i misspoke...

not enough for an original thought, but enough to quote frederick buechner:

"if the world is sane, then Jesus is mad as a hatter and the last supper is the mad tea party. the world says, mind your own business, and Jesus says, there is no such thing as your own business. the world says, follow the wisest course and be a success, and Jesus says, follow me and be crucified. the world says, drive carefully - the life you save may be your own - and Jesus says, whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. the world says, law & order, and Jesus says, Love. the world says, get, and Jesus says, give. in terms of the world's sanity, Jesus is crazy as a coot, and anybody who thinks he can follow him without being a little crazy too is laboring less under a cross than under a delusion."

:)

talk to you soon...

(singing) "so long...farewell... aufweidersien (how on earth do you spell that?!)... goodbye..."

i'll see you in a week or two... got some stuff to take care of! :)

talk to you soon...

i'll take 'things i believe' for $500, alex

here is something i believe. really believe. and it may surprise you, but i've seen too much evidence of it, heard too many testimonies of it. you may find it surprising that i hold this belief so strongly - you might think it is counter to some of the other beliefs that form my inner life. you'd be wrong, of course, but i suppose it's your prerogative to think that. and here it is: there is something about a fabulous haircut that can change a woman's entire perspective.

does that seem shallow to you? tough. it's true. :) a really great haircut, the kind where you feel like your stylist 'found you' somehow underneath the outgrown, overgrown or out of date mop on your head, can transform a day, or a week, or an outlook. i used to work at a shop, and the difference between watching a woman, however confident, walk in, and then watching her walk out never ceased to make me smile. most often her shoulders were a little squarer, her smile a little freer, and her gait a little springier.

the desire for beauty is innate in the human heart - we seek from the smallest to the largest things: art, music, written and spoken words, parks & gardens, wildlife, decorating, little girls who paint their fingernails, the sweep of the rocky mountains in fall, fabulous shoes, snowflakes, even the perfection of a thought, idea or scientific formula. (hey, to each their own!) so it doesn't surprise me that having someone help you uncover a bit of your beauty is, even if only momentarily, transformational.

how much sweeter when it helps reflect the beauty of the inner woman - the heart, passion and life. strangely, i feel freer to be myself when i think i look like my true self...

maybe this has never happened to you, but there you have it. it won't change your life, but a great cut can be a lot more than just a cosmetic fix. trust me.

on the couch with my feet up....

i spent the last two days at the leadership summit - and it was so good for me. all the wisdom and all the challenge is sifting through me, and i am looking forward to seeing where it settles...

meanwhile, while i'm here in NC, my parents have The Girls. and they are spinning glories every day. today is the 400 mile yard sale - a literally 400 mile yard sale along an old KY highway, where anyone who wants to can pull up to the side of the highway and unload their truck o' crap. and hundreds and hundreds of folks drive past in their cars and stop at the ones that look good, or keep cruising for a "good" one. we did it a couple of summers ago, and i bought a great chair, but the danger is you can end up a good hundred miles from home without realizing it! :) the girls each have some pocket money from papa, and i told him to try to steer them away from every child's garage sale joy.... the unwashed stuffed animal. not sure why kids love these things so much, but they make me shudder. so i they better not come home with some new, mangy stuffed creature. or my dad is toast.

time flies when you're having fun

we can't really believe it - tomorrow is our 14th anniversary! yes, you read that right, fourteen. somehow that seems entirely too long, and yet not long enough. we've covered a lot of ground in our marriage, literally & figuratively - from edmonton to miami, back to edmonton and now in north carolina. we've managed to raise two beautiful daughters fairly successfully so far - tho we have yet to reach the teen years! our love has survived financial meltdowns, big fights over little things, the (very rare!) hormonal outburst, my putting garbage in the sink, his not putting away the laundry, job stress, differences of opinion in the important things & the foolish things, the usual extended family things, babies, insecurities, and all the accompanying life of 14 years.

and if life gave me a do-over, i would choose him again. no one could love me as well, (or put up with me as well?), as curtis. he is a secure foothold for me in a shifting sand world. he believes in me - in my dreams and my abilities. he knows the real me, with all my small (and big) craziness, my flaws, fears & insecurities, and he loves me anyways. i don't have to be anything i'm not with him, and he can handle all that i am. no small feat.

most of our 14 years have been unremarkable - the romantic & astonishing moments are far outweighed by life day to day, working life out together. but it reminds me of a lyric or two from a sara groves song: "loving a person just the way they are is no small thing...let's find out the beauty of seeing things through..." thanks, curtis, for loving me just the way i am - and let's do find out the beauty of seeing this through the next 14 years... love me.

redemption is so sweet

i had a great night tonight. a personal triumph, if you will. i sang the canadian & american anthems for the canadian olympic baseball team v. the american olympic baseball team.... and i kicked anthem ass! oh, yes i did! and thank goodness, because it makes up for last night, when i did the same thing, with a wee error.... starting with the wrong anthem! eep! i was mortified! i had to stop and restart with the right one, much to my embarrassment. (but once i got it right, i did a fine job.) tonight, though, i knocked it out of the park - pardon the pun! :)

men are a mystery

the girls were going to get a parakeet. but my husband thinks parakeets are ugly. and since the "pretty" finches need a friend to thrive, he wants the two finches instead. so now, we are going to have not one, but two, birds. he put his foot down so adamantly when i wanted to talk about getting a pug, but for some reason, multiple birds are just fine with him. men are a mystery.