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Today I had the delight of meeting a new friend - one of those people who is so refreshing, grounded, and accessible that it just makes the day seem...richer. When I got home, I started thinking about what it is to live richly. Lately it seems that every time I turn on the television or read the on-line news services, there is nothing but impending financial doom. From rumors of recession to the crash of the real estate market, to record numbers of forclosures to escalating consumer debt, many of us are finding ourselves watching our pennies and trimming our budgets. What does it mean to live richly?
Last year my family became a statistic. My husband became a casuality of the downturn in the real estate market and lost his job as a title examiner, a job that had provided quite nicely for our creature comforts. We started looking for creative ways to live well in spite of this misfortune, and found that we could feed our gardening habit by exchanging plants, bartering for plants, and shopping the "soon to be thrown out" bins at the local gardening center. In this process, we even made some new friends - fellow gardening junkies - and in spite of the job situation, we ended up with a lovely garden (until the drought, but that's for another post...) We also started to shop smarter, and connected with a network of fellow cheapies and found that it's almost fun (and somewhat competitive) to see who can purchase the most food for the least money. In fact, we got so good at this that we have been able to pretty consistently donate several bags of food to a local ministry. We lived richly, not just in that we were able to more or less maintain our "standard of living" while my husband was under-employed, but in the connections and friendships that were established. And we were humbled. We became more compassionate, more generous with our resources, more aware of our over-consumption, and more creative and intentional in our use of time and money. We discovered that we lived more "in community" than we had in the recent past, and were thankful that we had food on our table and a roof over our heads. And we found our hearts broken - broken for those who were not as lucky as we are - those who were hungry or lonely or hopeless. And we found that a big of part of living richly is the realization that hope and peace are not grounded in what we have in the bank, but rather in living the fullness of life in generosity, thankfulness, and humility.
About the time all this happened to us, the 12-year-old son of a friend was diagnosed with cancer. I know that his family has a renewed understanding now of what it means to live richly, to enjoy those moments of grace and peace and respite from suffering, and to be thankful to God for the gift of life.
Each evening as we sit down to dinner with our children, I take a moment to look at them - really look at them - at the miracles that they are - and I live richly, deeply, and fully in gratitude and thanks. I wish each of you those moments of grace that remind us that the richness of life is in the beauty of relationship and community.
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Jan 24 Paper or Plastic?
Since I believe that spirituality and life are intertwined and therefore our spiritual beliefs must influence our everyday choices, you will sometimes, okay often, see things on this blog that seem to have little to do with religion. That's by design. Too often our "religion" is what we "believe" but how we live is not consistent with our beliefs.
Most Christians would say that they absolutely believe that we are part of a large creation and designed to live in harmony with the rest of creation. But how much do we really do to care for creation? Often, very little. Many people feel there is little an individual can do to affect our environment. I wonder if that's even the point? Maybe what we should be asking is what choices can I make, as an individual, that show love and respect for all of God's creation? We are a collective consciousness, and collectively we can and do have tremendous influence on policy and implementation for environmental issues. The individual choices we make do matter, because we can either contribute to the collective good or participate in the ongoing destruction of creation.
One example is a trip to the grocery store. There are conflicting camps on the issue of paper versus plastic bags and which are best for the environment. In reality, both have serious problems that I won't go into here, but there is a lot of info out there if you're interested. For me, there seems a better option - reusable bags. Several months ago we invested in several sturdy, reusable bags, and we try to use them every time we shop. We've found that the coated square-bottomed bags with handles are our favorites and carry a large amount of groceries. We got ours at Trader Joe's but use them at all the major chains. We also have a few of the canvas bags, but they don't hold as much or feel as stable.
It was in the news recently that Whole Foods will no longer be offering plastic bags. This is a bold move and I applaud their leadership in this area. Once this idea hits the "tipping point" and grows in mainstream use, it will make a significant difference in the health of creation.
I encourage you to invest in some good reusable grocery bags and keep them in your car so you remember to use them. This small step will make a real contribution to the health of God's creation.
Whole Foods will also credit you $.05 for each plastic bag you bring in. If you take in 20 bags of any kind, that will pay for 1 reusable bag! So gather up your disposable plastic bags and go to Whole Foods and trade them in for a reusable bag made from recycled plastic bottles. It's a win-win!
Here is a link to the story about Whole Foods for those of you who wish to learn more:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/23/business/23bags.html?_r=2&ex=1358830800&en=7061ed61dd36b6bf&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&ore&oref=slogin
Most Christians would say that they absolutely believe that we are part of a large creation and designed to live in harmony with the rest of creation. But how much do we really do to care for creation? Often, very little. Many people feel there is little an individual can do to affect our environment. I wonder if that's even the point? Maybe what we should be asking is what choices can I make, as an individual, that show love and respect for all of God's creation? We are a collective consciousness, and collectively we can and do have tremendous influence on policy and implementation for environmental issues. The individual choices we make do matter, because we can either contribute to the collective good or participate in the ongoing destruction of creation.
One example is a trip to the grocery store. There are conflicting camps on the issue of paper versus plastic bags and which are best for the environment. In reality, both have serious problems that I won't go into here, but there is a lot of info out there if you're interested. For me, there seems a better option - reusable bags. Several months ago we invested in several sturdy, reusable bags, and we try to use them every time we shop. We've found that the coated square-bottomed bags with handles are our favorites and carry a large amount of groceries. We got ours at Trader Joe's but use them at all the major chains. We also have a few of the canvas bags, but they don't hold as much or feel as stable.
It was in the news recently that Whole Foods will no longer be offering plastic bags. This is a bold move and I applaud their leadership in this area. Once this idea hits the "tipping point" and grows in mainstream use, it will make a significant difference in the health of creation.
I encourage you to invest in some good reusable grocery bags and keep them in your car so you remember to use them. This small step will make a real contribution to the health of God's creation.
Whole Foods will also credit you $.05 for each plastic bag you bring in. If you take in 20 bags of any kind, that will pay for 1 reusable bag! So gather up your disposable plastic bags and go to Whole Foods and trade them in for a reusable bag made from recycled plastic bottles. It's a win-win!
Here is a link to the story about Whole Foods for those of you who wish to learn more:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/23/business/23bags.html?_r=2&ex=1358830800&en=7061ed61dd36b6bf&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&ore&oref=slogin
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
January 23, 2008
Someone sent me an email today asking me about Lent - what it is - who observes it and why - what it means, so I've decided to ramble about it for 40 days beginning on Ash Wednesday, which this year falls on Feb. 6. Well, I won't so much ramble as I'll share some background on Lent, share my own Lenten practices, and offer up some ideas you may want to consider on your journey. I have my own take on Lent, and believe it's by and large misunderstood even by religious types. I hope you'll join me. You can even sign up to receive the daily postings in your inbox if you wish. Just email me and I'll add you to the list. Between now and then I may have some other stream-of-consciousness musings, so please check back. You can also see what Sacred Tapestry is up to at http://www.sacredtapestry.com/.
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