For Today-

“.....every time there are losses there are choices to
be made. You choose to live your losses as passages to anger, blame,
hatred, depression and resentment or you choose to let these losses be passages to something new, something wider, and deeper”. -Henri Nouwen

As of late I have been digging Henri's work.

Wrestlings

"People who read your ideas tend to think that your writings reflect your life."
— Henri J.M. Nouwen

How I love to theorize about what makes life work-
" I know the answers I've given them all"

But theory can not override experience-
"But suddenly now I feel so small"

The harsh lessons of life we do not forget-
"Shaken down to the cavity of my soul"

The answers do not come easy when life does not make sense-
"I know the doctrine and theology but right now they don't mean much to me"

Where do I go from here?-
"This time there's only one thing I've go to know. Do I trust you Lord?"

Time will tell.

What about the heart?

"The heart has its reasons of which reason knows nothing."-Blaise Pascal

Home

I am free once again. Out of the hospital today after 11 long days. Grateful to be home. Four more days of IV's in front of me but the bulk of it is behind me. Grateful for the familiar noise of home- Play station blaring from the TV, cat purring beside me, children eagerly anticipating the sequel to Iron Man. Tonight life is simple and good.

A Game of Cards

"If life is like a deck of cards, then God is always the wild card....... This is why trust, in the important matters, always feels like risk and why it entails great courage."
-Paula Rinehart

To Lose Heart

Which is the truer message? If we try to hang on to the Romance, what are we to do with our wounds and the awful tragedies of life? How can we keep our heart alive in the face of such deadly arrows? How many losses can a heart take? If we deny the wounds or try to minimize them, we deny a part of our heart and end up living in a shallow optimism that frequently becomes a demand that the world be better then it is. On the other hand, if we embrace the arrows as the final word on life, we despair, which is another way to lose heart. To lose hope has the same effect on our heart as it would be to stop breathing." -The Sacred Romance

Family Time

"This is the South. And we're proud of our crazy people. We don't hide them up in the attic. We bring 'em right down to the living room and show 'em off. See....no one in the South ever asks if you have crazy people in your family. They just ask what side they're on." -Julia Sugarbaker of Designing women.