Lana Vaughan

Such a great opening. In three quick words you know exactly where you are. Knowing where you are is highly under emphasized. Over publicized but under emphasized. Thanks to Four Square and Hoot and Whrrl! the location of your cell phone is quickly shared with friends and followers but knowing where you are is a whole different matter.

Are you at the beginning? Can you feel the excitement building as the adventure is about to take off? Do you find yourself somewhere in the middle of your story wondering how you got there and who the strange cast of characters surrounding you are? Has a chapter come to a close with the words “they lived happily ever after”? or has it left loose ends to be addressed in the chapter to follow?

In the past week I wrapped up a very successful year long project bringing women from around the country together for a conference. A definite sense of completion and ending accompany putting the binder full of documents and memories on the shelf. On the other hand I find myself firmly in the middle of my story. As I face yet another birthday coming far to fast and too frequently lately, there is no illusion that there are more years ahead than behind me. I just don’t see 97 candles on my cake one day. But it is also very evident that I’m not done yet. Hence the new blog site and learning yet another piece of technology that I never dreamed of. A quick thank you to those who did dream of it, pursued it and now make it user friendly for countless writers and readers.

A very wise man taught me three key questions: Where are you going? How will you get there? How will you know you are there?

I don’t have an answer to any of the three but I know where I am at the moment.

In the beginning…

Do you remember the feeling of something brand new and exciting? I remember when we bought my very first brand new mini-van. It had 6 miles on it. 6! Can you believe it? I was so careful. No one was ever going to eat or drink in my new mini-van. The cup holders were an unnecessary feature. We were simply never going to have a use for them. Fast forward 8 years. Nuff said….

This morning I have been stirred by the offering of a new day. A brand new day with the fresh morning smell still clinging to it like the dew on the grass and the dried up clump of goo that keeps my eye from opening fully until it’s washed away with warm water. I love that new day feeling. I haven’t done anything I regret. I haven’t blown my “eating plan”. I have so much potential and endless possibilities to consider after that first cup of coffee.

But what I really want today is to cling to the promise God offers to make all things new. I want to see with fresh eyes this morning. I want Him to wash away all the goo and let me see with His perspective and His loving gaze on all the people who come into this precious gift of a new day. I want to embrace the good in life and in the newness God has placed in me. When He said He would make all things new that included me. I’m going to delight in my new day. It’s early. I have many good miles ahead of me and with my cup of coffee firmly in my cup holder, I’m ready to hit the road for adventure.

God only knows where my journey will take me this brand new day….

“Not feeling very beautiful? Learn what beauty is from God’s perspective.

Revolve speaker Jenna Lucado has teamed up with her dad, Max Lucado, to bring girls a fresh perspective on what they need to live a life of peace, joy, and confidence. What does God see when He looks at them? And how does a girl catch that vision?

Jenna reveals life accessories that are essential, and which single accessory is a real must-have to give teens a look they love—a look that says they are comfortable with who they are and secure and confident. What’s the all-important accessory? Love from a father. But what happens when there is no loving father in sight, no daddy to tell them they are beautiful?

Through conversational “girl time” Jenna reveals that when we look to God as our Father, He can change our focus, our look, and our lives. With affirmation from Max, Redefining Beautiful will change the way girls look at God, themselves, and the people around them.” Thomas Nelson Publishers

Well, this was fun. I haven’t heard Jenna Lucado in person yet and this was the first book I’ve seen from her. She does come from a very prolific literary family so I figured it would probably be decent at least. It was very good. It’s straight forward and easy reading without being overly simplistic. She writes in a very conversational style and after reading for a few pages she feels like a good friend or more importantly like someone you’d want your pre-teen/teen daughter to be good friends with. Covering a wide range from how you look physically to how you see yourself and ultimately how you believe God see you, Jenna moves from her experience to asking the reader for her perspective. It’s very much a guided journal with Jenna along for company.
Jenna shows girls that even though they may not be in the best circumstances they still have a beauty to offer the world that is real and authentic and comes from the security of their relationship with the One who created them just the way they are. She draws attention to the uniqueness of the journey each girl is on and encourages them to celebrate the special aspects of their personality and beauty. Beautifully done!

When did we get the idea that life needs background music like a movie? Everywhere I go there is music being imposed on me. The coffee shop, the grocery store, the shopping mall, the dentist office, even in the elevator! What happened to the beauty of silence? How is a person supposed to think with constant bombardment of music trying to draw you away from your thoughts and feelings to follow the sentiment or rhythm or tempo being piped through the sound system that came in at the lowest bid?
Looking around the coffee shop no one is listening to the music. They are working on their computers, doing paperwork or trying to have a conversation. The music is ignored even though the level causes conversations to struggle to rise above it. What does it say that there are people with earphones on trying to listen to their own music instead of what is being provided?
No one is singing. No one is dancing. No one is consciously listening. Why? Why must there be music?
This past weekend I spent time at a women’s retreat. Good messages. Good fellowship. But the best parts are the brief moments of the Covenant of Silence. For half an hour or a precious full hour more than 300 women are silent. Writing, praying, sleeping, listening, just breathing. The silence is powerful. The permission to just sit there without talking or singing is liberating.
Sorry for the rambling. The music is “Don’t fence me in”.
Oh give me room lots of room under starry skies above…

Last week I finally went to see the doctor about a pain in my chest that had been bothering me for a couple of weeks. He asked me a series of questions, listened to my chest from the back and the front, and told me Pericarditis, an inflammation of the tissue surrounding the heart. Nothing serious, here’s a prescription, come back if it’s not better in a week.
Looking it up on the internet I found the most common symptoms are stabbing, sharp pain in the chest that can radiate directly to the back or the neck or the arm made worse by deep breathing or lying flat and sometimes relieved by leaning forward.
It was reading about the causes that really brought it from the physical to the spiritual heart so quickly it took my breath away and set off a coughing attack. (Also a symptom, one that I had been ignoring for almost 4 months.)
The first cause described was Idiopathic, which basically means “we don’t know”. How many hearts are suffering from unknown, undiagnosed, and untreated conditions causing pain ranging from stabbing and sharp to annoying bursts of air?
The second cause made total sense, Mechanical injury to the heart. Heart attack, heart surgery, trauma, all have a point in time. Something drastic interrupted the normal rhythm of the heart and life changed literally in a heartbeat.
Then came a sneaky one, Infection Bacterial. How many times have relationships been destroyed by viral, fungal attacks on the heart? Gossip, doubt, jealousy, fear, shame, and a seemingly harmless one, busy-ness can’t be killed with penicillin but require something stronger, readily available without a prescription and no co-pay, the healing power of agape.
The most obvious and most focused on spiritually came fourth, tumors or cancer, something that shouldn’t be part of the body attacking from the inside out. Families are too often destroyed from the inside by something growing and devouring the relationships that are supposed to connect and strengthen the individuals into a healthy functioning body. Hours in counseling and therapy and prayer to root out and treat the darkness threatening the very life it feeds on. But even when the threat has been cut out the scars can mar the rest of life.
Closely related to tumors are the relatives, Connective Tissue Disease. Physically they are rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erytematosus, sarcoisosis, and scleroderma. Yep. I had to look them up too. All of them had inflammation as the main condition. When I first saw the term Connective Tissue Disease I thought of all the people we become connected to that just irritate us to the point of dis-ease. There are some people that I enjoy being with. They just make me feel better. Then there are others who, without doing or saying a thing, just rub me the wrong way. Some put me at ease, some put me at dis-ease.
The next two were called Metabolic diseases, Uremia (kidney failure) and Hypothyroidism. Looked those up and found very definite connection to prayer. Not getting the garbage out of your system leads to kidney failure. Not getting the garbage out spiritually leads to a hard heart. Not getting the input you need from your thyroid leads to all kinds of things spinning out of balance. Not hearing from God in prayer….
The last one is probably the easiest to recognize and the hardest to manage, Medication Reactions. There’s a nice list of commercially produced medications that have inflammation of the pericardial sac and pericarditis as a side effect of treating something worse. But when I read “medication reactions” my mind went to those who use drugs and alcohol and food and cigarettes and exercise and anything else to excess to numb the heart, to try to by pass the real issue of the heart and causing even more harm in the long run.
So, for now, my heart is good. But the tissue around it is inflamed. There are things that rub me the wrong way (Connective Tissue). There are things I definitely need to take to God in prayer today(Metabolic). There are several spots on the spiritual x-ray that need closer examination(tumor). My supply of antibiotics for relationships could use a refill(Infection) and the Wii fit is probably a better treat than the pastry shop (Medication). But in the long run So I guess I’m right back where I started…I just don’t know (idiopathic).

Outside my office window is an apple tree. There is not a single leaf on it. This past summer it produced three apples. This was a 300% increase from the year before.

Next to the apple tree is an orange tree. It is probably a good 6 feet shorter than the apple tree and right now it is struggling. The branches are heavy laden with nice big oranges. The wind is blowing but the oranges are holding fast to the slim stem that is their only source of security from the hard ground below.

On the other side of the apple tree is a cherry tree. It stands more than 10 feet above the apple tree. In the spring it fills with the most beautiful small delicate flowers. In the 6 years we have owned the house with the fruit trees it has yet to produce a single cherry.

I think at different seasons my life is very much like each of these trees. Sometimes all it produces is light beauty, no fruit. Other times the fruit is there but just barely. Then when the wind blows the fruit may be tart but it is heavy as long as it holds fast to the source of life.

Sometimes the hardest part of a project or adventure is just starting. So here it is. My first blog. Nothing of great wisdom or import to share but now that it’s done I can get past the pressure of starting to write and really write.