I was on vacation last week, our fourth year renting a house deep in the north woods on Lake Mooselookmeguntic, in the Western side of my great home state of Maine (can you tell I'm a little partial?) There's something so powerful about going off the grid for a bit, recalibrating my days so that I can only check email on my phone once every couple of days while sitting in the IGA parking lot (the only place I had reception.)We saw several moose (and almost hit one with our car--man, those suckers are huge...and fast!)
We celebrated my niece SPARKLE GIRL's 7th birthday. I gave her one of those kits with a makeup in every color, which meant she and I went around for the next four days decked out in blue eye shadow and great gobs of hot pink lip gloss (I think that's how we avoided hitting the moose...he saw my lips coming and swerved...)
And, on a serious note, I spent a lot of time staring out at a windy, wavy, crazy lake (I've never seen waves like this before on a lake...my first thought when I saw it was, "Wow, God is pissed...") wondering what comes next and how to build a life that will feel satisfying, fulfilling, or any other of the words I dream of when I wonder what might make me excited to jump out of bed in the morning.
Strangely, the best answer came not from my faith (on my ride home yesterday I saw that author Anne Rice has left Christianity, and thought, "Oh, I know just how she feels...") but from music, specifically the Indigo Girls. I listened to their songs over and over again, marveling at how they combine deep spiritual wondering with a solid message that says, Get off your ass and DO something...don't just sit around thinking. Wise advice.
So today, it's back to work. Not just in my head, but at the keyboard, and at the Blue Ocean Summit 2010, a conference that starts tonight about exploring new ways to think about God, faith, and life. Who knows? Maybe I'll slick on some lip gloss and blue eyeshadow to help maintain my sparkle power :)
6 comments:
Reading further into it sounds like she still has a very vital relationship with Jesus, just not the church or organized religion. And I can't fault her for that since humans have been doing a very good job ruining wonderful things for thousands of years.
Mooses! Moosen? Meece? Whatever.
This sounds like a lovely retreat!
xox
Indigo Girls, Ani DiFranco, KT Tunstall--I've learned more from them about being me and living life than probably anything else in my life. In fact, in a list of life influences, God in any institutional or scriptural sense is pretty low--God in relational, inspirational, nature-based ways on the other hand are probably close to the top. Give me yoga with people I love on the beach over a night with a worship band any day!
Glad you got to recharge--here's to hoping the momentum lasts :)
What a cute picture! I love that you're the cool aunt who gives her niece make-up...I hope I can live up to your level of greatness!
Does the lipgloss trick work on deer too?
Oh, Anne Rice!
SPARKLE POWER! Do you think Wonder Woman uses that?! ;)
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