A thankful lifestyle

The sun was pale with cold, and a frog with a sore throat attempted to croak at the same time every morning while I enjoyed some set-aside time with a deserving God.  I felt a little sorry for little froggy; it sounded like he was alone out there trying to survive the dropping temperatures.  His croaks came out in a low, forced tone.  He needed throat coat tea and a good dose of vitamin C.  I tucked my blanket closer around me, feeling thankful that it's him out there and not me. 

The day after I wrote in 2 letters that our first freeze was highly anticipated but probably not very near in the future, I woke up to subtle white frost gripping each blade of grass.  A couple more nights of crisp ground silenced the frog's morning discourse.  Hopefully he's happily hibernating somewhere out there.  😖

Every time I get in the car, the heater is pinned to the warmest setting waiting for the vents to stop blowing cold air.   I don't even check the weather anymore because I know it's just going to be cold, and that's all that really counts.  This week I had my first eggnog latte of the season, and I'm quite convinced that they are made by fairies.  The nights are starry and bright with a content moon making sparkles on the frost.  It's a good life, even when I forget.

With Thanksgiving so near at hand, I am thinking about one of my favorite family traditions.  When we sit down to a table too small to hold all the food, we first go around a time or two stating something from the past year for which we are each especially thankful.  Usually that ends up being a big thing--a raise, a new baby, a recent marriage, good grades, a new friend.  Those are the easy things to think of because they have largely dominated or defined the past year.  I love this because it gives us each a chance to hear from each other about the events and people that have had the greatest impact on the memory. 

The problem is that we, like most Americans, get up from the loaded dinner table and quickly forget how good we have it.  On Thanksgiving we will tell each other how great life is, and the next day we will be right back to the usual complaints of aches and pains and inconveniences.  This bothers me.  Most of all, I hate that I see this within myself.  We also forget that blessings don't only come in big packages spread out over the year.  They come subtly in every-day packages like electricity, running water, plumbing, a blanket, a mug of tea, a pair of socks, a hoodie.

This year I want Thanksgiving to be the starting point of creating a lifestyle of thankfulness for all the big and "little" (you would realize they weren't so little if your electricity went out for a few days) packages of abundance.  Thanksgiving isn't made to be a one-time thankful fest just before returning to the daily grind.  It's meant to be a reminder that thankful is what we ought to be every single day leading up to and following a celebratory holiday.  Thanksgiving is our chance to get together and tell each other "this is why I've been enjoying life so much this year."  I want to start living deeper, acknowledging even the most insignificant details of daily life.

I am thankful for many "big" things this Thanksgiving, but here are a few highlights of the everyday in my life:

• Accountability partners and time to enjoy God's Word
• Dirty pots and pans to wash, telling me that my mom is cooking up something tasty
• A prompt electric stove top
• Quality internet (this year for the first time in my life!)
• Furnace heating
• My niece's and nephew's art hanging in my room

I hope your Thanksgiving reminds you that life is so full...not just of food!  Now go celebrate what a beautiful life we live.

Why the letters?

By now you have probably caught on to the idea that I love writing letters sent through the good ol' postal system, and it probably sounds like I'm trying to reinvent the pony express here or something.  Here on the blog I have broken down a thank you letter into manageable parts, provided tips for how to make writing letters more possible and organized, and suggested a template for writing a friendly letter.  But why?  What's the point of all of that?  Is it so that you can analyze my letter if you receive one?  Is it because I think every person needs to be writing a minimum number of letters each month?  Why am I obsessed with writing letters?  These are actually very valid questions.  I have provided some brief answers in previous letter blogs, but I would like to address these unspoken questions more directly here before adding to my collection of blog posts on the topic of letter writing.

My intention is not to turn everyone into a letter-writing fanatic (though that would help out the postal system!).   I like letter writing because I see it as a personal "ministry"of encouraging and reaching out to others.  That just means that I am passionate about it, but I also realize that not everyone is or even should be!  But I do want to reveal why it is important to me and why I think writing at least an occasional letter really is valuable for you, too.

First of all, letters provide practice for well-thought-out communication.  In a technology world, we don't actually have to think too carefully because it's so easy to send another message of correction or to edit something.  I really love that about technology.  😏  But I also think there is a bit of loss in that.  We lose the ability to communicate with depth and meaning. If I'm using email or a messaging system, I am less likely to put in effort to find a connection and pour myself into what I want to communicate.  Letters are your chance to take the time to think through what you want to say and exactly how you want it worded.  It's like you have the freedom to be a real writer for just a minute...and an old-fashioned movie character!  There is space for creativity, humor, and personal honesty at a whole new level, and it's on paper where your recipient can handle it and soak it up over and over.

Pouring yourself into being a writer means that it also takes more time.  The 21st century is so fast-paced.  People are rushing from here to there and trying to meet deadline after deadline.  Most of us live highly demanding lives with tight schedules.  The wonderful thing about a letter is that it departs from this routine.  It commits to not be rushed and to take a needed pause in order to reach into someone else's life, just like you would if you were going to get together for coffee.  That leads me in to the next point:

When you are separated by distance from someone you really care about, you obviously can't spend time with them to share about life, laugh together, and create new memories like you would in person.  A letter will bridge that gap while you're apart.  You have a chance to still share about life in the same depth and detail that you might in person.  In a casual email, I would struggle to write effectually about my excitement over up-coming college courses or about my discouragement over future unknowns in the same way that I would communicate those things in person or in a letter.  The time and effort required for a letter shows that you care about them and want to take time out to be "with" them in whatever way is possible, too.  It's your secret code of saying "hey!  I know we can't hang out together today; but I still want to keep you updated, and I still really care about this relationship."

Finally, your handwriting and/or writing style reveal a lot about your personality and style.  Only "insiders" to your life know your handwriting well enough to immediately recognize it or have the ability to hear your voice when they read your choice of words and your sentence construction.  That's actually a really special thing to get to experience about your friend/family member.

Writing letters also helps you look younger, lose weight, and lower your risk of disease...
if you're simultaneously drinking green tea.

My blog posts about letters are not designed to guilt you or to reverse time away from technology.  However, I think you could pass on some encouragement by simply writing a letter to that person who has been on your mind for the past few days.  Let them know how they got on your mind, what you've been busy with, and what you miss about being together.  Give them the gift of being an insider on who you are, and the world just might become a better place.

Be a 17 second miracle: a giving challenge

My sister and I occasionally pick up audio books from the library to help pass the time when we have mindless tasks ahead or just a lot of foreseen driving.  My sister is great about pumping through literature, and I listen to audio books with her to say that I've "read" a novel in the past year.

After exhausting our self-generated ideas of audio books, we started selecting books that are completely new to us.  Doing that is never exactly safe or fool-proof.  We have landed on books that we didn't finish, books that we didn't care for, books that were narrated by obnoxious voices, and a handful of books that have been strangely satisfying.  One such of these latter books, The Seventeen Second Miracle, was an audio book that Tirzah picked up this summer and we listen to during one of our extensive painting jobs.

It actually sounded a bit sketchy to me, so I listened really closely to identify the sketchy part. 😏  Pretty soon, though, I was caught up in the story and really hoping that there wouldn't be any reason to not finish the book.  The story line was tight and just mysterious enough to keep the audience curious.  The characters were each unique and quirky...and not always likable.  😁  It turned out that there were also 2 incredible, relevant messages of application for us.

First, The Seventeen Second Miracle reminds us that life is far too short to live like we are in control when we don't actually know what life is going to hold from second to second.  This book reminded me of something I seem to easily forget: every single second of life ought to be lived at its best, because any second could be my last.

Secondly, this book challenges us to become more sensitive to those around us.  We don't know what is going on in the background of other people's lives, but we can create a sacrificial habit of impacting each other's lives by going out of our way for only a few seconds to serve.  We can be givers in ways that seem small...but you never know how big it will feel to the recipient.

The Seventeen Second Miracle has prompted me to be a better giver so that I can make the most of every second I'm given in life.  Sure, maybe I'll lose a few minutes or dollars helping someone else have a better day, but I think my gains will be greater than my losses.

So what would our world be like if we all started becoming 17-second miracles to those around us?  What would we be like?

With Thanksgiving only 22 days away and another year coming to a close, I want to challenge each of us to become anonymous 17-second miracles just once a week for the month of November.  There are 4 nearly-complete weeks in November, which means that we will have 4 different opportunities to purposefully give to someone else. 
While any kind of giving is a wonderful and worthy practice, I would really like this challenge to focus on giving anonymously.  I emphasize this anonymous factor because I think it helps us be more focused on solely giving.  I don't know about you, but being thanked is a way that I often find fulfillment and satisfaction from a "good deed."  I need to perfect the art of giving without needing anything--not even a simple "thank you"--in return and yet still being completely gratified, so let's practice together!
Another reason is that I want to broaden my range of giving.  I give to people I love and spend time with, but I am not so inclined to give to people who are strangers to me.  I want my life to reflect that I actually truly care about everyone, including the people I only exchange smiles with on the sidewalk....or people that I have never even seen.  The thing I love about people who pay it forward, leave some small gift behind, or scribble a random note of encouragement is that they aren't so caught up in their day or their finances that they can't give a little.  They think about the person who will come after them.

So here's how you can participate in the giving challenge in the following 4 weeks:

• Think of 4 ways (virtual bonus points for 4 different ways!) that you can anonymously give to people around you.  Don't concern yourself with making it a big gift; this can be something as simple as a note of encouragement or $5 to lift someone else's day.  Here are some simple starter ideas:

               > paying it forward at a coffee shop

               > leaving a gift card at a public location for the next person

               > mailing a note of encouragement and/or gift card to "current resident" at a random address in your phone book (and hoping this will not creep out the receiver! 😉)

• Come back here every week and leave a comment about how you incorporated this challenge into your week.
• Check in on the comments every week to hear how I've given anonymously, and get ideas from others!

Anonymously giving is so practical for us in our daily lives because life is full of thankless tasks.  Mowing the grass, washing the dishes, cooking meals, and replacing light bulbs are all things that need to be done on a regular basis, but we allow ourselves to procrastinate on those tasks because they generally go unnoticed.  Whether it's giving anonymously for a stranger or giving not-so-anonymously in your own home, serving without receiving anything in return must become a part of who we are as loving, giving people.

Do you think you could be someone else's 17 second miracle this month?