Stuff & Things to Keep Me Happy 'Til Spring

It's snowing. Again. My flip-flops are lying in the corner in despair. Or they would be, if flip flops had the capacity for angst and sorrow.

In the midst of ice falling from the sky, let me share a couple of things that are keeping me sunny:

-We had a date night on Saturday!!!  It was our first evening out alone in six months. We went to Fugi at Kendall, and OMIGOSH, the happy sushi deliciousness! (In the front of the picture is Steve's pineapple fried rice--he barely eats sushi, but took me here because he knows how much I love it.) It was so good to talk and laugh together. I realized that I've been like a half-flat tire lately, leaking air, not sure how to pump back up again. This helped!  We shared our wonder at all God has done...and debated whether we should smile or duck as we anticipate what might be next.  It felt like we hit "reset" on life. I'm grateful to not feel flat and draggy anymore.

-This morning I read this interview with Alaskan author/salmon fisherman Leslie Leyland Fields. I was inspired by the idea of running interviews with people I admire on my blog.  And as I read the interview, so much of what Lesley said about calling and not getting trapped in the idea that any one season of life is your "forever" resonated with me. I slowed down, re-read the interview, and breathed in her reassurance:

"When I first landed [in Alaska] and immersed in the 14-hour work days [of my husband's commercial fishing business], poetry and literature fled entirely. I lost my voice and my self, consumed by fish, ocean, wilderness. Slowly it came back, though, as the years went by, as I found ways to speak and write and ways to live as a full human being rather than as just a worker". 

I could write these same sentences about this past year: how when I first landed in the world of foster parenting, writing and peace fled entirely. I lost my voice and myself.  Slowly it's coming back, though, as the months go by, as I find ways to speak and write and ways to live as a full human being.

I was so relieved to be told that it's okay to want to live as a full human being, rather than just in the log jam of whatever part of your life is most complicated or demanding.

I hope that wherever you are is sunny, warm & filled with flowers. If you can wear flip-flops today, please do. But if you're snowed in, I hope you see some sunshine, even if it pops through in unexpected places.