Gift Tag: Harmony and the Art of Brushing Teeth

The other day while I was making myself presentable to the outside world, I was privy to a little accidental dose of two-part harmony. Hub was in the bathroom brushing Squiggle’s teeth–an experience always ripe for chuckles. Squiggle is the kind of guy who picks up his honey mustard condiment cup to drink it.  I kid you not. He wants catsup on his plate so he can attempt to pick it up with his fork and eat it sans french fries, despite numerous attempts to offer a better solution. Pancakes translates as syrup and syrup with a side of bacon to Squig. I’m sure you’re getting the pattern here. He tends to have his own ideas about how things ought to be done. I wonder where he got that?

So, here’s how the two-part harmony normally plays out: a grown-up “aaah” paired with a Squig-sized “aaah” when we’re brushing the back teeth, and a grown-up “eeee” paired with a Squig-size when taking care of the front. Oddly enough, they’re almost always in near harmonious pitch. In this rendition, however, Daddy’s “aaah” was met with Squiggle’s much louder “eeee.” And vice versa. Several times. Squig was having way too much fun making his own sound to hear Daddy’s instructions.

Don’t you hate it when that happens? Sometimes I’m just too busy making my own melody to hear the right note.  Hub and I have noticed an increased harmony in our hearts and lives recently because we are finally getting on the same page with God in a few areas.  Home responsibilities, work schedules, parenting styles, church commitments, family time–we’re finally letting go of the “eeee” to embrace the “aaah” first. Don’t get me wrong. It’s not a huge overhaul, just a few little things (and mindsets) to start with that are making a big difference. It’s a good feeling.

Sometimes, like Squig, we want to do what God wants.  We’re on board with brushing our teeth.  It’s just a matter of who’s doing the brushing.  We want to call the shots.  So, maybe our intentions and desires are correct, but we need to yield to the one with the brush to achieve harmony and get there.  I find when I surrender the act of calling the shots, when I go with God for the “aaah” first, the “eeee” usually falls into place as I’d hoped. Maybe it’s not the path I would have taken, but the destination is the same and the ride was full of a lot more laughter and contentment… and harmony.

Well, they got the job done. When Hub finally got his attention, Squig was happy to join Daddy in the “aaah,” and impromptu two-part harmony was restored. Music to my ears. I got up from my seat with makeup fixed and this:

Harmony has a source and an order.  I can’t achieve it until I go to the source and submit to the proper heart hygiene.

Gift Tags are the tiny messages God continues to include with our gifts — 2 little joys of boys and 1 little jewel of a girl, each with open eyes, open ears, open hearts, and much to teach. “Behold children are a gift of the Lord…” (psalm 127:1)

Holy Convocation

Shabbat. To cease.

In my Bible, it’s intoduced on page two. It has been observed by millions around the globe and through the centuries both religiously and half-heartedly. I think it’s the key to something that I’m only just now beginning to glimpse–something that can only be unlocked by truly observing it with intent and discipline. Yet, the benefits are powerful and rewarding enough for even the then solitary Being, the God of the universe to partake–no, initiate.

“Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.” (genesis 2:3)

The fact that the Sabbath Day is a worthwhile, relevant and necessary habit is evidenced most powerfully by God’s own action–or inaction, by definition. Shabbat is translated throughout the Bible as “rest.” However, since God has never, nor will ever require rest, the more inspiring translation I found in my google/wikipedia-supplemented pondering is this:  “to cease.” I can’t help but believe that this stopping holds key principles for maintaining a life in true harmony of spirit, harmony within and with God. In fact, there’s a deep breath rising up in my spirit while I’m only thinking and writing about Shabbat. The simple thought of a designated ceasing brings an inexplicable sense of “this is as it should be.” The Jewish tradition of Shabbat observance may have gotten somewhat legalistic and removed from purpose over the centuries since Moses’ day, but I can’t help but think they got something right in their utterly thorough preparation and observance of this holy convocation.

“For six days work may be done, but on the seventh day there is a sabbath of complete rest, a holy convocation. You shall not do any work; it is a sabbath to the LORD in all your dwellings.” (leviticus 23:3)

Shabbat is God’s own divine and perfect project management system, His omniscient, omnipotent scheduling method. It is a command he demonstrated in His own “work” of creating all that exists. The sentiment, and yes, the words are clear. Shabbat, the holy convocation, should be complete. It summons all my spirit, all my desires, all my actions, all my loves, all my hates, all the places where I truly dwell into the same assembled stop. The same assembled deep inhale and slow exhale that was God’s choice. To cease on the Sabbath was God’s choice to release Himself from the constraints of doing. The joy of Shabbat is to bring my spirit into harmony with His example by choosing to stop, to put down the schedule, to put down the constant pull to do something on my ever-increasing list. Even things that I love to do. Even things that I’m excited about or things that bring me joy. Shabbat is not just about stopping the mundane things or the things that tire me out or the things that distract me. It calls me to put down the need to do something, to put down the need to move along to the next. It forces me to bring everything into focus for this moment–not what needs to happen in the next one or what should have happened in the last one. What freedom!

“You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God brought you out of there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm; therefore the LORD your God commanded you to observe the Sabbath day.” (deuteronomy 5:15)

At it’s core, Shabbat boils down to freedom. God commanded the people to use Shabbat to remember how He brought them out of slavery in Egypt. Their liberation brought the freedom to stop, to rest. They were no longer beholden to task-masters to toil at the whim of another. Thus, the freedom of Shabbat is demonstrated, the freedom to allow the moment to take me where it wants, or the Spirit to take me where He wants. The freedom from ought tos, from should haves, from need tos. The freedom to fully, without reservation or guilt or sacrifice or multitasking, make a conscious choice about what I will do (or cease doing) in this moment.

“For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day and made it holy.” (exodus 20:11)

Shabbat is a ceasing God, Himself, infused with meaning.  Although it is most often used for “church” in modern Christianity, Shabbat was not set aside for worship in its origin. It was set apart for ceasing. A fast from working, from doing. Shabbat is a God-given holy day in every week where time set apart for stopping is elevated to celebration status. A time to cease. It was the first holy day mentioned in the Bible, and God, Himself, was the first to observe it by example. If God can set aside His work, can’t I? If God saw value in incorporating the holy into the daily grind, shouldn’t I?

Yet, what is the inevitable outcome of this holy convocation? Yes, it is worship. It is delight. In the Lord. It is freedom, riding on heights. It is satisfaction, fed with God’s heritage.

“If because of the sabbath, you turn your foot From doing your pleasure on My holy day, And call the sabbath a delight, the holy day of the LORD honorable, and honor it, desisting from your ways, from seeking your own pleasure and speaking your own word,then you will take delight in the LORD, and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth; and I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.” (isaiah 58:13-14)

May you feed on the heritage of ceasing this Shabbat.

200 Harmony-Inducing Happy Things

Guess what?  Wordpress Dude, in all his obsessive math calculating, number crunching happiness has alerted me right there on the WP dashboard that this is my 200th post. Wow! I’m totally impressed with myself at the moment, which will of course pass very quickly. My 100th post came and went without nearly the fanfare of President Obama’s first 100, but it did relate somewhat, where relate = it was about another president. Post 100 was day 10 in my 12 days of Thanksgiving 2008 series highlighting thoughts about President Lincoln’s first Thanksgiving proclamation. I shared 12 lessons of thanksgiving Abe seemed to “get.” The first was this:

“Learning to recognize bounty is important.”

Yep, that’s still true and still shamefully difficult at times. But, in celebration of my 200th post and as another step on the trek to Harmony 2009, I’m taking up the challenge from my friend at SisterWisdom to make a happy list. Mine is a list of 200 Harmony Inducing Happy Things. Happy things, where things = people, places and well, things that add harmony to my spirit just by virtue of their existence and proximity to me. Happy things can make even the most disharmonious circumstance slip more closely into tune. Misplaced flats and sharps (for my music lovers) don’t stand a chance when happy things are around. [If it's been 37 days or so since my last post, you'll know that 200 was a bit ambitious and can collectively sigh about poor Junkie who can't even think of 200 happy things. But, somehow I don't think that'll be a problem. -- And, sure enough, it wasn't.]

200 Harmony-Inducing Happy Things

1. Hub

2. Little Drummer Boy

3. Squiggle

4. and Baby Girl (in the order of their unwrapping)

5. being inside on a rainy day

6. the smell of gardenia

7. “spit kisses” that you can keep all day

8. laptops

9. a fairly clean and sanitized episode of Murder She Wrote

10. wildflowers picked and arranged for Mother’s Day

11. getting to cook a new dish for my family

12. bedtime stories

13. a tall glass of sweetened iced tea

14. “glass” glasses, not plastic

15. choosing from the cream, yellow, green or cobalt blue plates depending on my mood

16. green striped placemats @ $4 a piece — yep, still harping on those.

17. a drive down the Natchez Traze when dogwoods and redbuds are in full bloom

18. the perfect amount of sun and shade to make red winged begonias flourish on my front stoop

19. an unexpected little boy hug

20. an unexpected big boy hug

21. leftovers

22. peaches in season

23. whole wheat pasta

24. Claire Burke original scent votive candles

25. a glimpse at my grandmother’s handwriting on the letters she sent me at college

More, more and more after the jump! Be happy with me… Continue reading »

MIPOTW: Temperamental Ideology

Shock. My last Most Interesting Phrase of the Week was posted on March 23. I’d say I’m a little behind. It’s not that I haven’t seen anything interesting–quite the opposite.  More accurately, I’ve been so interested in so many things that my mind’s been a little muddled.  You’ve heard it before. It’s a chronic problem that sometimes results in fruit rotting on the vine, creatively speaking.  But, MIPOTW is back with a thought-provoking vengeance–so much so that this one is showing up in the big wide column in addition to its typical spot in the wander zone to your right.  Why the special treatment, you ask?  Well, it’s because this one relates to my 2009 theme word concept, harmony.

The phrase: “It’s not about ideology.  It’s about temperament.”

I heard it while watching a recent segment of Charlie Rose on PBS.  It’s a quote from Joe Scarborough, co-host of Morning Joe on MSNBC.  His subject was the Republican Party in “crisis”, and I agree. But, the statement prompted my thinking on wider issues of temperamental ideology.

Ideology is temperamental.  Try as we might, we can’t always fit it neatly into every situation and make it come out all pretty please with sugar on top. Ideology is a tough nut.  Sometimes it’s the life of the party. Sometimes it’s a loner. Sometimes it doesn’t play well with others. Sometimes it walks softly. Sometimes it carries a big ‘ol stick and doesn’t mind whomping somebody’s noggin with it. Ideology is a squirly beast.

My handy dictionary.com tells me that ideology is “the body of doctrine, myth, belief, etc., that guides an individual, social movement, institution, class, or large group.”  And, I suppose the large group status there gives ideology its particular tendencies toward watering down, blind leading the blind, or zealot crusading as individual iterations emerge.

I started reading a book this weekend called The Signature of Jesus by Brennan Manning. The introduction began a dialogue on the challenge of why beliefs don’t always play out in actions. It highlighted the difference between belief and faith (half-baked for now, but more to come), and reminded me of the harmony (and sometimes disharmony) found in temperamental ideology.

I’ve been pondering beliefs quite a bit of late–in particular, maintaining harmony in beliefs across a variety of situations and social issues. “It’s about temperament.” Trusty dictionary.com tells me that in addition to “the combination of mental, physical, and emotional traits of a person,” temperament also refers to the musical “tuning of a keyboard instrument… so that the instrument may be played in all keys without further tuning.” It’s early meanings include “to mix properly” like in tempera paint. [music and paint--two things I can easily get behind] Ideology in harmony with living–where the rubber meets the road–requires some fine-tuning in order to be played equally across any musical key.  It requires proper mixing. Apt combinations. Stretching out the tiniest variations from the pure tone of truth. The smallest additions and subtractions.

Don’t misunderstand me.  I’m not searching for an all-inclusive amalgamation of beliefs where anything and everything goes and where to be is to be true. That doesn’t work for me.  I’m talking about defying situational ethics and beliefs in favor of standing behind true God-defined realities that stem from the heart of an all-powerful, all-knowing, ever-now, ever-loving righteous Creator.  Tall order.  But, I’m more convinced each day that if it’s true at all and true for me, it’s true for everyone. If it was ever relevant, it’s still relevant. If it can be mine, it can be anyone’s. If it works here, it will work there.  And if it doesn’t, likely it’s my own temperament about the issue that needs to be brought into harmony with the Flesh-clothed Word’s intent.

Gift Tag: All Over Us

As you may have read, I’ve opted for a theme word for 2009 rather than a set of resolutions. In my pursuit of harmony, the word that chose me, I’ve been prompted by some conversations this week to consider this question: How do you achieve harmony between folks who don’t agree? Different people with differing view points–not just life circumstances, but life choices and priorities and beliefs. Is it really possible to agree to disagree? Can friendship occur in that situation? Can harmony? Building relationships with like-minded pals is pretty easy. But, building and nurturing relationships with the unlike-minded is advanced harmony. It’s harmony coursework at the 5000 level. You have to want it, because harmonizing at that level takes some work.

As is often the case, Little Drummer Boy inadvertently taught me something. He reminded me that true harmony with my fellow man, woman and child has a ground rule. And, the lesson came in another episode of the “doo doo chronicles.”

Last week I was sitting at the dressing table in my bedroom trying to minimize the look of not enough sleep so as not to frighten any Saturday morning fellow grocery shoppers. Hub had been supervising while Squiggle and Little Drummer Boy watched a movie and Baby Girl watched Squiggle and Little Drummer Boy. It had given me the opportunity to grab a quick shower before morning errands, and I’d vacated the bathroom just in time for LDB’s second cup of juice to convince him it was “tee-tee” time.

His jaunt in the bathroom was suspiciously long, and I vaguely remember that no flushing sound preceded him bounding out of the door on the way to not missing any more of his movie. As I glanced down the hall between eye liner and blush, I caught him in a hurried shuffle with the back side of his Thomas the Train underwear in plain view and his blue jeans down around his ankles. How I love the innocence of a just-shy-of-four-year old’s utter disregard of pants down around the ankles, but… Cue concern: There are still a few finer points of potty ettiquette we haven’t covered yet–at least we haven’t covered them convincingly enough. And, no time like the present.

Mommy: “Sweetie, we don’t need to come out of the bathroom with our pants down.”
LDB: “Why?” [I love that boy]
Mommy: “Because it’s not modest.”
LDB: Quizzical look.
Mommy: “That means we need to cover ourselves.”
LDB: “Yeah, so we don’t show anyone our knees.” [If only. I'll remember that one for Baby Girl.]
Mommy: “Well, it’s ok for people to see our knees, but we don’t want to show anyone our bottom-boo.”
LDB: “Yes. Because if we doo-doo on them, it will get all over us.”

Righhhht. My insistence that Little Drummer Boy pull his pants up before going one step further was punctuated by giggles and reflection. Harmony in relationships does indeed have a baseline, a ground rule, reiterated in a hundred different refrains of the same tune.

What goes around comes around. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. “Whatever a man sows, this will he also reap.” (galatians 6:7)

So often that verse is used as a weapon, an accusation against the “opposition.” But, “if we doo-doo on them, it will get all over us.” It’s the basic principle of life God created and set in motion: you get what you give. When I give peace, when I give love, when I give hope, I can much more easily recognize it in others around me. I can’t make someone’s choices for him, but I can choose to extend love and peace and joy and hope. Harmony isn’t about agreeing. Harmony is about finding the common ground and the largeness of spirit to give what I want to receive. So, I’m thinking our doo-doo is best put in the potty, lest it get all over us.

Gift Tags are the tiny messages God continues to include with our gifts — 2 little joys of boys and 1 little jewel of a girl, each with open eyes, open ears, open hearts, and much to teach. “Behold children are a gift of the Lord…” (psalm 127:1)