Dear Reader:

Have you ever felt like you just don’t “get” certain situations in life? In fact life, itself, is mostly a puzzle that (no matter how many pieces you find or add) never completes the picture?

If we look at life as an incomplete puzzle we remain frustrated in our futile attempts to complete it….so we stay uncertain of our status in our relationship with others….people and God. Sometimes, we might feel like we finally “get” God or another individual in our lives…only to discover that most people show only a few sides of themselves for fear they will be rejected if people really know them down deep.

God, however, knows us  more deeply than we, ourselves, can scratch the surface. And yet God never rejects us…just the other way around. God never stops loving us.

If someone is asked to quote a line of Shakespeare…most likely they will quote (from Hamlet) “To be or not to be…that is the question.” While thinking about that quote, yesterday, a light bulb went off this time that never had before…To “be” is defined as to “exist“….If Hamlet was debating between existing and dying and which was the better choice…He probably would choose dying…even with all its unknowns.

But if he was debating the difference between “living” and dying…he would probably choose life. Human beings weren’t created to exist…they were created to live life and live it big…not perfectly but imperfectly…open to all the joys and happiness true living can produce.

Our problem is that most of us think we aren’t enough, we won’t ever be good enough…when in reality we’re already enough. Like Alan Jackson sings…“Just as I am..O Lamb of God, I come I come.” We aren’t being called home when we are at our best…teeth brushed, dressed in our finest attire or at our most successful moment in life…God loves us from birth to death unconditionally…and all we are asked to do in return is love Him…and even then, if not… through grace, He still keeps loving us.

I can’t imagine a world with such unconditional love…can you? Truly mind-boggling!

At the end of the To Be List paperback I just finished reading, authors Randall and Walter conclude with this reassuring message.

“If you take away anything from this book, I hope it’s this: You’re already enough. You can already live at peace with yourself, regardless of which stage you’re at in your life journey. 

You can breathe deep. You can relax. You can sleep at ease. Because you’ve already arrived. You’re already magical. You’re a miracle, exactly how you are this moment, today.

You don’t need to analyze yourself to the umpteenth degree; you don’t need to have it all worked out- your scars healed and imperfections concealed. Because they’re not really scars and imperfections-they’re you. And that ‘s enough.

You. Are. Enough.

It’s time to put all the lists away and finally, beautifully, gracefully…be at peace with yourself.”

So until tomorrow… “Courage starts with showing up and letting ourselves be seen.” (Brown)

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

The title picture today is Vickie’s and my shared co-op rose bush by my driveway… Vickie told me she spotted an abandoned bird nest in it….and sure enough..there it was. Like our earlier post last week on beauty in action…the rose bush is still blooming and providing a home for others…beauty in being and doing.

Even though the garden looks somewhat scraggly for lack of attention there is something just so basically beautiful in its natural state….

Walsh and Mollie are headed home today…I know three little children who will be so happy to see them again and two parents….happy for the trip but also happy to be back home.