A new label

After reading this blog, I realized, once again, how big our God is. I find it encouraging that our journey of mission....community living, house church, emergent, whatever form it has taken over the years, has been echoed across the globe. It's crazy good that God moves the hearts of his people in such similar ways. While a part of my humanness says, "oh darn, I'm not as cutting edge as I thought," the other part of me is glad to see a bit of a path ahead. An inkling of what might be. But for now, I'm looking forward to embracing a new label: social entrepreneur. Maybe even getting to help form the meanings.

Slow down, you move too fast

This summer (8 months ago) a friend gave me a book called Slow is beautiful. I’ve been too busy to read it. But now, I’m finally starting to realize my need for slow. It is not as strong as my need of silence (I tend to get that on a daily basis after ever one else has gone to sleep.) I would truly starve without silence at some point in my day. But now after 8 months of intense speed (major renovation and starting a high profile business) I’m starting to hope for a more sustainable rhythm.

Even as my friend handed me the book, she said that we were entering a season where this book might seem impossible. Maybe now I can find the book again under the piles of 8 months of clutter.

What started this need, this pull my nose off the grindstone? I cleaned my office. Once the clutter was reduced, a rhythm, a system found it’s place. It’s only about a 4 foot square corner of control. But now I’ve maintained it for a total of 4 days! There is a freedom in a bit of rules. Leave the desk as clean as you found it. File it! Take action.

Admittedly it’s only been 4 days. True, it’s only 4 feet square. I’ve got a whole house to deal with now. And that is just physical space. What about my spirit? My body? My finances? My relationships? There’s a lot of clutter that has been shelved and piled these past 8 months. God, I get overwhelmed when I think about the energy and effort to pull things back to reasonable speed and order. Hell, it took me 2 days to clean and organize my desk.

I’m grateful for the groundwork God has done in me over the years. His instilling in me a love of nature, community and peace will continue to be my pillars as I rebuild. A great strength is that we are surrounded by amazing folks who hold to similar values, a beautiful landscape to get lost in, and hearts begging for inner peace. I’m not going to make goals, resolutions or promises of daily updates on my progress. That would just add to the overwhelmingness . For now it is just enough to state that I am ready to begin the process and acknowledge the need of slow.

The view from my window

Yeah, the view from my window has changed.

Actually, the window I look out the most has changed. I used to gaze out our dining room window at my three little ones playing on the swingset. I am soooo thankful for the time I got to spend with them when they were little. Good soil for my little ones. Now, they're all in grade school.

After two weeks of Christmas vacation at home with the kiddos, it's back to the regularly scheduled program. We all wake up and head out the door at the same time. They to fill their heads with knowledge. I to fill empty coffee cups with great coffee and hopefully a drop of love|peace too. I missed all my people at the shop. I really feel that God has placed me where I belong right now. Those mothering skills of the past 11 years go really well into the customer service realm. 3 different kids= 3 different sandwiches. 3 different customers=3 different drinks. Oops...a dropped glass jar of peanut butter. Oops....a dropped ceramic cup. (Actually, it was me who broke a cup today!)

I find some of the same "mothering hen" emotions come into play at the shop, too. If I have a regular customer who doesn't show up for a while, I start to worry a bit. After a well played music gig, I rejoice for the success of the musician. I love gazing out around the shop and seeing my community connecting. Yeah, the window is different, but the view is pretty much the same

What a Song!

Every once in a while, a new song catches in my heart. This one captures so much of what's important to me. Enjoy!

The Hand Song by Nickel Creek

The boy only wanting to give mother something,
And all of her roses had bloomed.

Looking at him as he came rushing in,
without knowing her roses were doomed.

All she could see were some thorns buried deep,
And tears that he cried as she tended his wounds.

And she knew it was love, it was what she could understand.
He was showing his love and that's how he hurt his hands.

He still remembers that night as a child, on his mothers knee.
She held him close and she opened her Bible, and quietly started to read.

Then seeing a picture of Jesus, he cried out:
"Mama he's got some scars like me!"

And he knew it was love, it was what he could understand.
He was showing his love, and that's how he hurt his hands.

(instrumental break)

Now the boy is grown and moved out on his own.
When Uncle Sam comes along.
A foreign affair, but our young men are there.
And luck had his number drawn.

It wasn't that long till our hero was gone, he gave to a friend what he learned from the cross.

But they knew it was love, it one they could understand.
He was showing his love, and that's how he hurt his hands.

It was one they could understand.

He was showing his love, and that's how he hurt his hands.

How does your garden grow?

My garden has surprised me this year. I rarely get out to it....we've been doing a major remodel at the coffeehouse. My care of it has been an occasional weeding frenzy while talking on the phone, or rushing out to grab a handful of greens for dinner. Even without daily supervision, we've manage to harvest lettuce, turnips, cabbage, raspberries, and carrots. Corn was waist high by the fourth of July. And of course, there will be more squash and zucchini than anyone needs. All I can say for the success of it this year is a big thank you to whoever invented automatic watering systems! That, and years of compost and hard work.

Reminds me of our spiritual lives. There are seasons of hard work, pulling out the weeds in our souls, allowing God to turn the bad stuff into good stuff, planting a few seeds.  Then He allows us a season of just-add-water. Regular watering of our hearts. He's in charge of the rest...the growth that occurs daily without us even noticing. A week, a month, a season later, we look back and say, "Wow, look how much I've grown! See what God can do if I let Him be in charge!"

Thanks God, for being faithful to attend to the details in the garden of my heart.

Livin' La Vida Local

Today the kids and I went for a What-cha-ma-call-it hunt. The local library hides this crazy handmade sock puppet in one of the downtown stores. Whoever finds it and reports back to the library first, gets a brand new book for keeps. Hearing of the new quest last week, the kids made their strategy.
"We'll only go to the stores that like kids. And not any of the ones where the What-cha-ma-call-it has been hidden. We'll start at 9:30 after some of the stores have already been open, and get back to the library by 10, when it opens."
Things didn't go exactly as planned. I had forgotten "The Plan," and headed out for errands while my Mountain Man struggled to herd everyone out for a day of work at the coffeehouse. The car died, so I took it to the Subaru guy and walked back to the coffeehouse, dressed in full out paint clothes. Finally around 11:30, we were walking the newly renovated 6th street searching for a sock puppet. Tried the pet store...only really cute puppies. Tried the pottery place...nope. The card shop. Then, the shoe shop across the street from our soon to be opened coffeehouse.
Over the past couple of months, I've gotten to know Steve, the shoe guy, a bit. He's one of our new "neighbors" downtown. We chatted a bit while the kids searched the store, finally spoting the sock puppet in -where else?- a boot. That ended our conversation quickly in a "controlled sprint" to the library.
Two of our favorite librarians, Heidi and Linda, were bombarded by my kiddos three all whispering (loudly) "We found the What-cha-ma-call-it! At Steve's shop!"
Linda says to us, "It's always so cool when our regulars find it!" She and I chat about the coffeehouse....Our librarian friends are excited for it to open too! We gather our prize, find a couple of more movies to check out, talk with a scrapbooking buddy, then head out.
Oh, but it's Monday...the Farmer's Market is half a block away. So we peruse the veggies, buy some kettle korn, beans, nectarines, cherries, catch up with an old neighbor. Finally at 1:30, we walk back to the coffeehouse ready to eat our Farmer's Market lunch.
All that within walking distance! All that among people we know and love! I'm lovin' this Local Life!!

Sacred Spaces

This week at Plowshare Coffee Roasters we had a gathering to celebrate God's gift of a space for our new business. I wrote this question on the wall as a way to focus on how/where God shows himself to us. I see sacred spaces as being a place where God and I connect. Space really does matter to me. For example, it's hard for me to center down in our living room. There's always so much energy in there (not to mention laundry). Perhaps I need to attempt to make it a more sacred space. My garden is one of those sacred spaces, a special spot out at Smith Rocks, these are current spaces. Back in my Newberg days, it was a corner armchair at Coffee Cottage, and the Big Swing at Camp Tilikum. I'm glad God is big enough to not be confined to one space!