Spacious heart, gracious mind

At least that's what I think the yoga instructor said as we left class sometime after 9pm on Wednesday night, I had forgotten that they recently switched the format to a "gentle yoga" class, which this past week suited me just fine given that it was one of the more stressful work weeks that I'd had in a while.  While I normally try to skip the yoga rhetoric entirely and concentrate more on the stretching and stress-relieving techniques, I found myself following along the theme of the class and trying to focus on ways on how I could be more grateful in my life; for I certainly have much to be grateful for but stopping to think about them often gets lost in the busyness of everyday life.  I was still thinking about this during my quick 3-minute commute back home, and I remembered to check the mail since that is usually a task performed daily by the hubs, but at the time he was out of town for work.  I trudged upstairs flipping through the junk mail, and tore open a little envelope with sweet butterflies on it bearing an unfamiliar return address.   It was a thank you note no doubt written by a woman, there's a young family from our church who is going through an inconceivably difficult time as the husband (and father of small children) is losing his battle with a brain tumor.  I think we had sent them some fast food gift cards a few weeks back when someone coordinated getting them some things they were in need of.  I sat down - hard - alone in the dimness of my unlit house and wept silently.  Here is a wife and a mother struggling through the darkness days she has ever seen, and she took the time to put a stamp on a handwritten card and sent it to people they've never even met, a thank you that was not necessary; in fact, an acknowledgment that brought my self-pitying thoughts of the week to a grinding halt.   I suppose the moral of the story is not only that I should be persistent in practicing gratefulness in my own life, but I hope that we can all realize that even the small gestures we make can provide comfort to others, so let's all keep our eyes open for those opportunities, shall we?

 

The Color Green

So this past week I had to drive six hours (well, seven, including the delays at the borders) one way through Canada and New York for a business trip. The drive through southern Ontario and western New York is very similar to the drive back to my hometown of Champaign, Illinois, the drive back to my alma mater of Purdue, and similar to the drive to Waterloo, Iowa, where I interned with John Deere. During my time in Iowa, I often listened to the music of Rich Mullins on my way in to work. Most folks know of Rich Mullins as the 1980's version of Chris Tomlin, writing praise anthems sung often, maybe too often, in modern churches. But some of his other works are simply sublime - "52:10", a piano driven song with the words from the verse from Isaiah, and "Creed", the Apostle's Creed set to the sounds of the hammer dulcimer. On our way back, on the 401 in Canada, my iPod shuffled to another one of my favorite Rich Mullins songs, "The Color Green." The lyrics of the chorus are as follows:

Be praised for all Your tenderness by these works of Your hands
Suns that rise and rains that fall to bless and bring to life Your land
Look down upon this winter wheat and be glad that You have made
Blue for the sky and the color green that fills these fields with praise

As we made our way towards London, the wind was working its way through bountiful corn fields in a wave of green. In Michigan, the corn isn't looking quite as bountiful, thanks to the cool, wet weather of this past June. But that same weather is responsible for the bountiful blueberry, cherry, and apple crops from Michigan farmers. It reminds me of God's provision for us. The conditions may not be right for God to provide for us this season in the same way he provided for us last season - but, praise be to God, those same conditions will allow God to provide for us a different bounty - one that will sustain us. May our hearts, like those fields, be filled with praise.

Cruisin'

Today is the Woodward Dream Cruise, the annual celebration of classic cars. It's a polarizing event for many Detroiters. Many folks love taking their classic car out to cruise Woodward on a beautiful day in August. Others hate the traffic, the difficulty in getting across town during the cruise, and how it has morphed into a week long event, to the point that you can see folks sitting in their lawn chairs on a Monday evening, watching a few classic cars amongst the normal rush hour traffic. Many even schedule their vacations around the cruise.

Personally, I'm a little torn by the cruise. I love the democracy of it - how anyone with any car can cruise Woodward, from a Model T to a 48 Dodge to a 57 Chevy to a 79 Chevette. And I've got to appreciate anything that causes folks to come from out of state to visit Detroit and help support our economy. But I haven't gone to the cruise proper for a few years, and I won't be going this year. Breathing in the exhaust fumes from many cars built before emissions standards isn't my favorite. And even though I work for an auto maker, I'm not really in to the classic car scene. I think classic cars are cool, but I couldn't look at a Bel Air and tell you the model year.

If you enjoy the cruise, you've got a beautiful day for it - but if you don't enjoy the cruise, you've got a beautiful day to enjoy all of the other great things Detroit has to offer!

Breakfast for dinner, anyone?

We had some friends over for dinner last weekend, and one remarked that one thing she missed about being single was that she could simply eat cereal for dinner, not sure whether or not she just meant that it's a lot less work (though her husband usually cooks) or she just likes cereal that much :).  But I can certainly sympathize with the idea of keeping it simple, because even though I do like cooking, I can now appreciate now that I'm married that it takes much more energy to plan ahead for meals, shop for the ingredients (luckily the hubs is great about runs to the store since he gets home from work earlier than I do) and pull something together after being tired after a full day of work - and I don't even claim to do this every night of the week.  All this and we don't even have kids yet, yikes. 

 

I usually make a mess in the kitchen, don't adhere to recipes down to the letter, and agree with many shortcut tactics a la Rachael Ray (who Grandma Smith thinks I look like, how funny is that??), so if you have ideas for good meals that can be made quickly and with only a few ingredients, send them my way (thanks Liz for posting the recipe for roasted shrimp & broccoli, I've made it twice now!).  But my partner is happy stay out of my way in the kitchen, clean up afterwards, and is not hard to please with meals, thank goodness.  I don't even think he minded last night that I served up a veggie brunch-like meal, consisting of a mostly egg-white frittata (finished product pictured) and rounded off our plates with some artichoke hearts w/ dill, chunks of honeydew melon and sprouted wheat bread topped with honey.  I had brunch, I mean dinner, on the table in under 30 minutes, tasty treat! 

Fear the fro, again

It's no secret that my favorite former player of the Detroit Pistons was Ben Wallace, but now heeee's baaaaack!  Yes, we'll take him, injuries and all, and invite him back into the paint to wreak havoc on our opponents.  Welcome home, Big Ben!

Like a sister

What does that expression "like a sister" really mean, anyway?  Well, I can definitely say that my sister Aimee's best friend Patricia fits that bill.  They've been tight since meeting on the playground in the 5th grade, and she was a permanent fixture at our parents house, holidays, family gatherings and pretty much any occasion where good eats were readily available (you'd be surprised how much that tiny girl can eat! :).   Smart as a whip, entertaining and with an unmistakable hearty laugh, she is always fun to be around.   She recently accepted a teaching job in Maryland, and left yesterday to start that new chapter in her life.  We're proud of her and wish her the best, but our karoake showdowns will not be the same unless she can be here to participate.  Aimee misses you already, Trish!