Just a little somethin...

I've told a few of you about Pomplamoose on You Tube. Here's a little something from them I like. Maybe it will help you 'chill' on your Monday. Enjoy!

Perfectly, Imperfect

I know we all long for the day when Jehovah will allow us to be perfect. But I dearly hope some things remain imperfect... or I should say, perfect in a relative sense. What started this quirky thought swirling around in my little brains? A decorating show. Here's the connection:

I was watching an interior decorating show on TV the other day, a favorite designer. What I always liked about watching her is that she is original, creative and doesn't take herself too seriously. But what I saw on the screen was a totally different person. She has begun her new season as an amped up, botox deadened, ultra buff, skinny with-in an inch of her life... power woman. Gone are her quacky facial expressions... the botox deadened that. And I dare any knuckle dragging Mr. Universe type to rival the veins bulging in her over-developed neck. But this isn't what I'm writing about. Meh, she's nothing in my world... what do I care?

But it somehow triggered an appreciation for the perfectly imperfect. Go to any mega-mall and you will see a sea of botox, implants, collagen, brand names and bleached hair. Is that beauty? Is that coming close to 'perfection'? The masses say so. There are no wrinkles, lots of big lips, zero percent body fat and wardrobes the price of which could feed the starving children of a small country. All I can think of though, is the stark contrast of that to one of our theocratic events. I love to sit and just 'people watch' at Assemblies and Conventions. It's amazing how total strangers can be so beautiful. Are there laugh lines, crows feet, simple clothes and a few extra pounds? You betchya! But that's the beautiful part! There is so much beauty in humility. And the more ego driven the world becomes, the more that humility becomes positively breathtaking.

There is so much more to life than aesthetics, right? Actually there is almost everything to life outside of aesthetics! What makes our brothers and sisters so beautiful? Love... joy... peace... long-suffering... kindness.. well you get the idea. Take my sister-in-law for example (aka bestest friend). She has always been

a pretty girl. A 'whole package' girl. You know the kind... tall, blond, blue eyed, blah, blah, blah. And she is always wonderfully humble about it. Now, she probably hasn't been feeling like her typical self lately. iLey keeps her hoppin' these days, and she probably hasn't spent too much quality time with her makeup bag. But when I see her with iLey.... I see all those qualities I just mentioned. Love... joy... peace... long-suffering... kindness. She is everything good she ever has been... a hundred-fold. She may be a bit sleep-deprived these days... but I have never seen her more beautiful.

And that has me thinking... is that a glimpse of how Jehovah sees us? Beauty measured by qualities. By humility. Is that what true perfection will mean for us? Not that we just change outwardly and reach some pinnacle of 'buff-ness'. But that we see ourselves and the world around us with new eyes? Peel away the rotten filter Satan has us seeing things through and know things as they really are? Can we learn to see it now? The most important mirror is Jehovah's word, and we can be beautiful the more we remember our reflection in it. But, perhaps the next time we look in the real mirror, we can embrace the wrinkles and blemishes. They are the laugh-lines of life, the perfectly imperfect... and they are beautiful!

You've Got Mail

This little ditty is dedicated to Valerie. A friend and sister who I know isn't feeling well and has a long road ahead of her. She has been on my mind a great deal, and all the gifts her friendship gives me. One gift in particular has been swirling around my mind the past few days... the gift of a letter. Not an email. Not a text. A really true, honest to goodness, handwritten, handcrafted letter... on paper. I'll never forget the first one I got from her. I remember being taken by surprise. "Why is she giving me this letter? She could email me. Plus, I see her almost every day in field service?" But at the same time, the giddy little girl voice in my head was saying, "Oh goodie, I have mail!". She reminded me of the joy of letter writing.

In this fast paced, techno mad world, the art of a hand-crafted letter is getting lost. Now, it might seem a little bizarre, that I am writing this in an online blog. I'm a hypocrite, I'll admit it. I haven't written a letter in quite a while. But as I was unpacking I came across my box of special letters. It brought back a flood of memories and a smile to my face. What email or text could ever do that? So, I have begun a crusade to write letters to people I care about. But I'm making a discovery. So lost is this art becoming, that when I Googled 'letter writing' (I know, another act of irony) that mostly what came up are are little social groups dedicated to keeping the art alive. (You know something is getting lost when artsy-fartsy coffee house people start support groups for it.) And try shopping for the paper to write on! All I have found are soulless, tacky 8 1/2 x 11 printer sheets with balloons or birthday cake. Oh, I did find one set, but it only came with 40 sheets, small potatoes in letter-writing world, for $20! That's 50 cents per sheet! (I know, I used my calculator... and my toes).

The way I see it (well you knew this was coming) writing a letter to someone is giving a little tiny bit of yourself. In this time when we feel so disconnected that we constantly try to be connected (electronically), imagine holding a letter in your hands. To be holding and object your loved one held. To read from writing from their own hand. Writing that sometimes is as much a part of their personality as their voice or their smile. The effort itself is an act of love. No 'delete' button. No 'spell-check'. You have to really think to write. And yet, your friend could be thousands of miles away and here's this little part of them in your hands. And if a letter is a gift, then a letter from Val is a treasure. She not only hunts down stationary (her eyes positively glaze over in a stationary store) but she finishes it with a wax seal... an art in itself, full of symbolism and history.

So will you join me? I'm not against emails and texts. It has made the world smaller, in a good way. And for some, who are very far away, it is the only way to stay connected. But the next time you are missing someone you care about, why not write to them? Put the phone away, turn off the laptop and slooowww down. Put pen to paper and give them a gift. Who knows? Maybe you'll get mail too!

Brilliant

My life is the Sun.
Always the warmth behind me,
always the light around me.
It warmed me in the cold day.

I close my eyes,
I lose my way.
I don’t know this path I’m on.
The Sun is still shining, waiting.

I turn toward the Sun.
It now warms my face.
The rays dance across a chill
I didn’t know I had.

Boldly, full of fear and joy,
I take a step forward.
I had to turn my head around.
I had to chose a new direction.

The same Sun. The same warmth.
But I am different.
The future is brilliant.
I will learn to soak it in.

NASA... we have a problem.

Soo... I have good news and bad news. First with the good news. I finished the long awaited video of Iley and family!! Took me six hours, and its now 2am, but I finished it! Now the bad news... I lost it all. Yep. Turns out I pulled the footage from the wrong source file c drive //>> or some gobbledy-guk like that. So now, its 2am, I'm tired, cranky, my head hurts and I'm hungry (after all its almost breakfast time). Of course that could have something to do with my new way of eating. I call it the "Devil Wears Prada Diet". You know the one... eat nothing and when you feel like you are about to faint, eat a cube of cheese. Nah, I'm just kidding. That's not healthy.... I replace the cube of cheese with a broccoli florette. Anywho... I promise the new stuff will be up soon. Hopefully tomorrow. Oh wait, meeting night. Well you'll get it when you get it. Told you I was cranky. I'm going to sleep now.... Or maybe Dairy Queen. Are they open 24 hours?**

**footnote: True story... up above next to where I typed "c drive" I had a lot more symbols in a delirious attempt to be humorous. Some how I ended up blocking the rest of the paragraph from being published. Whole thing ended right there. I am doomed tonight. That's it. I'm not even going to use a night-lite. I'll just light a candle if I need to use the restroom tonight.

It doesn't get much better than this!

Found this little gem on YouTube. One of my all-time favorite pieces performed acoustic, by one of my favorite artists.... on a gondola.... in Venice. The only thing better would be if I was in that boat!

Random Thoughts

If Brits call cookies "biscuits", what do they call biscuits?

Have you ever told someone that you saw a 'shape' in a cloud, even though you really didn't, just so they'd stop pointing and trying to convince you? Do you now realize somebody did the same to you?

Have you ever known it snowed outside overnight before you even open your eyes in the morning? I love that! The light in the room is totally different and when you peek your eyes open the room glows in a totally different way, and you've woken up to a world of white (and I don't mean Utah).

Isn't it strange how clouds that look like mountains in the sky are next to mountains anyway? (Okay, so that's a John Mayer lyric. But I thought of it before the song!)

Americans pay money for someone to tell them not to eat, while people the world over can't pay to eat. A little too ironic if you ask me.

Think of the perfect mountain scene. Did you know that in the world of art, blue (sky) is the perfect harmonious color to green (trees), that white is the perfect highlight to blue (clouds)? And black/brown (tree trunks) is the perfect anchor to green making it more vibrant? Seems like somebody knew what they were doing! Jehovah is the Greatest Artist, and the Earth his gallery.

Have you ever dreamt that you woke up, and started getting ready only to wake up and realize you are actually running late? (I hate that feeling)

I always think of the perfect sunset as one enormous, glorious rainbow capping the part of the earth where you are standing (the only missing color is green). Hmm, does that mean a rainbow is an itty bitty sunset?

It seems like there is some resort or grand lodge in every corner of the earth. Here's my speculation. (Some of ya'll have heard this before. My apologies.) Wouldn't it be great if Jehovah preserved some of these through Armageddon, and we used them immediatly as Bethel Homes? That way we could pull our resources, learn to work together and everyone could begin our new life experiencing the unity, camaraderie and hard work that is 'Bethel'. There are large kitchens, large laundries, large dining rooms, private living quarters with baths, meeting rooms for worship, and as one sister pointed out, sometimes golf-courses and pools for recreation (hadn't thought of that one). Just a thought. But nobody's asked for my opinion yet. Ha!Ha!