss, all this activity; so busy; so useful; so industrious! It strikes me as funny that the term “blog” is not in my word-processor dictionary. Interestingly still is that words “word-processor” are not in my word-processor dictionary either. As I type I must constantly update the dictionary to accept these new fangled words or be plagued with colorful squiggly lines that communicate that I’ve mistyped … or possibly mistyped (you know our politically correct society would never actually come out and confront another on their errors!) AND these visual cues present me with an unfinished, uncertainty to my document, plaguing me until I find some way to correct it. Problem is, sometimes I change the document to appease the squiggly line gremlins only to find that the grammatical structure of my sentences have gone south. Ah! Progress! When you are as visually stimulated as I am, colored squiggly lines under your text will never do.
So here we are in our “convenience” dominated culture which demands we come up with more and more complexity in order to live “easier” lives. Or should I say, culture with demands up with which we come?” Grammar is such a confusing animal! Anyway! How is a thing easier when to engage it you must make your life more complicated?
It is the young who come up with all these new fangled ideas about what is and what is not convenient, what is and what is not “easy,” what is and what is not complicated, what is and what is not … boring. And THERE is the rub! Youths today (and yes, I do mean you “Friday”) can not stand to be bored. Sitting still with nothing to do … simply contemplating the universe and all its wonders is not on the contemporary list.
This week “Friday” commented that I truly have lost my faith in change. I suppose she’s right. When you get nearly fifty, change is that which creates an imbalance which can take up a month to correct. I suppose in earlier years change brought on a fresh newness to a dull and boring existence. Particularly if you lived in a third-world-country in the heart of agriculturally dominated central Texas!
But that is my lot, to live a dull boring life, one day at a time, in the monotonous drone of sun-rise-sun-set. But then again, it’s not so terribly intolerable to live this day-in-day-out existence. In the midst of this cycle God has blessed me with variegated threads of experience. My life has been anything but dull. Perhaps it is that fact that brings me to the place where I thirst after quiet and cling to simplicity. Not an easy feat in the face of such an upwardly mobile society as this. So I’ll comply with updating my word-processor dictionary every few sentences, put an alarm on my outlook to alert me to “blog for goodness sakes!” since to fail to do so is a poor … something, and then secretly cling to simpler quieter easier ways of days gone by.
And thus is another day in the life of Seriously.
Wednesday, December 27, 2006
Wednesday, December 20, 2006
testing
this is a test of the emergency blogging network. (actually, Seriously's daughter, fridaynightgirl, has hijacked the blog for the moment during some testing. Please be patient as we take a leave from sanity and enter Crazyville.)
You are a Gift!
You are a Gift!
It’s December 20th and a red letter day in my life, it’s my Daddy’s birthday and my adoption day! Many’s the time that Mother and Daddy recounted standing before a judge and making a covenant to love, protect, and parent me to the best of their ability, and of course with the Lord’s help, for the rest of their lives. As this covenant was set I walked up and down the rows of theatre style seating, clomping the swivel parts up and down-row after row-singing, “Happy Birthday Daddy!”
“You are a gift!”
It was a message I received over and over as a young child. Mother and Daddy, my parents of adoption, had just learned they would never give birth. Then my beloved mother of birth’s life came crashing down around her. Part of her consequences was loosing her children. My two brothers and I were placed in separate adoptive homes; I with Mother and Daddy. Daddy said in many ways their adopting me saved my mother’s sanity and her life. It gave her purpose, she was needed, and she found mothering me made her feel (and indeed they were!) very useful. Daddy too of course!
That’s funny because in my mind, they did the exact same thing for me! Mother and Daddy were gifts! They were my adoption gifts that brought a sense of being needed and wanted and worth anything necessary to take the best care possible for any child alive. I was useful and my life was not that which one looses easily or through neglect or even abandonment. I was useful, I was wanted, I was needed. And their pouring over love for me saved me and strengthened me for the things to come.
And then there was Mama Clara … my beloved maternal grandmother of adoption who took care of me during the week-days while Mother and Daddy worked as civil servants at the nearby Army post.
“You are a gift!”
Mother and Daddy told me that over and over again. Mama Clara was in her seventies and in her mind had lived out her usefulness. Then here came this little girl with a need as big as Texas and Mama Clara stepped in and filled that need with a grace and peace that was nothing short of supernatural. My life gave these people purpose and an overriding sense of usefulness and in the face of things to come, knowing that fact saved my life.
When I was nineteen I went on a grand adventure to marry a soldier and live in Germany … but I was not happy because I was so far away from a purpose and a place that needed me … back home. I lived close to Fort Worth for a while, but again I was miserable because the place that wanted and needed me was back home. I never was very good at being needed, useful, or wanted in marriage situations. Maybe all that echoes back to the days when I felt unneeded, unuseful, and unwanted. I don’t know.
What I do know is that when I came back from the second adventure, I never wanted to leave again. Here was where I found my purpose, needs I could fill, things I could do to be useful … being near Mama Clara, Mother, Daddy, my family, and the people who have come to mean so much to me … We built relationships that heavily depended on being there for one another. And I love that.
Mama Clara, Mother, and Daddy have all gone home to be with the Lord. My son and his wife have moved far away and are on a grand adventure … they have found very fulfilling ways to fill needs, be useful, and be wanted where they are. My daughter is seriously considering a life in the military which will of course take her and the Grand Girl far away on their own grand adventures where she too will find fulfillment in being needed, wanted, and useful.
So here I sit, looking forward to turning fifty in June and wondering, “Should I too consider a lifestyle that will take me on great adventures … far away? But so far, I continue to find that I am needed, I am wanted, I am most useful right here … at home.
Of course, if the Lord calls me on an adventure, far away … I will have His supernatural peace about going … So … on this the forty sixth anniversary of my adoption day, for now … I think I’ll stay …home …
Blessings,
Seriously
It’s December 20th and a red letter day in my life, it’s my Daddy’s birthday and my adoption day! Many’s the time that Mother and Daddy recounted standing before a judge and making a covenant to love, protect, and parent me to the best of their ability, and of course with the Lord’s help, for the rest of their lives. As this covenant was set I walked up and down the rows of theatre style seating, clomping the swivel parts up and down-row after row-singing, “Happy Birthday Daddy!”
“You are a gift!”
It was a message I received over and over as a young child. Mother and Daddy, my parents of adoption, had just learned they would never give birth. Then my beloved mother of birth’s life came crashing down around her. Part of her consequences was loosing her children. My two brothers and I were placed in separate adoptive homes; I with Mother and Daddy. Daddy said in many ways their adopting me saved my mother’s sanity and her life. It gave her purpose, she was needed, and she found mothering me made her feel (and indeed they were!) very useful. Daddy too of course!
That’s funny because in my mind, they did the exact same thing for me! Mother and Daddy were gifts! They were my adoption gifts that brought a sense of being needed and wanted and worth anything necessary to take the best care possible for any child alive. I was useful and my life was not that which one looses easily or through neglect or even abandonment. I was useful, I was wanted, I was needed. And their pouring over love for me saved me and strengthened me for the things to come.
And then there was Mama Clara … my beloved maternal grandmother of adoption who took care of me during the week-days while Mother and Daddy worked as civil servants at the nearby Army post.
“You are a gift!”
Mother and Daddy told me that over and over again. Mama Clara was in her seventies and in her mind had lived out her usefulness. Then here came this little girl with a need as big as Texas and Mama Clara stepped in and filled that need with a grace and peace that was nothing short of supernatural. My life gave these people purpose and an overriding sense of usefulness and in the face of things to come, knowing that fact saved my life.
When I was nineteen I went on a grand adventure to marry a soldier and live in Germany … but I was not happy because I was so far away from a purpose and a place that needed me … back home. I lived close to Fort Worth for a while, but again I was miserable because the place that wanted and needed me was back home. I never was very good at being needed, useful, or wanted in marriage situations. Maybe all that echoes back to the days when I felt unneeded, unuseful, and unwanted. I don’t know.
What I do know is that when I came back from the second adventure, I never wanted to leave again. Here was where I found my purpose, needs I could fill, things I could do to be useful … being near Mama Clara, Mother, Daddy, my family, and the people who have come to mean so much to me … We built relationships that heavily depended on being there for one another. And I love that.
Mama Clara, Mother, and Daddy have all gone home to be with the Lord. My son and his wife have moved far away and are on a grand adventure … they have found very fulfilling ways to fill needs, be useful, and be wanted where they are. My daughter is seriously considering a life in the military which will of course take her and the Grand Girl far away on their own grand adventures where she too will find fulfillment in being needed, wanted, and useful.
So here I sit, looking forward to turning fifty in June and wondering, “Should I too consider a lifestyle that will take me on great adventures … far away? But so far, I continue to find that I am needed, I am wanted, I am most useful right here … at home.
Of course, if the Lord calls me on an adventure, far away … I will have His supernatural peace about going … So … on this the forty sixth anniversary of my adoption day, for now … I think I’ll stay …home …
Blessings,
Seriously
Monday, December 18, 2006
To Do List
They won't be covering today in the newspaper, but it was productivce and enjoyable. It was just a day of checking off tasks on my "To Do" list:
Two mile walk,
Post Office,
Gas the car,
Get my B-12,
Make a sock puppet "Zero" for my behaviorally challenged classes performance of "The Nightmare Before Christmas,"
Dig out my university graduation gown for the "Parson" in "The Golden Goose,"
Set up notebooks for everybody in the One Act Play Team, and rehearse with them,
Have Tex-Mex with the husband and his Bible study cronies,
"Friday" and I decided to give one another a vintage Nintendo and the vintage "Super Mario" for Christmas! More on that tomorrow.
Celebrate, I'm officially down seventy pounds since July; ten more pounds and my mother of birth is going to come visit and take me to San Antonio for some serious clothes shopping,
and finally spend time catching up with my phone friends while driving around doing errands.
I pray your day was as fulfilling as mine.
Blessings,
Seriously
Two mile walk,
Post Office,
Gas the car,
Get my B-12,
Make a sock puppet "Zero" for my behaviorally challenged classes performance of "The Nightmare Before Christmas,"
Dig out my university graduation gown for the "Parson" in "The Golden Goose,"
Set up notebooks for everybody in the One Act Play Team, and rehearse with them,
Have Tex-Mex with the husband and his Bible study cronies,
"Friday" and I decided to give one another a vintage Nintendo and the vintage "Super Mario" for Christmas! More on that tomorrow.
Celebrate, I'm officially down seventy pounds since July; ten more pounds and my mother of birth is going to come visit and take me to San Antonio for some serious clothes shopping,
and finally spend time catching up with my phone friends while driving around doing errands.
I pray your day was as fulfilling as mine.
Blessings,
Seriously
Sunday, December 17, 2006
Grand Girl
Sunday school was great. "Friday and I served as greeters before church and then we all had a moment when we sang three part harmony during "O Holy Night."
"Friday" had to work after church and so the Grand Girl and I had the afternoon to ourselves. We had chicken tenders along the river at our favorite picnic table, went down to inventory the trees, leaves, and mud at the boat dock, then came home for long naps. Afterward we watched my favorite movie, Disney's "Shipwrecked" while eating oat snacks and almonds. It just does not get much better than that!
Last week I found a box with a number of Martha Miniature dresses my mother bought soon after she and Daddy adopted me at three and a half years of age. To my delight when I tried some of them on the GG half a dozen of them fit! I'm putting a picture of my mother and me in the red dress I wore the day my Mother's Sunday School friends gave her a shower to celebrate her new daughter. I've always loved this picture, but today was the best thing so far; when the GG saw it she exclaimed, "Nana! That's me!" Funny thing was ... it wasn't ... it was Nana ... at her age.
When "Friday" came home we all went to their house, piled up on her bed, drank hot tea, ate cheese, mile-of-meat (summer sausage) and watched that Christmas movie where Santa tells the little boy he will shoot his eye out with the BB Gun he wants. It's been a great Lord's day.
Blessings,
Seriously
"Friday" had to work after church and so the Grand Girl and I had the afternoon to ourselves. We had chicken tenders along the river at our favorite picnic table, went down to inventory the trees, leaves, and mud at the boat dock, then came home for long naps. Afterward we watched my favorite movie, Disney's "Shipwrecked" while eating oat snacks and almonds. It just does not get much better than that!
Last week I found a box with a number of Martha Miniature dresses my mother bought soon after she and Daddy adopted me at three and a half years of age. To my delight when I tried some of them on the GG half a dozen of them fit! I'm putting a picture of my mother and me in the red dress I wore the day my Mother's Sunday School friends gave her a shower to celebrate her new daughter. I've always loved this picture, but today was the best thing so far; when the GG saw it she exclaimed, "Nana! That's me!" Funny thing was ... it wasn't ... it was Nana ... at her age.
When "Friday" came home we all went to their house, piled up on her bed, drank hot tea, ate cheese, mile-of-meat (summer sausage) and watched that Christmas movie where Santa tells the little boy he will shoot his eye out with the BB Gun he wants. It's been a great Lord's day.
Blessings,
Seriously
Saturday, December 16, 2006
Day One
It's day one of this mysterious new exercise in simi-public rhetoric called blogging. My red haired girl, "Friday" helped me come up with the title and I feel compelled to explain.
It's true about me, I'm seriously not funny. I have kinfolks galore who are hilarious, but the moment I try to repeat a joke or something they said that had me in stitches, my audience looks at me as if I had just grown a second head. Their faces grim, their tone flat they say something like "Why would you say something like that?"
I try to recover by saying something like, "But my brother said it yesterday and everybody laughted."
Then they clarify, "Well, it's not funny. Seriously, you're not at all funny."
That's really too bad. The world is a funny place. Families are funny things. Students are a riot and their parents a regular side show. Public schools administators and the Body of Christ, are all pressed down, shaken together, and running over with hilarity and here I sit with a grin on my face and no comic timing.
Well, I guess I can't say absolutely nobody thinks I'm funny. I know I've all but audiably heard God's laughter many times. ... so I suppose it's some solice that at least Somebody thinks I'm funny! Of course, if God laughs at you ... is that actually a good thing? I suppose that will have to be one of those things I ask Him when I get to the house. As for now, I'll close by wishing any readers good sleep, sweet dreams, and blessings that come as humor comes to me, pressed down, shaken together and running over.
And thus ends another day.
It's true about me, I'm seriously not funny. I have kinfolks galore who are hilarious, but the moment I try to repeat a joke or something they said that had me in stitches, my audience looks at me as if I had just grown a second head. Their faces grim, their tone flat they say something like "Why would you say something like that?"
I try to recover by saying something like, "But my brother said it yesterday and everybody laughted."
Then they clarify, "Well, it's not funny. Seriously, you're not at all funny."
That's really too bad. The world is a funny place. Families are funny things. Students are a riot and their parents a regular side show. Public schools administators and the Body of Christ, are all pressed down, shaken together, and running over with hilarity and here I sit with a grin on my face and no comic timing.
Well, I guess I can't say absolutely nobody thinks I'm funny. I know I've all but audiably heard God's laughter many times. ... so I suppose it's some solice that at least Somebody thinks I'm funny! Of course, if God laughs at you ... is that actually a good thing? I suppose that will have to be one of those things I ask Him when I get to the house. As for now, I'll close by wishing any readers good sleep, sweet dreams, and blessings that come as humor comes to me, pressed down, shaken together and running over.
And thus ends another day.
Coming Soon
I am not funny. Seriously. Hang around long enough and you'll figure it out for yourself.
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