i am…blessed

Story, 2011

A few weeks ago, I received a note in the mail from Christine Mason Miller.  It contained this card that reads “you are blessed.”  She mailed a number of these beauties out to the world and I happened to get this one.  And how fitting it is.

Little Story Grace, holding the card above, will turn one in just a few weeks.  Thank you, Christine!

just because

What happens when a boy falls in love with his cookbook he received for Christmas?

Homemade dessert every night.

Jello.  Goober haystacks.  Peanut butter cookies.  Frozen bananas.

This week?  Pumpkin muffins.  And just because it seemed like a good idea, pumpkin muffins with pumpkins on top.  (“You know, Mom.  We have to put those stick things in them.  And draw pumpkins on top.”  Oh, right…how could I forget?)

So there you go.

amazing

Go.  See.  This.  Now.  It’s so, so inspiring (for mothers and others alike!)!!!  Happy, loving, amazing, February!

sister talk

Yesterday, I was talking to my sister about the opportunity for some new work.  I had been waiting to hear what would unfold this week and I was feeling the tension of waiting.  I told her that I was sensing there was something else stirring…something besides just the waiting.  I told her it felt as if a very personal question was inside of me, one that sounded something like “and what is it YOU really, really want?”

Just then, my little sister stopped me in my tracks.  She asked, “can you learn anything about the answer from your word of the year?”  Brilliant.

I sat with it.

You might remember that my 2010 word is restoring.  My first response to her question was very literal; I spoke of how the opportunity would restore our finances in new ways, it would revive my work in new directions.  I spoke of how I hoped my self-caring could stay strong and solid even in the midst of long hours and lots of extra traveling. 

And then, I found the center, the core of this very personal question rising up in me.  My heart was/is yearning to restore my vision for my work.  The vision that it’s possible to do change-making, care-giving work…and still have a life that is flourishing and sustaining.  I believe with all my being that this is possible.  It has to be.  There is too much work to be done, too many injustices to face, too many shelters to keep open and meals to offer and fundraising to do.  The work and the world need us, as caregivers and advocates and counselors to continue showing up.  Surely we can figure out life-sustaining ways to do this work so that our lives as providers are healthy and vibrant, big and wide.  It doesn’t mean that they will be perfect or that we’ll ever be millionaires.  It doesn’t mean we’ll never have doubts, compassion fatigue, or sabbaticals.  It will still be messy.  But isn’t it possible to be sustaining?

I think even though I believe this is possible, my truth lately has been that I sometimes am not always sure of the ways of doing it.

And then I got teary.

And I knew I had come to the core of the tension.  It wasn’t about waiting to hear about the opportunity.  It was about connecting with my own question. 

And it has everything to do with my word of the year.  My word can guide me forward in this, whether with this particular work or other projects.  It’s time to restore my vision.  To go back to the foundation, the belief, the practices big and small, the testing and experimenting, the discussing and evaluating. 

Little sisters can be brilliant, can’t they?

ten words right now

What ten words describe living right now for me?  Amanda Soule shares her snippets and invites us to do the same.  These are the words that renewed me this weekend…

rockin’

beauty

friends

roadtrip

crafting (homemade placemats!)

family (pillow piles and Colts games)

enlightening

ritual

inspiration

rest.

What about you?  What words describe your right now?

at least

“I want to get up early one more morning,

before sunrise.  Before the birds, even.

I want to throw cold water on my face

and be at my work table

when the sky lightens and smoke

begins to rise from the chimneys

of the other houses.

I want to see the waves break

on this rocky beach, not just hear them

break as I did all night in my sleep.

I want to see again the ships

that pass through the Strait from every

seafaring country in the world…

I want to spend the day watching this happen

and reach my own conclusions.

I hate to seem greedy–I have so much

to be thankful for already.

But I want to get up early one more morning, at least.

And go to my place with some coffee and wait.

Just wait, to see what’s going to happen.”

~Raymond Carver, from All of Us

coaching for haiti

  

Like many of you, I’ve been wondering how I can somehow contribute to the relief efforts in Haiti.  And I came across this challenge from Kelly Diels.  

Count me in.

I will donate my full fee ($100) for one 40  minute coaching session by phone for the next 10 folks who book and pay this week.  $100 X 10 people = $1000 to the Red Cross.  By Friday. 

Now is the time to make a difference.  Help me help Haiti.  You can email me at tisha@renewallcoaching.com.

If you are a blogger and want to participate in the challenge, sign up with Kelly here.