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Pedestrian Things

I have been reading and studying a lot lately about creativity and taking risks.  Last night, I was looking at somethings that led to another and to another and then on this a quote by writer named Shauna Niequist, and then that search led me to a passage from her book Cold Tangerines.  I believe these words sum teach a lesson on the value of this day that many of us need to her.  As  a matter of fact I may need to run out to McKays and see if there is a copy of this book laying around out there so I can read the whole thing.  It seems to address the whole idea about turning the everyday into something special quite well.  Take a look ( sorry this is such a long passage!)

“I have always, essentially, been waiting. Waiting to become something else, waiting to be that person I always thought I was on the verge of becoming, waiting for that life I thought I would have. In my head, I was always one step away. In high school, I was biding my time until I could become the college version of myself, the one my mind could see so clearly. In college, the post-college “adult” person was always looming in front of me, smarter, stronger, more organized. Then the married person, then the person I’d become when we have kids. For twenty years, literally, I have waited to become the thin version of myself, because that’s when life will really begin.
And through all that waiting, here I am. My life is passing, day by day, and I am waiting for it to start. I am waiting for that time, that person, that event when my life will finally begin.
I love movies about “The Big Moment” – the game or the performance or the wedding day or the record deal, the stories that split time with that key event, and everything is reframed, before it and after it, because it has changed everything. I have always wanted this movie-worthy event, something that will change everything and grab me out of this waiting game into the whirlwind in front of me. I cry and cry at these movies, because I am still waiting for my own big moment. I had visions of life as an adventure, a thing to be celebrated and experienced, but all I was doing was going to work and coming home, and that wasn’t what it looked like in the movies.
John Lennon once said, “Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans.” For me, life is what was happening while I was busy waiting for my big moment. I was ready for it and believed that the rest of my life would fade into the background, and that my big moment would carry me through life like a lifeboat.
The Big Moment, unfortunately, is an urban myth. Some people have them, in a sense, when they win the Heisman or become the next American Idol. But even that football player or that singer is living a life made up of more than that one moment. Life is a collection of a million, billion moments, tiny little moments and choices, like a handful of luminous, glowing pearl. It takes so much time, and so much work, and those beads and moments are so small, and so much less fabulous and dramatic than the movies.
But this is what I’m finding, in glimpses and flashes: this is it. This is it, in the best possible way. That thing I’m waiting for, that adventure, that move-score-worthy experience unfolding gracefully. This is it. Normal, daily life ticking by on our streets and sidewalks, in our houses and apartments, in our beds and at our dinner tables, in our dreams and prayers and fights and secrets – this pedestrian life is the most precious thing any of use will ever experience.”
— Shauna Niequist (Cold Tangerines: Celebrating the Extraordinary Nature of Everyday Life)

 

Yep, the turning the pedestrian into the Moment.  That’s living life.  Let’s give that a go, shall we?

 

24This day belongs to the LORD!

Let’s celebrate

and be glad today. Psalm 118:24 Contemporary English Version (CEV)

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Space, Dreams and Creation

Today is a big day, and in lots of ways it’s a sad day.  The last Space Shuttle will rocket into the sky around 11 am this morning, weather permitting.

This is a sad thing for me as I have grown up with the Space Shuttle.  This was the topic of my seventh grade science fair project.  I had aspirations for a short time that I would fly on one of those things one day.   Everytime I see the amount of engineering and the amout of design that is in those ships, I just stand and marvel at the amount of creative design and thoughts and the mind power that was used to build those things and to make them fly around the earth! 

So today seems like the end of an era of exploration. But it seems that  exploration is something that has been created inside of us. The abilty to dream and to explore and to create.

And it does seem that it all comes back to one creator who gave us the ability to create such incredible devices to explore his marvelous universe.

27 So God created mankind in his own image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them. Genesis 1:27 New International Version (NIV)

Remember who created you today, and reach for the stars, or maybe the space station! I wonder what we will explore next!

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Don’t Know and Have a Go

Well its Friday!  Yeah!  So, its time to wrap up another week of fun and new thoughts.  After last week where it seemed the whole thing was shutting down, this week I have been trying to parse through a load of ideas to see which ones to share and when.  I hope that it some of these thoughts and musing are actually helping you!

Anyway, last weekend, I was shown a video about creativity from Sir Ken Robinson about how the fear of being wrong can squelch our creative fires.  The whole premise of the idea is that children are so creative because, well, they don’t know they should not be.

It’s a pretty interesting concept and one that seems to hold true for us grown ups in so many ways.  The fear of something grips up and well paralyzes us.

Interestingly enough, with that fresh on my brain, I was in a discussion on Wednesday night about the “Parable of the Talents” in Matthew 25.  In that story 3 men are given gifts and each are expected to grow and cultivate what they have been given.  Two men do.  The third is captivated by fear, and does nothing. When the master returns he is harshly punished.  Check out what the master says:

26-27“The master was furious. ‘That’s a terrible way to live! It’s criminal to live cautiously like that! If you knew I was after the best, why did you do less than the least? The least you could have done would have been to invest the sum with the bankers, where at least I would have gotten a little interest.

28-30“‘Take the thousand and give it to the one who risked the most. And get rid of this “play-it-safe” who won’t go out on a limb. Throw him out into utter darkness.’ (Matthew 25:26-30, The Message)

So today, examine what it is that is stopping you from moving forward.  What fears are stifling your creativity.  What fears are stopping you from cultivating the gifts you have been given.

Let us not play it safe, but let us go for the reward!  Don’t prepare to be wrong. Don’t be afraid of making a mistake.  Act like you “don’t know and have a go.”