On a Road Trip

Whew!  I can't believe it's been already 15 days since the April A to Z challenge ended.  I joined the A to Z road trip, visiting those A to Z blogs and posts I didn't get a chance to visit during April.

No rules, just ride through as many and as often as you can.  It's a lot of fun, and you can sign up by adding your name to the linky here.  I have been going at a slow pace because, alas, as soon as I signed up, I got sick.  I'm still recovering, but have enough in me to at least invite you all along for the ride.  If you didn't participate in the challenge this year, check out the challenge website to see the ongoing story of the challenge as posts continue.  You may be intrigued enough to consider it next time around in April 2015.

At the top of the website, you can find the links for those who signed up for the challenge or for the those who wrote reflections on the challenge.  The link for the road trip was not at the top of the website at the time of this posting, but I hope they add that as well since this is the fourth annual road trip, after all.

I've already discovered some great blogs while on the road trip, traveling through various reflections on the challenge.  One was the website of The Slightly Eccentric Diary of Rob Z Tobor.  His reflection was a parody of Jack in the Beanstalk that he titled Fee Fi Fo Fum.  It's a hoot.  Check it out here.

There are lots of wonderful blogs in the blogosphere, no doubt.   There are also a plethora of writing challenges, parties, linkys, etc.  It can take over your life.  The A to Z challenge is a place to expose oneself to a wide assortment of different writers, styles, topics, people from all over the world, and yet, as more than one member of this diverse group has put it, still feel a sense of community.  It's quite incredible really.  I'm very glad someone invited me to check it out and join in.  Now I am inviting you.  
                                                                                      God bless, Maria

J is for Juncture

 

We all hit significant junctures in our lives.  We have insights that open our eyes.  We have experiences - emotional, physical, spiritual - that change our lives.  We do things that make a difference.

We think, we feel, we do.

Sometimes these junctures change us significantly, not just our thinking, feeling, or doing, but our very being.  Who am I?  Why am I?  Isn’t there something more than what’s here?

                            A juncture.  Questions.  Answers?

Jesus came with answers.  He said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.”  (John 14:6)

Meeting Him, the Christ, welcoming Him is a significant juncture. 

We start out already behind in life.  No encouragement can conquer all doubts and uncertainties or solve the problem of the human condition. 

He can, the One Who has given His all.  Find out what it is to know Him.  Then hold on to Him. 

It’s the juncture that matters.

A to Z Challenge

D is for Doubt

 

Image source

Doubt don’t got to dominate.
Doubt don’t got to rule.
Doubt is not the potentate.
Doubt is but a tool.

Doubt will help you measure
Your discipline and depth,
Your devotion to your treasure,
The fullness and the breadth.

Don’t follow doubt’s creation
To let it weigh you down.
With dogged determination
Defend your solid ground.

When doubt dangles its discordance,  
Deal doubt a diligence blow.
Depose doubt’s clanging dissonance.
Go to what you know.

Dedicate yourself to deepness.
Truth and triumph will console.
Your decision for completeness,
will guide you to your goal.

 

Image source

 

Letter D for A to Z Challenge

A is for Already, B is for Behind

Yes, 'A' is for 'already'  and 'B' is for 'Behind' because I am already behind.

As I l plopped into bed last night, letting myself relax, eyes just closing, with that end of day comfort sigh, it hit me.  My eyes popped open.  I had failed to enter my first A to Z post.

"Oh well."  I thought."  "Already behind."  That's when it struck me that 'already' started with A, and I supposed I would trash my original 'A' selection and just use 'already'.

I have to admit, though, it didn't occur to me to merge 'A' and 'B' until I actually wrote the words "Already Behind."  It's interesting - isn't it? - how something can be floating around in one's mind, but until you let your fingers do the walking across the page or your mouth do the talking out loud, there will be obvious lessons still yet to be seized.

So I am seizing the moment.  I hope it isn't too much of a rule breaker.  It seems my life is often, already behind, and I have a feeling many can empathize with that sentiment.  So for today, I will take the 'Already' and mix it with a little 'Behind' so that I can look ahead (ooh another 'A' word), beyond 'B' (ooh another 'B' word),  to catch up at 'C' tomorrow.  

Since I threw in the 'C' with 'catch up', can I count 'C' complete? (ooh another 'C' word)  Well, maybe not.

I'll try not to fall behind again until I get to 'F', because then it'll fit. 

                                                                                                         God bless, Maria

A Son's Wedding - A Mother's Transition

It has been a whirlwind weekend for our family.  We headed off last Thursday to join my son and prepare for his wedding on Saturday, on my birthday.  

Family came from all parts and we had a wonderful family reunion after the rehearsal on Friday.  

Then came the big event on Saturday.  It was beautiful and lots of tears were shed by Mom, (that's me).  

My Children were all in the wedding, the groom in the middle.

Of course they were happy tears, sort of.  I didn't think this would be as difficult as it is.   After all, isn't this what we get them ready for - to go off on their own, live their own lives, start their own families?

Really it isn't that I am not happy for the bride and groom.  I am.  They love each other and they bring out the best in each other.  What is difficult are these transitions.  It is like you are leaving behind one life and beginning another.  Transitions are difficult.  You know an era has passed.  That's a hard thing on a personal level for me.  Even happy transitions are hard things for some of us.

And so, though I should be rejoicing, and I am, I am also struggling with the emotional tumult of transition.  I feel bad for my family because I am sure I am a bit salty right now.  But salt brings flavor and salt preserves; so perhaps I'm adding something good with my internal wrestling match as it flavors their lives.

I am spending extra time with the Lord lamenting the emotions that accompany transition.  I am not complaining.  There isn't anything to complain about.  Look at this beautiful couple!  It is a wonderful thing, marriage.  

I am confessing, confessing that I want to be as joyful as I know I should be, but I am not there yet.  I am thanking, thanking God for the beautiful bride He has given my son, and the wonderful family He has blessed us with.  I am praising, praising God for who He is and how He works all these things for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.  I am just resting, dwelling in His presence so that my lament will turn to praise and thanksgiving and contentment and joy.   

Buck and Anna Dunn, married May 11, 2013 

For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh. Genesis 2:24

 Thank you to those who have passed along awards to my blog.  I appreciate you and will get to the responses eventually.  And thanks for coming by and celebrating this joyous time with me too. 

Reflecting On the A to Z Challenge

A to Z Challenge:  Reflections:  

A to Z Reflections

The A to Z Challenge really started for me back a few month in preparation for April. I began tracking the A to Z challenge website and gaining tips and tricks for how to prepare, as well as how to get and give the most in the challenge.  And I did learn oodles from that daily check in.  I practiced daily what I was learning, like visiting blogs of those on the list and prewriting some of the A to Z entries.  Both of these were huge helps.  In fact, if I participate next year, and right now I think I will, I’ll start even earlier and try to not only get most prewritten but also pre-posted, which I did not do until we got very close to the kick-off.  

Starting off in April wasn’t too tough.  I was able to get a week’s worth of pre-posts ready to go, and so the daily 5 new blog visits and revisiting those who became blogging friends or those blogs that really intrigued me or those that were kind enough to stop by my blog was not initially too difficult.  However, as I began to fall behind on the rest of life, running to catch up, and as I didn’t have a week in advance ready anymore, if even a day, and as the revisits mounted up, well the CHALLENGE of the event began to challenge me.  

I imagine I am not much different than others in this regard.  At that point I not only had to catch up some days with life outside of the blogosphere, I started to feel like I had to catch up with life in blogland as well, because I am fanatical about keeping my commitments, and I made a commitment to visit as well as write my own entry.  So by golly, I was going to do it!

In spite of the stress in the second half, what a joy it has been connecting with the  like-minded, coming to understand the not-so-like-minded, visiting places and people from around the world, being inspired by the young, the old, and the simply inspiring, and so much more that many of us would never have been exposed to.  It has been a truly growing experience.  Not only writing everyday in this way, but also connecting in a way that is, well, out of this world in more ways than one, I have found myself very deeply contemplative on some points and prayerful for new people.  The fun, the inspiration, the challenge, have all been a healthy stretch.  

I am very grateful that God laid it on Arlee’s heart to get this off the ground those few years back.  It is incredible how many people’s lives around the world A to Z has touched and how it has connected so many of us in such a good way.  Recently I was listening to a speaker who was addressing the current state of our information age that we know so many things that in reality are trivial and unnecessary to our daily lives, and yet we don’t know what is happening in our neighbors lives.  True and sad.  Yet this challenge brought lives together in an explosion of discovery.  Perhaps some of it was trivial and unnecessary, but I have to say I do feel like it did add to the quality of my life, my personal development, and my relationships across the spectrum of this world and the cyber-world.  Thank you Arlee and thank you to all of you who have connected with me through this A-Z adventure.  

A to Z Challenge Reflections