Tuesday Twenty: Counting Ways

This month (this week) brings much focus on love, often in the form of hearts and flowers and sweets. Love IS sweet to the soul. Love blossoms often in unexpected spaces. And, real love always encompasses the whole of a human heart, unshielded. So, I suppose those familiar trappings apply.

One of the most well-known pieces of literature ever written describing love is found in the Bible in First Corinthians 13. It presents a laundry list of love’s qualities surrounded by convincing arguments for its supremacy above all other virtues and pursuits.  And, the picture shown is not one as easily configured on a greeting card as one might assume. The descriptions are full of “not”s that are all too common and daily occurences for most of us. It’s a picture worthy of our pursuit, but not easily attained because of the self-sacrifice and self-revelation involved.

In honor of our culture’s penchant to pursue and acknowledge that greatest of gifts this week, I give you a boiled-down and scrunched-up version of love’s description from the famous Corinthian passage–another up-sized Tuesday Twenty: Counting the Ways of love. This one shows love’s most heart-challenging qualities expressed in those verses–words or the antitheses of “not”s found within. And, there’s eyecandy, too! I popped some of the enumerated words into this month’s tardy, but still relevant desktop calendar. Point-clicky the image above and enjoy!

LOVE IS….

1. essential

2. patient

3. kind

4. trusting

5. discreet

6. humble

7. polite

8. unselfish

9. good-natured

10. forgiving

11. just

12. truthful

13. tolerant

14. affirming

15. hopeful

16. enduring

17. unfailing

18. abiding

19. whole

20. supreme

Birth of Possibility

“Noone ever regarded the first of January with indifference. It is that from which all date their time and count upon what is left. It is the nativity of our common Adam.” ~ Charles Lamb

What is it about January that feels new? A new month, a new year, a new day. Although we experience time in close sequence, something about changing the number assigned to our year gives us renewed anticipation that the next day will offer us more promise than the one we’ve just lived. Regardless of one year’s events, when January 1st rolls around, we are filled with renewed hope that anything is possible. Change is possible. Prosperity is possible. Growth is possible. The impossible is possible. Suddenly, new is possible. That’s a lot of power for one little day, one 24-hour span.

It makes me think about the power of beginnings. I have an instigator in my life, #17, who reminded me recently that just the act of defining a new starting point–the turning of a single number–can be the unexpected catalyst needed for change and the resolve required to embrace it. Sometimes that’s all we need. Navity. The birth of possibility.

I’m looking forward to enjoying what 2010 has in store and to paying attention to those new possibilities. I have some new ideas for EyeJunkie and the little writing experiment going on here, and my goal is more intention, more transparency, more reality. In the mean time, I hope you’ll enjoy this month’s desktop wallpaper calendar with it’s reminder of January’s birth of possibility–and the eager hands that embrace it. [Just point clicky on the graphic above to get it.]

Let’s begin.

Saying Grace: November Desktop Wallpaper Download

It’s a few days tardy (what else is new?) but I’m delighted to share November’s desktop wallpaper with you. Feel free to click the Junkie To Go box below to grab it for your screen enjoyment. I love the utter glow of those yellow leaves, reflecting the sun. It reminds me of the story of how Moses would go into the worship tent in the Old Testament to meet with his Creator. When he emerged, it is said that his face literally glowed with having seen the glory of God face to face. Thanksgiving really provides us entry passage into that tent to experience the same encounter with the Father from whom every “good and perfect gift” extends. It focuses our attention on the source of our blessings, and when we emerge, our hearts are set aglow by His complete benevolence — his grace.

Oh give thanks to the Lord for He is good, for His lovingkindness is everlasting. (psalm 107:1)

When I read the verse again to include it in my wallpaper design, I couldn’t help but think about my old childhood mealtime “blessing”…

God is great. God is good. Let us thank Him for this food.

My parents always let me say it at our meals, and we called it saying “the blessing.” Some call it saying “grace.” Isn’t that what thanksgiving really is. It’s saying what we’ve been given–what we don’t deserve and didn’t earn–which is pretty much everything. It’s recognizing gifts, acknowledging them for what they are and looking with gratitude on the One who gave them. What a perspective shift — no wonder it makes us all shiny.

I’m ready to get my glow on. Are you saying grace this season? Tell me how.

Don’t Know Jack?

It’s October! Number 10 is my favorite month for so many reasons. It sort of serves as a personal New Year since my birthday falls at the end of the month. As the air turns crisp, I tend to air out my spirit a bit, appreciate the little pleasures more, and resolve to redirect my efforts where I really want them to count. And, let’s not forget orange. What’s not to love about orange!

For October’s desktop design, I couldn’t resist using a quote from my sweet Bug: “peek-ee-boot”. It was his first attempt at naming that giggle-producing game we all know. His unquenchable spirit is, well, unquenchable. (And, believe me I’ve tried many times in numerous public places.) But, it’s contagious in these free spirited days of early Autumn. The playful nature of transition always seems to peek through. Of course, one of Little Drummer Boy’s photographic efforts from last year made it into the mix with its toothy grin–a dude named Jack, nimble like the Drummer himself. The leaves are scans of ones we gathered in an autumn trip to the Great Smoky Mountains a few years ago, captured just as the color was waning.

Hope you enjoy! Point-clicky on the takeout box below to grab the full size version.

September

I spent most of the day at home today since my sweet Baby Girl is recuperating from a rough chest cold. Quiver and I tag-teamed her with kisses so that I could join in a couple of meetings at my office. Driving from work back home, I saw it. The brilliant blue sky that says September around here. It shows up revealing September’s spontaneity, it’s serendipity. Driving east, I was met with the faded and tired summer sky of August. But, turning north, peeking out above tree covered streets, there it was. The unmistakably deep and clear blue signaling that Autumn is on its way–in a month or two.

What a tease September is. You never know which season you’ll wake up to. It marks the transition to Fall, even in the South. Just this week, we are experiencing a welcomed relief from the summer heat. And even though I know it will return just as quickly, I can’t help but remark on the “touch of fall in the air” as I leave the house in the morning. The month of September brings expectations of cooler weather and breezy mornings. It brings a renewing anticipation of change from the doldrums of summer’s stagnating heat. Sometimes even the anticipation of change, having a change in sight makes all the difference.

September always recalls my memories of starting school. My children don’t notice as marked a difference between summer and the “school year” since they go to preschool year-round. But, for me September brought a big transition as a child since both my parents were public school educators. Summer meant my mother and I spent days at home playing and swimming. Going back to school was a big event. I still get a little pitter patter in my heart as I pass the “school supply” sections this time of year. Although the Charlie Brown, Suzy’s Zoo and Betsy Clark school box themes have given way to today’s Transformers, Nemo and Diego, the feeling of excitement is still the same walking through the aisles. Each new school year brought new lessons, new friendships, new teachers, new schedules, and new activities. It was a time to start fresh, to find focus again, to hunker down and learn. It still is, only in a much broader sense.

Fall has always been a time when my spirit feels fresh, when I’m eager to breathe in deeply and feel the wind in my face. Movement is inspiring. September brings spontaneity, transition and new start for our family. With Quiver laying aside his business and beginning a new job, we can already feel a deep breath coming on–a shift toward seeing more possibilities. It feels good. It feels fresh. It feels like September.

I love the poem Birches, by Robert Frost. It speaks of the triumph of play, of conquering the tree heights, of the freedom of flying matched by the security of swinging low to the Earth again. It’s the balance God graciously built into this world evident in the seasons, and in the bending of birch branches counterbalanced by a determined boy.

“I’d like to get away from earth awhile
And then come back to it and begin over”

“I’d like to go by climbing a birch tree,
And climb black branches up a snow-white trunk
Toward heaven, till the tree could bear no more,
But dipped its top and set me down again.”

“One could do worse than be a swinger of birches.”

The poem–and September– inspired this month’s calendar desktop wallpaper, which includes a scratchboard illustration I did several years ago. Click the Junkie To Go box below and enjoy!