Tidbits By Shannon

Sumertime Blues

2010-07-16T09:25:00.000-07:00

I always look forward to spending time out in the woods and mountains in the middle of "God's country" as my dad would call it. The time spent breathing in the smell of sun-baked pine needles, or the whiff of snow off the glaciers, the sound of the distant river, the quiet and peace -- they all call to me. I need that space and time to connect with the world, with Nature and her Creator . . .to breathe deeply.

However, I don't seem to get to do these things much anymore. Perhaps it's middle age sneaking up on me, but this year I screwed my knee up in early June playing softball. It's now mid-July and I have just set aside the cane, except for longer, very slow (read ~2 miles) walks on flat ground.

Last summer, I screwed up my hip and back doing tai chi which limited my hiking to summer's end and short trips. Then there was the late spring recovery from double pnuemonia a couple years earlier. Or the summer time foot recovering from an infected animal bite (a few weeks with foot elevated above heart level to stop the spread of infection) the summer after the pnuemonia.

Are we getting the picture here? I am tired of this BS.

A wise woman told me to specifically pray for and welcome only healing, wholesome events in my life. Done so, been doing so, will keep doing so -- but at this point I am just plain fed up. I am over 40, slightly overweight, and although I try to stay physically active with lots of things when the body permits, I just seem to be getting older and slower, and dare I say it? Yes, cranky! About this shift in life. C'mon!!! It's ridiculous!!!

I have things to do, adventures to seek, places to visit and stuff to see. Like the picture above. A beautiful day hike to Heart Lake outside of Holden Village at summer's end last year. My body made it (barely) and I was really looking forward to revisiting it and a variety of other hikes this summer. No such luck.

Why does this keep happening? I really am tired of it . . . *sigh* . . .

Okay -- I'll quit whining, and keep doing my PT and re-buidling knee and leg muscle strength like a good girl. Maybe I'll get a personal trainer through the YMCA. Something's gotta give. Yoga, jazzercise, walking, biking (when the body permits) clearly aren't enough . . .

Wish me luck, folks. By this time next year, I am going to be 20 pounds lighter and a helluva lot stronger -- and I am absolutely, positively sure to be out on the hiking trails -- no exceptions permitted!!!

Cowboys with Attitude

2010-02-14T08:07:00.000-08:00

Cowboys with Attitude

Okay, Folks -- Looking for the unexpected? Try Spinal Tap with a country twist! If you are anywhere near the greater Olympia area the end of April, this is a must see!

CWA has lots of laughs, and Traditions offers great food.

See you there!

PLEASE TAKE NOTE

2009-12-01T06:08:00.000-08:00

Chores, limits, and clear expectations for behavior give children the chance to practice valuable skills and grow into competent, responsible adults who know that they are worthwhile and valuable.

Children that do not get these chances build internal messages of worthlessness and uselessness.

When parents stand firm on chores, limits, and behaviors, there can be conflict. All parents and children experience conflict to some degree – it’s natural.

What it means is that the parent loves the child enough to sit with the short-term discomfort of conflict for the positive long-term result:
a child growing into a competent, responsible, happy adult.

Some Things That Are Valued and Adhered To In This Home

Chores
Doing chores teaches life skills, work ethics, and time-management. It gives people a sense of usefulness, belonging, and importance.

Honesty
Being truthful about what you think, feel, do, or plan to do is critical to happy, healthy relationships.

Reliability
Doing what you say you will do – following through – helps people trust each other and succeed in meeting goals and reaching dreams.

School
Learning is life-long. Graduating from high school and continuing on to the Peace Corps, trade school, college, or military is also key in meeting goals.

Church
Being a part of a faith community gives lots of chances to practice skills, build relationships, and form internal beliefs about how we fit in this world.

Community Service
Caring for the people and places that form the community we live in help us feel connected and follow through on what is important to us by making a difference.

Advent Meditation Assignment for Church

2009-11-14T09:44:00.000-08:00

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything, but in prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Phillippians 4:4-7

I am not easy with the word gentleness. Gentle people are often run over by those less gentle. However, I delight in gently nurturing babies. They have simple needs and wants. Gently nurturing babies is safe. Gently nurturing adults is frequently tricky, sticky, messy, and can feel rather unsafe. Babies reflect back only what they see in the eyes of the nurturer. As adults, we have learned to hide our inner core. We tend to show only what will get our needs or wants met with the least resistance.

In looking at other biblical translations of gentleness, I found many words: moderation, reasonableness, kindness, forbearance, and in the Greek, leniency. Interestingly, the Greek translation also uses the word garrisoning rather than guard in the final sentence of the verse. Those two words grabbed hold, saying, “Pay attention!” They challenged me to rethink the verse’s possible meanings.

I don’t think I am so very different from my Christ-siblings. I think we all tend to protect our inner cores out of fear of the unknown or from past experience. When we do that, we often hold at arm’s length with words or actions our equally frightened sisters and brothers. We stay separate from each other. While we defend our tender places, we focus inward. We are not gently attentive to each other in ways that are forbearing or kind. And we have little understanding that the sister or brother across from us is working just as hard as we are to care for her or his tender place as well.

Perhaps, this passage calls us to be a bit more “lenient” with each other’s fears and evasions, as we learn to live in community – with our families, our friends, our coworkers, and our church family. Perhaps it also reminds us to rely more on God to “garrison” those parts of us that really do need protecting. Perhaps practicing these two ideas -- leniency and God-garrisoning – could move us worriers and fear-filled Christ-siblings more firmly into that peace which passes all understanding.

So, I think I’ll sit with the idea that God will garrison whatever tender part I believe I need protected, if I just ask with thankfulness -- and try to give my brothers and sisters in Christ a bit more leeway to be fully human, too.

******************************

Mother-God, you hold us close to your breast and wrap your angel wings tight around us no matter how old we grow. Help us to honestly share the peace and love you so freely give to us with each other, through a kind word, a gentle touch, a listening ear, a helping hand or a hug. Amen.

Capture the Rainbow

2009-09-17T16:52:00.000-07:00

Do you suppose he's looking for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow? Or thinking about something much more esoteric? At 15 1/2, he's a constant wonder to me. On the one hand, a mystery. On the other, he shares more about what he's thinking and feeling than he has in a long time. I imagine him standing in his life rather like he is in this picture: poised on the brink of launching into his adult world. There's still some room in his pack for a few more tools, words of love and advice from mom and dad -- but he's filling his pack on his own merits more and more now. Words can't describe how proud I am of his growth, of the person he is now, and the person he is growing into -- still a miracle, still a blessing, still a rascal, still a challenge, still my baby -- no matter how grown.

Where Beauty Grows

2009-08-29T10:56:00.000-07:00

Rock gardens are fascinating -- particularly wild rock gardens. The discovery of vivid color and delicate scents within rocky creches pleases me no end on day hikes. This treasure was found as Nathan and I scrambled up the Comet Falls trail in Mt. Rainier in early August. He was practicing for his upcoming big hike, and like the billy goat bounded up and over rocks despite the twnety pounds or so on his back, returning every so often to help his slower-going mother over a particularly big stepping stone. And patiently waiting for me to "oooh" and "ahhh" and otherwise exclaim over and admire the unfolding beauty of this glorious world we live in. Hopefully, he hasn't caught on yet to how some of that admiration is built-in R&R time . . . *grin* Keeping up with the young man on the trail is getting tough! But, ohhh -- so worth it!

Letting Go. . . Yeah, whatever . . .

2009-08-15T11:37:00.000-07:00

My son has left for three days of wilderness backpacking and hiking with an intergenerational church group. This makes me, shall we say, slightly anxious. *searching for the valium -- where IS that stuff, dang it????)

Let me clarify.

The people don't make me anxious. They are individually and collectively wonderful, and Nathan has known near all of 'em for most of his life, some more than others. They are skilled professionals, with lots of experience and years hiking. My son doing this without either Greg or me being there is what makes me anxious.

I'm not sure this degree of anxiety was a parenting requirement. No matter how excited the kid is by his getting to do this. Nor how disapponted he might have been if I had said, "Sorry, m'boyo -- you just have to wait until next year when dad can go, too. Mom can't handle the worry."

Letting go is clearly not one of my strengths. Greg and I will meet him at the end of the trail in Holden Village on Tuesday. My thinking brain knows he has what he needs, and what he chose to not take will provide some valuable learning for him (i.e., the pad for underneath the sleeping bag . . . *sigh* . . . ) The rest of me is worrying: Will he remember to take his meds? Will he be warm enough at night? Will he take it easy and stay hydrated? Will he practice good trail etiquette and be safe? Will he ask for help if he needs it?

*Sigh*

Well, my little prayer mantra for during this time:

Father in Heaven
Through this day
While Nathan hikes and while he plays
Keep him safe from every harm
Keep him safe within Your arms.

Amen.

If I say that enough, like a Buddhist chant, it ought to help ease some of the anxiety. Yes?

Drum Roll . . . . And Morality Is . . . ?

2009-07-09T10:01:00.000-07:00

I came across these ideas in Mary Pipher's book, The Shelter of Each Other: Rebuilding Our Families and they really stuck with me:

" . . . morality is not the property of any one political party, race, religious group or segment of the population . . . morality refers not only to sex and violence but also the use of power, time and money. Broadly defined, morality is about making decent and wise choices about how to be in the universe. It implies purposeful action for the common good."

As I welcome my teen into the next stages of growing up, these are ideas I want him to think about as he makes choices about the world he moves and lives in. I don't want him captured by any idealogue. I want him to think for himself and take the space and time to move along the paths that do contribute to the common good.

I wonder though about the world in general, and how this does or does not play out. What I hear on radio, see in the limited TV I watch, read in magazines or on-line, tells me that people -- with rare exceptions -- really don't make choices based on any good other than their own personal good.

And I look back on choices I have made in 40 years of life and wonder how many times I may or may not have made choices that benefitted a greater good, not just met my needs or ego.

It's a kind-of uncomfortable think to think about, y'know . . .

The Water of Life

2009-03-29T04:03:00.001-07:00

It was a surreal experience to wander through a local watershed park today with several confirmands and our youth group leader and pastor. I first walked this park at age 12 with Richard, my biological father, and his dog Old Blue. As a young mother, I brought my son to this trail (and many others) to learn to walk, and run, and experience the endless, cyclical wonder of this beautiful land.

And now I was standing on a side path, listening to the whispers of the rain through the evergreens, the gurgle of the creek, and the occasional chirping of birds. The pastor invited us to drink in the water sounds, to hold those sounds close for comfort when life got tough, as a reminder of God's baptismal promises to us as we walk through the season's of our lives.

Over the years, my son and I have watched for the first trilliums to push through the sleeping earth and open their white petals. We have charted the growth of tiny green buds to baby leaves to full summer foliage on the trees. We have crunched through autumn leaves covering the trail in rich colors. We have splashed through puddles, leaped over mudpits, and exchanged smiles and nods with other trail-walkers.

We have created leaf boats and set them free in the creek, for fun and for grief, to say goodbye to ones gone before. We have urged the salmon upstream and helped plant trees. We have made stickyweed crowns for each other, and posed for pictures in grandfather trees. We have crossed moss-covered logs, gaped at an owl, and watched red-headed woodpeckers show us what true head-banging is all about. Saved fuzzy caterpillars from being smashed under heedless boots and waved away swarms of gnats. Nibbled on blackberries and captured raindrops and snowflakes on our tongues.

As the forest has grown up, so have we, changing even as the forest has through life's many seasons.

First Time's the Charm

2009-03-21T22:01:00.000-07:00

I suppose that's what children are for . . . teen-age children. To not only expand their personal horizons, but also their parent's life experiences. In the space of a little less than a week, I am become a Facebook member and a "blogger" -- heavens to betsy! What's next?

Don't ask, you say? All right, I won't. Except I already have a clue. Oh yes, the dreaded (albeit for one person eagerly anticipated) learner's permit. I suppose it's time to invest in an automatic transmission, rather than the manual clutch and shift.

How did this happen already? Just yesterday he was taking his first steps. And now he wants to drive?

Yoga. More yoga. Elephant walk. Deep breathing. Cat-cow stretches. More deep breathing. I am assured on a weekly basis that the ONLY requirement is to breathe. Deeply.

Well, that's mostly do-able.

I suppose I'll head and off and do it.

Go ahead -- you try it. You know, open your mouth and slowly, ever so slowly breathe in air all the way down past your stomach. Fill your abdomen and lungs ever so slowly with air. Keep going. That's right. A good long breath. Now slowly release it. Squeeze your belly in tight. Tighten all your abdomen muscles. Now Relax. Good. Do that a couple more times.

Do you remember that miraculous first breath and cry as they laid the precious gift on your belly, while still connected by the cord? You know, the one that you practiced breathing for in the first place? Those lessons come in very handy through the teen years. So, haul out those Lamaze books and get back in shape.

Let the breathing commence. And the living continue. Amen.