Which Will It Be?

Enervating? Or energizing? On a recent morning I woke up thinking of cocoons. Actually, I woke up thanking the Lord for the comfy, snuggly cocoon I was nestled in made of several blankets. Since I keep my hair cut short, my ears and neck are exposed, and when it comes to cold, winter winds or drafts in my bedroom, I pretty much become a hibernating human on chilly nights.

As I debated the pros and cons of emerging from my cocoon, there was the continuing warm, safe, snuggly sensation as opposed to the time on my clock announcing it was 6:22 AM. This was a day I could sleep in a bit, but I was properly "guilted" that I should get with my morning schedule as I had a full day ahead. 

As I pondered the idea of cocoons, I naturally thought of the lowly worm that encases itself in a cocoon and at the proper time emerges as a beautiful butterfly. That transformation or metamorphosis in nature is also possible supernaturally for us humans—not that we’ll become butterflies:) but we can become transformed. The apostle Paul explained this best in ­­­­Romans 12:2a, “…be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”

So, just as I cannot stay in the comfy cocoon of my warm bedcovers on these chilly mornings, and as the worm cannot stay in its cocoon, I must emerge from that safe, snuggly spot, perhaps going so far as to get out of my so-called comfort zone and be/do whatever the Lord has laid out for me on a particular day. I can retire to my nest of snuggly, soon to be warmed by body heat, covers at the end of my day, ready to be energized at the start of a new day if He so wills.

Sparks of Joy

I recently returned from a delightful vacation which included seeing dear high school classmates at a Branson, MO get-together (no, we didn’t graduate from that area). In addition to enjoying visits with classmates I hadn’t seen in four years, I got to ride in one couple’s Mustang convertible, see a couple of good shows, take a railroad excursion of the area in a dome car, and enjoy my son’s company on the road trip there and back to Ft. Worth.  

 

Branson bridge from train window

The first part of our return trip back was gorgeous because of the beautiful vistas of all the GREEN trees. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen so many green trees, which, I imagine, have now turned to glorious colors of orange, red, yellow and brown with many shades in between.

Jeff at lookout on Hwy 7

My trip from Elko was actually to celebrate Jeff’s birthday with him on the 14^th but he graciously agreed to drive me to Branson for the first weekend. We were back in TX by Sunday night so he could go to work the next day and I could begin to settle in for the next ten days.

Happy birthday Whole 30 style

I got to do a lot of reading done (and actually some writing on Debra, too) and two of the books I read are really what I want to write about now. In my mind they are linked, but that sounds rather preposterous as the first author is a Buddhist “tidying” consultant and the second, a Christian psychologist:)

Spark Joy is a method of sorting through all your “stuff”, by specific categories, deciding which item gives you joy (meaning you want to keep it). If it doesn’t give you joy, you give it away or throw it away—the last, depending upon its condition. The six categories she lists are Clothes, Books, Papers, Kitchen, Miscellaneous, and Sentimental, and the categories are to be sorted in that order. Once all the sorting is done you are ready to make permanent storage for all the things which give you joy. The book is small and easy to read and she also has some Youtube videos on her method which is called the Kon Mari Method of Tidying.

The next impactful book I read was Dr. Henry Cloud’s Nine Things You Simply Must Do to Succeed in Love and Life.  I have to admit, I found the title a bit cheesy and figured I wouldn’t get through more than a chapter or two. But who can resist chapter headings like, “Act Like an Ant,” or “Hate Well?”

I came away from reading the book motivated to re-memorize piano pieces that I will have to learn a measure or phrase at a time because of my vision limitations, reviewing finger-picking on my guitar—and implementing a lot of what I’d read about what I now call “sparks of joy.”

When Jesus said He “came to give us abundant life,” I believe the sparks of joy we come to recognize in our lives may well be a piece of that abundance. May your day contain many of those “joy sparks.”