2.12.2009

Recoiled.

It's Thursday; happy Thursday. My heart and mind are in a bit of a strange place today; this is probably caused by a combination of things.

I was not successful in overcoming the fear of the dark last night. In fact, I think my subconscious totally rebelled, and I had lots of strange dreams all night and was totally scared. But, I am not going to give up. Instead, I am going to try some different strategies. And I'm going to start by framing my thinking on this whole thing in a way other than the general failure/success paradigm.

Also, I am going to honor the fear instead of acting like it's just stupid and irrational. A lot of the time our fears come from genuine places, and I think my fear of the dark is no exception. It will take some time, but I know I am going to overcome it. I really felt myself tensing up today and recoiling from everything. So that's what inspired the Creative Everyday project for today. Here it is. The hand is God's.


In happier news, a fellow seminarian, Maggie, preached a great sermon at chapel today. It is always a genuine blessing to hear the voices, insights, and perspectives of so many wonderful vessels of the Holy Spirit.

Over the last week, I've been listening to a 4-part podcast of an interview with Jill Bolte Taylor. She wrote a book: Stroke of Insight. It looks amazing. Would anyone want to read it with me? She had a massive stroke and survived it. Her insights are brilliant! Here are a few quotes from her interview:

"Listen to what you're saying to yourself and take some responsibility for that voice."

"Take responsibility for the energy you are bring into my space."

"The willingness to try is everything." (this one I think was her, but it's on one of my notecards, and I'm not sure if it was her or from some other podcast)

Another great quote I heard on a podcast called Vegan Freak is: "I don't think constancy of opinion, if you find out the opinion is wrong, has any merit." I like that a lot! So true.

A major highlight of the day was drawing for 15 minutes with a two-year-old named Ingrid. She's one of the coolest people I know. We were drawing and out of nowhere she said in such an articulate, mature way, "And what is your name?" I said, "Emily." And she looked right at me and started laughing hysterically. It was my favorite part of Thursday, February 12th.

Keep laughing, friends. Keep laughing. It sure helps with putting things into perpsective.

4 comments:

  1. I would be interested in reading the book with you but maybe not until March. I need to finish that 'girls retreat' book first. Let me know, friend. :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'm extreeeeeemely afraid of the dark. Like, "freak out when the power goes out" and "make Andy walk me to the bathroom in the middle of the night" afraid of the dark. I used to want to overcome it, but I've come to accept it. I figure, we all have our quirks, and this is mine! (Just not sure what I'll do when H & E get a little older and have bad dreams in the middle of the night...send 'em to their dad for comfort, I suppose.)

    ReplyDelete
  3. I would be interested in reading the book with you but maybe not until March. I need to finish that 'girls retreat' book first. Let me know, friend. :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. I'm extreeeeeemely afraid of the dark. Like, "freak out when the power goes out" and "make Andy walk me to the bathroom in the middle of the night" afraid of the dark. I used to want to overcome it, but I've come to accept it. I figure, we all have our quirks, and this is mine! (Just not sure what I'll do when H & E get a little older and have bad dreams in the middle of the night...send 'em to their dad for comfort, I suppose.)

    ReplyDelete