Okay, so I’ve been tagged TWICE by people to do this, I’d better pony up. Now that doesn’t mean 50 random things. No one wants to read that, ugh. So here are my 25.

1. When I went to kindergarten the first day, my mom said, “Have a great day at school.” I responded as i walked down the sidewalk, “They don’t know me now, but they will.”

2. I am a WoW addict. Thanks to friends and work an my nephew. LOL. I am Horde. Didn’t think I would be, but I am. I have two blood elfs…a rogue and a paladin. And if you just understood what I said, you are a WoW nut too.

3. I have 4 cats and 2 dogs. It used to be 6 cats. This borders on ‘catlady’ status. I am NOT allowed in PetSmart on pet adoption day. My heart is way too soft for wayward animals. When I sit on the couch, all the animals come to me to lay around me. One of my dear friends, Mark D. said it is because I am balanced. Hmmm.

4. I used to love to play golf, until I went on the varsity golf team in high school and lettered, but it burned me out. Now I just like the short game or putt-putt.

5. I hate spiders. Spiders like me. It is not a good relationship. Unhealthy is my word. I am an expert at telling the diff between at chigger, mosquito and spider bite. This includes regular spider bites and recluse. Yeah, I have too much XP in that area.

6. I love pizza with crackery crisp, crunchy, crust. I am a crunch girl through and through.

7. I once had a hamster named King. He was HUGE and barely fit through the habitrail. He was the King of the hamster realm. Maybe I should have named him Elvis. LOL

8. Before i die, I want to see Ireland, Scotland, Jerusalem, India, England, Germany, Sudan, Alaska and of course go back to that place in the Caymans. There was an upstairs place called Breezes had the best mojitos on this green earth made with Cuban rum and served by ‘Bon Jovi Pirate’ the bartender.

9. When it snows, it lifts my spirits, which have needed a lot of lifting these days. It is snowing now. I am happier.

10. My brother makes THE BEST smoked stuff. I’ll eat anything he cooks in the smoker with the exception of ribs. Ribs have always grossed me out. I can’t eat them. I don’t know why. Perhaps due to the graphic nature of the rib…ugh. blech.

11. My maiden name is ‘Marrs”. This got my bro and I lots of teasing in our younger years. We fought that battle a lot stop the planet and candy bar references. My niece calls herself marsbars in her email name…freakin’ hilarious…one generation to the next….how viewpoints change.

12. I’m silent these days on my blog. I am in Desolace, spiritually. I wait, I search on the dry plains for rain. I am patient, but it starting to weigh on me with all the stuff happening in my life. For you non-WoW ers… http://www.wowwiki.com/Desolace

13. I like driving little cars. It makes it easy for the directionally challenged folks like me to make U turns to find the right way to go. Plus parking is WAY easier. (And gas is not so crazy)

14. Amazingly, I still keep in touch with a friend from 5-6 yrs old, one I met in Jr. High and one I met in college. Mostly through Facebook these days, but I hope to get together with them again soon. You know who you are.

15. My parents, thankfully, are still alive. This is a blessing, most of the time…unless you are my brother who lives a block from them and has to deal with their computer problems. LMAO.

16. I’m a prairie girl. I need wide open spaces and strong winds. It makes me very happy to hear the wind howling at night. To see in the distance for miles is a comfort. Too many trees or mountains hem me in.

17. I love Clark shoes and own several pair. The are da bomb.

18. I hate malls. I’ve gone years without going to one.

19. I want to go on an international mission trip in 2010. I would prefer Africa, but would be okay with south/central America or through Living Water or my local church. I look to God for guidance on that.

20. I really like Smarties, even after seeing “How they are made.’ Dang they are good.

21. My sinuses are the bane of my winter life. If I could crochet hook them out of my head through my nose like Arnold Schwarzenegger did in ‘Total Recall’ did with the probe, I’d do it in a heart beat.

22. Every year in February, I watch one of my favorite movies, ‘Groundhog Day.’ I love this movie. “Ned! Ned Ryerson! Bing!”

23. I really haven’t spent a lot of quality time in my studio lately. Surprisingly, it isn’t bothering me either. Perhaps the muse is in Desolace with me after all. Perhaps. My site is http://www.chameleonquilts.com

24. I thought I had eclectic tastes in music. I do to a point. Then I talked with someone who is into all kinds of rap and hip hop. I am dumb in that area. I wonder if I can still claim eclectic?

25. I could be anyplace right now it would be Block Island, RI. A little Martha’s Vineyard without the crappy crowds. Shhhh, don’t tell anyone!

I’ve already tried and failed at the 365 project this year. I’m not going to beat myself up about it as with other failed beginning-of-the-year goals. Deep down, there is a very analytical/sequential AND a very random/abstract aspect to my personality. Yes we all have it, but when I take ‘those’ personality tests, I’ve scored equal in both categories.  And for the 365 project, well,  random has blossomed and I’ve missed days of photos.  I’ve made peace that it won’t be this year for a photoblog. Ah, well.  I will post some pictures here this year if they strike me or are images I think are worth sharing.I have a new point and shoot 10 MP that I love and want to use.

Last year, I received a challenge from one of my facebook friends last year to hit the shuffle on my iPod and record what came up.  Interesting exercise that I’ve done quite a few times since then, usually surprised at what comes up. I’m exanding the list and am posting my random dozen songs shuffled from my iPod today.  As those Mp3 geeks know, the shuffle mode can be deep in meaning as the songs come up or mean nothing. I claim no deep thought on these, people.  But I have highlighted ones that seem to apply to my day. Look up the lyrics. Ponder.  Comment if u like.

2009 will be a wild ride for me at work. I imagine this randomness will continue. Stay tuned.

Dozen Random Songs for January 9

1 ) Another Woman by Moby

2 ) Crash into Me by Dave Matthews Band

3 ) Sometimes You Can’t Make it On Your Own by U2

4 ) Philosophy by Ben Folds

5 ) We are Family by Sister Sledge

6 ) X & Y by Coldplay

7 ) Beautiful Day by U2

8 ) Maybe Tomorrow by Stereophonics

9 ) Diggin’ Your Scene by Smash Mouth

10) Stand Up by Dave Matthews Band

11) Rise by Flobots

12) Dirty Laundry by Eagles

This is pretty cool. Has a great message at the end.  Surprisingly from a commercial ice cream company

You can visit the site Help the Honey Bees.

Here’s an interesting rumor.  The early Christian church was also called ‘the hive.’

Here is a book about the Hive which looks interesting: The Hive

Pass the honey with that roll or biscuit this Thanksgiving?

Word.

Truly the YouTube video speaks for itself….honestly my mouth dropped open when I realized it was yes, THE Crowder.

In early September, the weather cooled. I took the back roads to work one morning with the car windows cracked open, enjoying the fresh morning air. I tend to have blinders on when I drive, just ask those who wave and honk. I rarely see past the traffic before me. But that day, the chatter of birds broke through me reverie as I waited for the light to change. Hundreds of dark colored birds lined the telephone lines, perched on top of streetlights and business signs. A chorus of sound which drowned out all but the loudest traffic.

Several times in the next few weeks, I took the back roads to and from work. Often I would see a sparrows, grackles, geese or other flock of birds traveling southward to warmer climates, their fluid, amoebic groups in the sunny skies, moving—shifting—dancing an aviary ballet of sorts as they continued on their journey.

Lately, on the Palladia channel I’ve seen the coolest commercial. A flock of animated black birds in flight which then morph into details of birch trees and then the perspective shifts yet again into a forest birches and other trees as the ‘camera’ pulls back. It’s a commercial that stops me in my tracks, transfixing me through completion of the animation. The change in perspective, the change in subject is fascinating.

The images and activities of my aviary friends continued.

A lone hawk sitting atop a fence post, scanning the fields, hunting for dinner as the sun dims on the horizon during my commute home.

A small flock of birds, one early morning, startled into flight from our pear tree in the front yard as I took out the dogs for their ‘constitutional’. The dogs stood, transfixed by the rising mass of birds and muffled sounds of wing flaps. We all watched them rise into the air and depart before moving on to other business.

Birds dotting the lines between telephone posts along the road like Morse Code. I wondered what the words said. SOS?

Empty bird feeders swinging on tree limbs in our windy backyard. No birds in sight. For if the food gone, so are the birds, hunger drives them to look elsewhere.

Birds migrate in cycles including those made in response to changes in food availability, habitat or weather. Habitat and weather changes are usually irregular or in only one direction. Migration is marked by its annual seasonality. In contrast, birds that are non-migratory are known as resident birds. Migrating birds vary migration travels, some short, some long as they move through this cycle. Some lose their way, most regain direction through the magnetic pull of their migrating pattern.

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It’s been a very long time since I’ve blogged in any sort of thoughtful manner. Part of it was time available to write. A new job and shifts in family life have kept my schedule rather packed, but this has not been the entire reason. I wouldn’t call my current spiritual state ‘a crises,’ but I must admit it has not been peaceful, steady, or void of some serious drama and frustration. For several months, I’ve noticed a steady decline in spiritual direction and desire to pursue it . . .fire dimmed a bit, you might say. I in no way believe following Christ is all ups and blessings. That line of thought has gotten many of us in a state of entitlement within Christianity that has dangerous pathways of disappointment and defeat. I do believe that a spiritual growth ebbs and flows as does the pattern of its pursuit.

I’ve noticed that within a discipleship journey I tend to close off conversation with God when I am under the most duress, thinking I can control my emotion, the situation or some aspect until it is ‘resolved’ to my satisfaction. My instinct is to look to my own ability to interpret and understand why. The worse it gets the more of a control freak I become, the less I turn to God for understanding and guidance. Yeah, counter intuitive, I know.

Do you listen in on God’s council?
Do you limit wisdom to yourself? Job 15:8

It is very easy these days to preoccupy myself with other things. Lately, I’ve found myself driving to soccer or work or the grocery store, listening to books or music. I’ve played single parent for more weeks that I care to admit due to some shifts in Wayne’s job responsibilities. I’ve used online communities, movies, TV–any entertainment at my fingertips, to distract myself often from deep thought as I bounce from place to place, from event or obligation to home and work.

Conversation with God dwindled to almost nothing. Even those conversations seemed one-sided monologues, prayers for others done out of duty and habit. I was talking to God less and less. More importantly, I was not listening either.

Show me your ways, O LORD, teach me your paths; guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long. Remember, O LORD, your great mercy and love, for they are from of old. Psalm 25:4-6

But for the past two months, I’ve been subject to these bird whispers, these subtle words of God breaking through the din of everyday life and my insulated turtle shell. Through the amoebic movement of a migrating flock—through the chatter of that flock as I stop for a train. I knew it was God, but I had no gumption to listen. No inclination to ponder why I was seeing all these bird signs of migration, of community, of loners, of transitions. I sat in my misery wondering about everything. As we all know, blind birds don’t really go very far.

My best thinking, you see, is when I write. Focusing on the blank page, talking out my ideas is where revelation comes. So when the chatter of birds drown out the din of my distractions, I sat down to write this. With the tenacity that only God can employ, I now understand the message delivered in the wings of birds, in sky silhouettes traveling to places far away, in the groups and flocks migrating through the cycles of the season.

It’s okay, Deana, I’m still here. Time to move on.

]]> http://themetanoia.wordpress.com/2008/10/27/migration/feed/ 2 deana331 http://themetanoia.wordpress.com/2008/09/25/get-tight-with-christ/ http://themetanoia.wordpress.com/2008/09/25/get-tight-with-christ/#comments Thu, 25 Sep 2008 20:19:41 +0000 deana331 http://themetanoia.wordpress.com/?p=257 ]]>

I colleague at work saw these in a window while walking by in Austin, TX and sent out the link to them online.  I immediately had a flashback to the Saved movie.  The design reminds me of the Lady of Guadalupe figurines I studied for a piece of artwork I did for a competition.

Interesting that SPF 18 is all you need to keep you “Tight with Christ.” “Be Worthy!”  “Be Noticed!” “Lookin’ Good for Jesus!” “Look your Sunday Best!” “Protects” “Preserves”…………..Preserves?!?!?

Here is the second one on the site.

I love:

“Monks special reserve” and “Handy Salvation for a sinner on the go” (for all liars, cheaters and wrong-doers)

I humbly add these to the God the Action Figure to begin a  collection titled, Marketing for the Beyond mentioned recently on the Performing the Faith Blog.

I read this today in Sojourner’s Updates:

Politics and pulpit.“Declaring that clergy have a constitutional right to endorse political candidates from their pulpits, the socially conservative Alliance Defense Fund is recruiting several dozen pastors to do just that on Sept. 28, in defiance of Internal Revenue Service rules.”

This is interesting since I’ve recently finished Jesus for President (Claiborne), and yet even more spooky if you consider a book I’m reading right now… Jesus Wants to Save Christians: A Manifesto for the Church in Exile.  In an excerpt today from that book, Golden and Bell talked about the church’s involvement with government and the dangers that shows throughout Biblical times which yields a cycle of greed ($ and power) and the exploitation of others in the process..

“Danger, Will Robinson!” Beware of the ‘rights’ of this sort of action. I am not in favor of endorsements from the puplit. It smells of Rome’s religion of government for the people as might makes peace.  The systemic glorification of a ‘religious government’ has never gotten us where God wants us to be.

Endorsement in the pulpit? Perhaps a mere step in the overall corruption for the sake of religion.  I for one do not see endorsement of a candidate as a good thing…as a ‘right’?  We as the body of Christ are meant to be the counter narrative to mainstream society.  By endorsing a candidate, we are no different than a polical party, a corporation, a special interest group.

We should be less interested in endorsing a candidate or one or two hot button issues. We should be more interested in making sure oppression does not exist in any form. Oppression that starts with our own consumerism, narcissism, and ignorance of the world.  For me it is much more important to learn about where oppression exists, to do something to help and to tell others.

Like here:

http://www.firstgiving.com/waterforall

“If you think of this world as a place intended simply for our happiness, you find it quite intolerable: think of it as a place of training and correction and it’s not so bad” –C. S. Lewis

Some of you may already know my knack for discovering spiders in our basement around this time of year as I blogged about it last Fall. (check it out here ) Yes, October is approaching, usually the month when I see the most arachnids in our basement laundry room, yet I’ve already had several spider encounters recently. Let me share.

Imagine my duress to stumble on a rather large wolf spider sauntering through the bedroom door in the early morning light in August. Mind you, this spider had to make it up two sets of stairs and three cats to make it this far. Why this room? There are others before it in the hall after all. Yet here it stood in 8 sturdy legs. Seriously, do I have spider magnet or something? You would think that I would at lead get SOME sort of spidey power for the bites I’ve received in my life. Nope. Nada. No web spinning or swinging from buildings. But I digress. Several pounding objects later including a journal, book and shoe, plus a few exclamations of distain from me, the now flattened adventurous Wolf Spider Columbus was on his way to the new world via a toilet flush in a Kleenex boat. Each instance like this draws me closer to spraying for bugs around the house. I’ve not given in yet, though.

For the second time in my life, “Charlotte” has now appeared outside our front door, spinning a nightly web. She creates her web art between the porch light and rail, neatly tidying up in the morning. My mother and I named a similar spider that who spun webs in the small rectangular window next to our front door one summer many years ago. It was fascinating watching through glass as it spun a web each night, caught meals, ate, then took down the web each morning. I learned a lot about Charlottes that summer and their practices, feeling safe inside as I observed. That Charlotte met an early demise as it poorly chose to scurry across the path of my spider-hating brother one day as he came in the front door. No more Charlotte. This new Charlotte smartly scurries up into the light fixture when we open the door, but more than once I’ve almost backed into the web as I took the dogs, Charlotte deep in ‘web management”, still in the center, waiting for a “Delicious Dish”. I’ve kept with my policy of outdoors ‘ok’ indoors ‘dead’ and it lives on. That is, unless Charlotte finds her way on me. Then all policies are null and void.

Now a new and much larger “Charlotte” has entered into my life. You see, my daughter’s 4th grade teacher has a spider for a PET in the classroom. GAH! This is not ordinary garden variety spider, but and biggest tarantula I’ve ever seen. In fact, the teacher noted, “She molted this summer and is much bigger now.” Holy cow people, the BODY of that arachnid was as big as a man’s palm. I know this because one of the fathers during school open house held it. Shivers ran down my spine as I approached the room and saw hefty ‘Charlotte’ in the doorway area on the teacher’s arm. No, Charlotte is not an appropriate name for that brutish mass of hair and goo. It is by no means as delicate and articulate as the E.B. White’s Charlotte conversing with Wilber and crating fantastic advertising web. It is big, brutish, hairy, by its mere size it reeks of attitude. Therefore, I call it Mrs. T. So there I stood, wondering–should I stay outside or try skirt the whole scene to get into the room? Even Kayla seemed a bit timid to enter the room to check out her new desk and class.

One thing I’ve learned as a past teacher and now parent is my daughter, and other children for that matter, observe and imitate grownups quite often, especially in cases of fear. When teaching after school programs in Mililani, HI, decades ago, I knew if I overreacted to something such as a banana spider or centipede in the classroom, I was guaranteed a rounding chorus of the same type of scream and reaction from 25 Kindergarteners. With that in mind, I approached “Mrs. T” without comment and listened to what the teacher. “You can pet her.” “Pet her very gently on her body here” “If these antennae come up, she is agitated, so stop” On and on she went, instructing timid students and grownups how to touch her gargantuan friend.

“So what your telling me is that I’m all tied up inside…baby steps untie your knots” “Baby steps. Baby steps.” Bob Wiley in What about Bob

Finally I bucked up and pet the blasted thing exactly three passes over Mrs. T’s abdomen. I did this in part to show Kayla it was okay (she did not pet Charlotte that night, she informed me the next week that she pet the spider, too, in class). I also did it to overcome this fear of spiders. And I have to admit also that part of it was to be able to say, “I’ve pet a tarantula and it wasn’t so bad.” Now the deed is done, the baby step taken towards a more reasonable view and treatment of spiders.

Some could say spiritual journeys of discipleship are similar to my tarantula experience. Constant growth through learning, trusting, sticking out our necks to change our opinion, our direction, not matter how small the step is progress.

I think that many of us, when Christ has enabled us to overcome 1 or 2 sins that were an obvious nuisance, are inclined to feel..that now we are good enough. He has done all we wanted Him to do and we should be obliged if He would now leave us alone.” –C. S. Lewis

Often I think our American dream of big, fast, quick, successful does a lot to damage those seeking God and Christ. We are taught to believe success likes in the large, visible changes in character to show success. These are most often noted and celebrated such as a baptism, a ‘conversion’ “public confession” or ‘confirmation”. These are very important, but not where most the real work of spiritual growth is done. We can say, we’ve taken major steps with these celebrations, yet God is constantly reaching to us from the next thing or place we need to be, pulling us forward through our daily lives, not allowing us to get to comfortable with our past resumes.

It’s that small decision on how to react or change, the seemingly inane choices we make that make a differences. “Should I get down on that person? Should I be mad or forgive and let it pass? Should I be generous? Should I acknowledge that person and let them into my lane of traffic? Should I spend my time leisurely at movies or on the computer or should I find a way to help for others? Should I hoard my money or find places where it is need more than my bank account?” Indeed, changes in spiritual character often come in the trenches. It involves taking risks and leaving the safety of what we know ‘works for us”, those often stagnant places of comfort. God’s pull on our lives to grow in discipleship is loving, constant and absolutely relentless. Yes, there are back steps, but overall, spiritual growth spring boards off this momentum, often performed with trepidation, uncertainty, and a bit of fear of the unknown, reaching out for the hand than leads us onward.

“Good and evil both increase at compound interest. That is why the little decisions you and I make everyday are of such infinite importance.” –C. S. Lewis

As for my spider encounters? Well, there are conferences in October in my daughter’s classroom, so I imagine, small steps will occur as I again visit the tarantula’s lair.

“Baby step to four o’clock. Baby step to four o’clock,” Bob Wiley in What About Bob.

My fellow conspirator and blogger, One Ordinary Radical, talked about yin yang and balance in work and play on his blog a awhile ago. I answered a little, but then when looking for more on this topic and now I have blogged on yin yang.

The yin yang symbol has been adopted in western world in hippie and retro hippie culture. The image lingers today on temporary tattoos and surfboards. They show up on swim wear and guitars, doo rags and key chains. The ancient symbol of balance has been bastardized by free world consumeristic expression, as are many sacred symbols (case and point, are rhinestone crosses really the best expression of torturous crucifixion? probably not.) As often is when we make a dollar or a million on marketing Jesus or yin yang, often concepts surrounding these symbols become diluted and watered down. American markets are masters at manipulating concepts and practices into molds of our liking, often in the name of ‘free expression’ or freedom. But I digress.

A Yin Yang definition states:

“The yin yang is the easily recognized Taoist symbol of the interplay of forces in the universe. In Chinese philosophy, yin and yang represent the two primal cosmic forces in the universe. Yin (moon) is the receptive, passive, cold female force. Yang (sun) is masculine- force, movement, heat.

The Yin Yang symbol represents the idealized harmony of these forces; equilibrium in the universe. In ancient Taoist texts, white and black represent enlightenment and ignorance, respectively.”
Yet in the black and white symbol of the ying yang are dangerous suppositions when associated to Christian life-balance.

Controlling Balance
As followers of Christ, Sabbath is part of the Judeo-Christian backdrop of our lives. Yes, according to the Bible, a time of rest should occur at regular intervals. Yes, Jesus practiced Sabbath, but Jesus also broke it often to help those in need. What does that say bout balancing work and play in our lives? Better yet, what are we categorizing as work vs. play? Where does service fit into that picture? In the Bible, there are debates in Jewish practices for what is considered work. Even today, centuries later, some groups of Jews thing work is turning on a light or walking anywhere.

I believe One Ordinary Radical’s intent was work and play in the overall sense. I propose there is more to work than a job and there is more to rest or play than the ceasing of working at a job. In fact we are encouraged throughout the Bible to serve others countless times more than resting. In this instance the yin yang would not be an even balance of rest and play. You only have to look at Jesus’ life to see the imbalance of recreation time to working to bring heaven on earth.

Jesus’ view of heaven on earth is not Disney or Magic Mountain, white water rafting and watching movies or eating at an excellent restaurant. Heaven on earth feeds the hungry, gives a drink the to thirsty, clothes the naked, provides shelter and dignity for all. Truly, the needs of the poor and oppressed are simpler than vacations or nights out on the town. It comes right down to water, food, shelter and freedom from slavery/oppression and war. For that reason, I am for imbalance in my own life as I strive to be a part of God’s vision. In that vision I see less play and more work for the Kingdom here on earth that needs to be done for my fellow brothers and sisters at the most basic levels of quality of life.

God vs. Human
The Bible says it clearly from the start in the ‘wrongly controversial’ creation stories. (We should rely less on the literal story of creation and more on the POINT of them.) We see it in the Tower of Babel and throughout Kings and prophets. God is God and humans are not. As followers of Christ, we walk in the manner and life of Jesus, We aspire to become more Christ-like, to be ‘little Christs,” but in the end, we do not literally become another Jesus the Christ. Jesus was God and human. We will always still be human. For that basic reason, I trust my own judgment in life balance less than what God wants for me.

The scripture I’ve been chewing on for a couple of months is Micah 6:8 which says, “Seek justice, love mercy, walk humbly with your God.” Not a whole lot of resting in that statement. Some may argue that walking humbly means we are saying we are human by following Sabbath time and resting, learning that we are not god-like in our capacity. Even so, that is one third of the Micah scripture. Not equal in balance by any means. According to this scripture, clearly 2/3 of the time we are to be faithfully living out God’s vision of kingdom life in mercy and justice.

In the end, the yin yang of God vs. us should always favor the former and not the latter. Here the key in not the balance of listening to God and ourselves equally, but to solely listen to and depend on God for guidance. God’s relationship to us is not an equal balance on any level. God’s guidance that often ask us to work more than play, do more than we think we can, push us way past our own perceived limits to trust, do and follow the will of God much more than our own will.

I must live the imbalance of discipleship and what God wants in the world over my understanding of work/play (life) balance in my own personal space. For that reason, the yin yang doesn’t work well for me.

Just a few current imbalances we need to work and pray ceaselessly to make right.