Details (Again)

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I *am* getting your comments. I'm reading them, each and every one. And I so appreciate your kind words and suggestions. They aren't showing up here, though. Some sort of glitch. So sorry. We are working on it. The comments are at Typepad, so I expect that as soon as the glitch is worked out, they'll all light up the screen on the blog, where they belong. 

I do know that this makes the whole giveaway thing a little tricky. We'll just extend the deadline accordingly.

And one more detail. Um. As luck would have it, right around the time I did the giveaway post and let you know all the ways you can follow the blog, someone started a 4RealLearning group on Facebook. This has caused some confusion. It's not my group and, as far as I know, it's not a way to follow my blog or get Real Learning (the book) updates. I didn't even know the group existed until yesterday. [And, now it looks like the name has been changed to 4Real Fans and Reunion. Maybe they were getting confused messages too? So, if you're searching, that's where it is. It's not mine. I really don't know anything else about it. I promise.]

To clarify, I don't have a fan page or an author page or a book page or any other page. I just have a "me" page on Facebook, where my friends from high school bump into my friends from college and teaching and they all chat with my kids. And I really like it that way. So, you can't really "follow" me or "fan" me or "like" me or "request membership to my group"  on Facebook. You can only friend me. Here, and only here. I do apologize for the confusion--just a case of bad timing.

I will extend the giveaway that's linked to all these networking opportunities until a time to be announced after the comments are fixed.

Thanks for your patience!

I'm off to play with fabric. Have awesome day of real learning with someone you love:-).

Five Minute Friday: Beyond

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I see the prompt at Lisa-Jo's and instantly I hear the song in my head, the way Alan used to sing it, years ago, in the gym turned church. Shepherd me O, God, beyond my wants, beyond my fears, from death into life. 

It is 5 AM. I've been awake since 3:45, my mind awhirl. Shepherd me O, God.

Hello, Fear, old companion nearly forgotten; you're back. You're creeping into those half awake moments and forcing me from sleep. Go! Get out of my head! My imagination is no longer your playground. He shepherds me beyond my fears. So, go!

I see Him now, slingshot in hand, whirling it masterfully in the air, sending fear scurrying into the beyond.

Gently you raise me and heal my weary soul,
you lead me by pathways of righteousness and truth,
my spirit shall sing the music of your Name.

Beyond these walls, beyond these beds, beyond these children finally sleeping. In the dark, and the sudden chill, I've called the Shepherd to draw close. Please lead me. I'm following You to a place beyond my wants, beyond my fears, from death into life.

I will dwell in the house of my God forevermore.

Five Minute Friday: Catch!

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I know it's no longer Friday. Friday was given to hymns and scripture, prayers and flowers, the fellowship of the body of Christ and the comfort of the grieving. Now it's Saturday morning and I have but five minutes.

Perfect.

And so, on Saturday morning, as always happens after funerals, I find myself thinking about life and the big picture and the deep meanings for the time we have here. 

Lisa-Jo, writing on this week's Five Minute Friday prompt, "catch," says, "I write in this space because sometimes our stories are the best translation of the Bible we’ve got to offer someone else."

Hmmm. Why do I write in this space? Why do I do anything the way I do? There's a great question.

As a rule, Catholics are not encouraged to translate the Bible on their own for someone else;-). It just doesn't come to us as second nature to think in those terms.

Really, though, isn't that precisely the point?

Isn't life--each life individually--our own translation of the Bible? Aren't we supposed to speak His every word and let them become so tangled with our own words that no one knows where His words stop and ours begin?

Catch. Hold.

Breathe Him in and let Him exhale from every pore. Aren't we supposed to know Jesus so well that we know ourselves only in Him?

Paul writes, "For me, to live is Christ and death is gain." To. live. is. Christ. Four words. Nothing extra. The whole point of living right there. 

What is my translation of the Bible as it is lived out in my own home and at the ballet studio and on the soccer sidelines and here in my small corner of cyberspace? Is it Christ? Is that obvious? Can you catch it? Does the way I live toss Christ high into the air in a million sparkling pieces of grace so that they fall about me everywhere and on everyone to be caught, even sometimes unawares?

That is the prayer of my life. 

[Disclaimer after the five minutes are up: When I went back and re-read this piece after the first few comments here and on Facebook, I worried that it sounds like I'm fishing for compliments and affirmations. I'm not. My point was to share with you what's inside my head, the things I'm thinking and asking myself. Usually, I let things rumble around in my head, then I put them in draft and think some more, then I tinker. I genuinely did this in five minutes and I guess there's a bit of danger in that;-) I beg your pardon if it sounds other than I intended. Have a beautiful weekend, friends! I'm off to --ahem--encourage a brood of children to pull more than their weight in weeds.]