Unplanned Gifts!!

UNPLANNED GIFTS 
You don’t have to know me well, to know I AM A PLANNER.   Planning has been a vital component in multiplying my joys and dividing my sorrows, for the better part of 40 years….and although I won’t be  changing that anytime soon, I have a growing appreciation for the UNPLANNED. 
   Most recently, it was physical discomfort and dental necessity that required Sarah to have 4 wisdom teeth extracted.   Although she might have chosen to script her very first college spring break differently, it was the slower pace of recovery, the beauty of springtime and choosing a thankful heart  that yielded “unplanned” additions to our list of 1000 gifts.  
210.  Sleeping with the windows open and white sheer curtains blowing in the breeze.
211.  Curling up on the couch for 4 hours and watching Gone With The Wind.
212.  Taking the entire day off to make sure she ate her applesauce and stayed pain free. 
                                                                    
***
217.  An uneventful course to recovery. 
218.  Matt’s first baseball game of the season. (a win)
219.  Sitting in the sun and working in our flower gardens.  
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221.  Quality time teaching my 18 year old daughter there is more than one way to dry clothes.  (see picture)
Actually, hanging the clothes out to dry, was her idea.  
222.  Blaring music and singing in the car (kids with parents)
223.  The greater gift is that they still love to do it at age 15 and 18.
224.  That feeling of total contentment, special memories made, even while packing to take Sarah back to  college.
Planned or otherwise, gifts are all around.
CRYSTAL

To Love and Be Loved

As my “1000 gifts list” continues to grow, I am thankful for the gift of LOVE…..the kind of love that never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.
1 Corinthians 13:7

The red roses and chocolate covered strawberries reserved for days like these, makes that 1000 gifts list too.  (smiling)  

                           *****
We were all there for one reason…To celebrate our love (ok, and maybe a good Italian meal too).  Valentines Day 2012 marked 22 years since our first one together.   We shared reflections and endearments before shifting our thoughts to so many of those around us.   Couples from every conceivable walk of life filled the tables.  From one end of the restaurant to the other,  I couldn’t help but wonder, “what was their story?”    Did love flow easily or require great effort?  Was it intentional and celebrated or did it require sacrifice?   I know our story includes all of the above.  I know God’s story includes all of the above.   What about your story?  
Whether Phileo love (brotherly love) or Eros love ( intimate or romantic), it is   Agape love (Christ’s love) at work within us  that makes our stories possible…. makes our stories beautiful.  In loving and being loved, may we have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high and how deep HIS love really is.    Ephesians 3:18  
                                                Crystal

Signs of LIFE

It is the chill of winter that lulls the earth to a much needed rest, so too it lulls me.  “Signs of Life” hardly seem fitting for the long days of January.  As snow blankets the earth and naked branches twist heavenward frozen in time, the silence is almost deafening.  
Schedules go on and duty calls, but the EUCHARISTEO kind of thankfulness never ceases.  The 24/7 making of my “1000 gifts” list surely breeds a unique quietness, an authentic “soul-kind-of-rest”. 
One, that just like winter….is necessary.  As I humbly yield, signs of life are everywhere, signs of life that run deep.

75.  A dirty kitchen floor.

76.  A few morsels and an empty bag from the chocolate dipped oatmeal cookies.

77.  Lanterns in the window.
78.  The inspired and Holy Word of God that lays open and invites.
79.  A half empty container of peppermint lotion that soothes.
80.  A college-occupied sister, making time for her high school brother.
81.  The random amaryllis bulb out of the trunk of an old car (yields),
82.  A reminder of spring, on a gray winter day (see pictures).

unfolding…thankful…drawing near…growing in grace…thanksgiving…to the core…steadying….focused… preparing….thankful…roots going deep for seasons yet to come. 

Be at rest once more, O my soul, for the Lord has been good to you.  For you, O Lord, have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling, that I may walk before the Lord in the land of the living…How can I repay the Lord for all his goodness to me?  I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord.              
PSALM 116:7-13


It won’t be long now. The earth will thaw, and even more “signs of life” will awaken to herald the coming of spring.   Won’t you be waiting ready…..RESTED and THANKFUL!
                                            
                                                  Crystal

Daring to LIVE FULLY, right where I am!

For me, LIVING FULLY isn’t so much about doing, (deeds and accomplishments) as it is about being (living, being alive)!    As I continue my journey along the road to 1000 gifts, the fullness of life cascades.

#32.  A midweek train ride to New England.
#33.  A view of Manhattan from the cafe’ car on Amtrak.
#34.  Quality time with my 18 year old daughter. 

A spontaneously planned trip on Semester Break that began with “doing”,  very quickly becomes all about “being”.   
     
#40.  My husband’s 50th Birthday Celebration

As friends gathered from near and far,  no one could deny the fruit of his life is more about “being” and less about “doing”.  Pondering how one finds and keeps that necessary balance leads me to…                  


#41.  Wisdom for the way.
#42.  Practical application. 


You see, many important things in life do require doing, but many more of the important things also require being.   As we practically apply wisdom for the way in doing, the natural outflow is being.     
                        
Living Fully, on my way to 1000 Gifts,
Crystal

One Thousand Gifts

The  VALUE  in time spent with a friend, can’t always immediately be calculated.    Such was the case for me a few months back.    Sitting amongst the stately furniture she reads to me…. “One Thousand Gifts beckons you to leave the parched ground of pride, fear, and white-knuckle control, and abandon yourself to the God who overflows your cup.”   Instantly I know it is a MUST READ. 
Not long after arriving back into town, I purchase a copy for myself.   It will surely be the perfect mother-daughter read over Christmas break.  However, in a moment of spontaneous gratitude,  I gift it away to a lifelong friend.  I wonder what One Thousand Gifts will become to her. Christmas is just around the corner now when my sister arrives with shopping bargains in hand.  I am ecstatic to find a copy for me and a copy for her.  What will One Thousand Gifts become to us?
Christmas passes, a New Year dawns and we relish the evenings for reading, my girl and I do.  Almost finished with the book now, One Thousand Gifts is real, it’s deep, eucharisteo, becoming personal.  We are counting our gifts, with gratitude, one day at a time, One Thousand in all.  At the very top of my list….…. The value of time spent with a friend.
Crystal

A Celebration of Expectation

It’s a New Day….It’s a New Year!

I look with careful eyes through  the cluttered markings and ink splotches all over my 2011 calendar.   365 days gone by and a great sense of nostalgia ensues.   The battles fought, the failures tasted, the victories won, the tears of pain and the tears of great joy ready me with wisdom.  Wisdom that will carry me into the 365 days that lie ahead.  
Although I relish the clean, unmarked pages of 2012, they beckon to be filled.   Filled with a life lived full of thanksgiving and purpose, a life lived full of hope and expectation,   A life lived full of wonder and adoration.    
There is something so inspiring about a new day, a new year, a fresh start.  
Just as each new year brings a fresh start—-those clean calendar pages, may each new day (all 366 of them this year) bring with it a celebration of expectation for a life lived to the fullest.    

  I have come so that they may have life, and have it to the full.             JOHN 10:10

Crystal
     



A Central Market Christmas and a Flash Mob Hallelujah

A Central Market Christmas and a Flash Mob Hallelujah

Donning my scarf and gloves, I anticipate my very first outing to Lancaster’s down-town Historical Central Market.  Enjoying some freshly brewed java and conversation with a man I barely know, Christmas is surely in the air, and so are the beginnings of a lifetime together.    That was 21 years ago.    Today, just one week from Christmas, the spontaneity of our youth beckons and in an effort to get some exercise and still take in all the wonderful sights and sounds and smells of Christmas, we decide to revisit our “first date” and an early morning stroll through the beautiful downtown Historical Central Market.   This time, enjoying some freshly brewed java and conversation with a man I know well, we reminisce, round the corner and right there in the middle of all the commerce, witness a real live flash mob singing The Hallelujah Chorus.  It was as if in that moment, it WAS CHRISTMAS…for Heaven touched the earth…..heartwarming, beautiful and glorious.   No, we couldn’t have possibly imagined the lifetime of togetherness that was in store for us so long ago,  but neither could we have imagined today when we set out,  the gift that would refill our souls through a simple, yet festive stroll down memory lane…..FOR THE LORD GOD OMNIPOTENT REIGNETH, HALLELUJAH!
~Crystal~

Going Deep—-Always Starts With A Hunger

Gordon McDonald’s Book, Going Deep was written in a rather slow moving, unique and fictional style.  Although his concepts and ideas of cultivating spiritual maturity and exhibiting a life-altering faith leave the reader extremely inspired, he doesn’t leave the reader with tangible how-to’s, that work in the real live “nitty-gritty” world.   One thing that was evident in the fictional CDP (cultivating deep people) initiative in the book, was, to go deep you have got to be hungry!   To go deep you have got to be committed!  It is one thing to take a fictional group of characters and portray hunger and commitment in order to achieve an end result/desire of Going Deep.   It is something that proves much more difficult when dealing with true humanity in the 21st century.   Until a second edition comes out that is “real life” tried and true, (I think we call it revival) , I will remain inspired  to get more hungry….to get more committed….then and only then….are we GOING DEEP!
To comply with new Federal Trade Commission regulations, please note that this book was provided compliments of Booksneeze in exchange for an unbiased review.  

Intentional Adoration–A Meaningful Tradition

Oh how I love the special traditions of Christmas.  I especially love the ones that we have come to know and love since having children of our own.  One of our all time favorites through the years has been ADORE-NAMENTS!   12 special ornaments would be placed on the tree–each representing a different name of God.   For each of the 12 days leading up to Christmas we would take turns finding them and reflecting on the names of God.   Oh it started out simple, like a hide and seek game—-very brief, as would be expected with toddlers, but through the years as the kids have grown, so have the reflections and readings….into something very deep and meaningful.   12 days of Intentional Adoration gives way to 365 days of Heartfelt Adoration.   Adoration to Him whose birth we celebrate…. Adoration to Him who sits on the throne both now and forevermore. 

OH COME LET US ADORE HIM.   

Crystal 




EARLY IN THE MORNING–My song will rise to Thee!

 For as long as I can remember the stillness of the early morning hours has always brought about a heightened sense of THANKSGIVING.   Growing up on a dairy farm, meant a lot of early mornings.    As I would trudge my way to the barn under the clear moonlit sky,  (even through my sleepy teenage eyes) there was a deep sense of peace that gave way to THANKFULNESS.   The early days of my professional career had me walking the streets from my 3rd floor apartment to the community hospital downtown for a double shift.  The only activity along the way was the flicker of the street lights and the corner bakery.  Yet again, a deep sense of goodness and joy gave way to THANKFULNESS.  Life would later bring with it wedding bells and precious little babies, and yep, you guessed it…..early morning hours.  As the glider moved back and forth, the sweetness and wonder of new seasons in life gave way to THANKFULNESS.   There have been some blunders along the way too.  Seasons that have spelled grief and heartache and pain, but even in those moments of early morning wakefulness, no one could deny that  God’s presence right in the midst, left my heart overflowing with THANKFULNESS.   I rise early today, for there is much to do.  Food and tables to prepare, guests to entertain, friendship to be shared and so many blessings to count—-but before I begin, I pause.  The sun is kissing the earth, a new day is dawning and in the perfect stillness, my heart is overflowing with a song of THANKSGIVING.


Crystal