Bewildered

Last week, in the flash of an eye, Myles went from wearing his sweatshirt properly to this more artistic look. Not sure how it happened. That sentiment recurs a lot these days. Like last night, when Myles slipped from the big boy chair where he's been insisting on eating (his friend Sagan was over and sitting in Myles' high chair which Myles was more than happy to share) and crashed onto the floor. Or today when he managed to dump dried basil all over the floor. Sure did look pretty lying there all bright green on the kitchen floor. It must have been fun to dash it about like that.

Words of the week: "Tight." As in, this crazy southern winter weather, one day I'm in my spring jacket and the next day they stuff me into this puffy winter jacket and my seat belt's too tight.
"Ice." Sagan said it, so Myles repeated it. "Neck." As in, put that vics vapor rub on my neck. And, my personal favorite, "Amen!" Already he loves his mama's prayers. How blessed am I?

Speaking of blessings, my mom and I were talking on the phone the other night and she was telling me about this book she's reading that prescribes fifteen minutes of praising God each morning for a week. Notice how it changes things. Gratitude does change things. And maybe if I try each morning to name to God those things that I'm grateful for, and give thanks for God's mysterious, beautiful ways, maybe it will change things. It's worth a try. Not because my life is bad or sad or unmanageable, but just because I want to live with an undercurrent of joy and gratitude shaping the way I see things.

At the church service I attended last night, these words were on the cover of the bulletin:

Bewildered:

To be led astray, to become lost in pathless places, to be confounded for want of a plain road. To return to a wild place, become feral, uncultivated, undomesticated. To enter a desert. Not controlled by an outside force. Bewilderment is not momentary confusion or uncertainty. It is to become fundamentally displaced. Trauma may bring it on--illness or the death of a parent, companion, or child. Prolonged spiritual practice may bring it on. Accumulated, unattended sorrow may bring it on. In many religious mystical traditions, bewilderment is seen as a stage of spiritual development. --Rose Marie Berger

The scripture for the service affirmed that the wilderness, however, is where God's voice is heard.

Bewildering is a good word to describe the process of starting a new church. There are so many details, so many possibilities, so many intricacies, each one dependent on the outcome of the other.

Well, I'd reflect more, but I'm being summoned to a bath time. You get my drift. Blessings on your week, may it be full of creative clothing expression, the dashing of basil, and "Amen!"