On Woodworking

 

I had the privilege of visiting a friend over the weekend

And getting to work with her master-craftsman husband on a bookshelf.

We started from large planks of wood,

Measured and cut boards,

Sanded them,

Trimmed them,

Squared and clamped them,

Glued them,

Screwed them together,

Made and placed little screw-hole covers,

Sanded again,

And finally blew off the sawdust.

I now have a super sturdy small bookshelf that I only need to coat with polyurethane

And then he’ll be ready to go.

I’m calling my bookshelf Ray, Jr.,

In honor of the man who built him.

 

The part that I helped most with was the sanding.

(I’m not yet trustworthy with sharp, cutting power tools).

Ray The Woodworker has an electric sander that

He can hook into his Shop-Vac for zero visible waste!

Ray made sanding look easy.

It was not!

The wood resisted being ground down,

And the sander tried to run away on its own.

I had to stand with both feet firmly planted on the ground

And press down with all my strength to control the sander.

Once under control,

The sander did all the work!

 

What’s really odd is that when I was doing the sanding,

I couldn’t see the difference in the wood being sanded.

But when I watched Ray do the sanding,

I could immediately see where he’d smoothed the wood.  

 

I think this is how it is with life sometimes.

When we’re in a process of transformation,

We can’t always see the change.

Sometimes, we resist the change.

Sometimes, we must keep both feet firmly planted on the ground in order for the change to occur.

But if we keep ourselves open,

If we persevere,

And if we allow ourselves to believe the voices of those encouraging us in the process,

Then we will see our rough edges made smooth

And witness our inner beauty shining through.

 

I would not trade my experience with Ray The Woodworker for anything.

He freely shared his love of his craft with me and

Made for (with) me something I will always cherish.

 

May we each be as kind to one another as Ray was to me,

And may we listen to one another’s voices of encouragement

In times of growth and change.

 

Amen.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

 

I have my last program of the year tomorrow night.

It’s a Kindergarten and 1^st Grade program and will feature eight songs,

Including The Greenwood Song and a song about Earth Day.

As per usual, the program songs have been playing nonstop in my head.

One lyric, in particular, has been on repeat

Because it is such a good reminder of what I need to be doing:

“I am an Earth Day helper, I like to lend a hand,

I pick up trash and water plants, recycle when I can.”

 

Unfortunately, my county does not recycle.

And unfortunately, my plants are now in the back room where I don’t remember to water them.

But. I’m pretty good at picking up trash.

And I’m pretty good at reducing and reusing.

And I’m pretty good at being amazed at people who are ingenious in their ideas of

Reducing, reusing, and recycling.

 

Take these two ideas that I garnered from Facebook and a conversation with a friend:

 

Instead of donating gently used clothes to a thrift store,

You can contact a local nursing home or long-term care facility to see

If there are any residents in need of new clothes.

Some residents have no family or friends to visit them or provide for their basic needs.

Clothes become thread bare and worn as residents re-wear them each day.

Having new clothes can make a person feel better about themselves

And help with their dignity and quality of life.

 

Instead of throwing away cut flower arrangements

(From weddings, church services, company events, school celebrations, etc.),

You can rearrange them into smaller arrangements and deliver them to shut-ins, nursing homes, or hospitals

For persons who need a boost of encouragement.

While we may not all have an organization around us that does this,

There ARE organizations that exist for the sole purpose of repurposing cut flowers for

Random Flowers of Kindness.

Who would have thought that this would be a thing?!

But it is.

And it inspires me to be creative in how I reach into the world.

 

May you be inspired, too, and

May we do all that we can to

Reduce, reuse, and recycle…

And brighten someone’s world in the process.

 

Amen.

Crisis Averted!

 Last Monday, on a much-needed workday,

Shauna the Art Teacher was working on spooky decorations for this year’s Fall Festival.

As I was leaving to get lunch,

I popped my head into the art room to see how things were going.

Bent over working, Shauna said, “Come and see.”

Expecting to see a dark monstrosity,

I rounded the corner and saw nothing of the sort!

Instead, I saw a huge puddle of thick, orange paint on the floor, and

Shauna feverishly trying to get it up before it dried.

“Oh no!” I said.

“Yeh. I was looking for black paint and accidentally knocked over the orange.

It’s a small disaster.”

Without thinking twice,

I picked up some paper towels and began to help.

Thankful for a plethora of paper towels and mindful of our age as our knees hurt,

Shauna and I worked together to get up as much paint as we could.

Afterward, Shauna prepared the mop water and hoped it would finish the job.

It did.

The custodial team’s kind wrath was avoided!

A crisis was averted!

And Shauna went about her day making spooky decorations.

 

I had outlined my day in my head.

I had prepared myself for things to do and places to go.

I hadn’t allotted any time to help avert crises,

But as soon as I knew that a friend needed help,

I dropped everything and went to work.

 

Sometimes something more important than the original plan pops up.

Sometimes we must drop everything to help those in need.

Sometimes giving our time and energy to others is the most important thing we can do.

And sometimes the work will be messy.

But let’s do the work.

The messy work.

Of helping others amid disaster.

Both great and small.

Amen.

Let Your Heart Be Broken

“What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.” Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds. You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.” --James 2:14-19

Let your heart be broken
For a world in need:
Feed the mouths that hunger,
Soothe the wounds that bleed,
Give the cup of water
And the loaf of bread—
Be the hands of Jesus,
Serving in His stead.

Here on earth applying
Principles of love,
Visible expression—
God still rules above—
Living illustration
Of the Living Word
To the minds of all who’ve
Never seen or heard.

Blest to be a blessing,
Privileged to care,
Challenged by the need—
Apparent everywhere.
Where mankind is wanting,
Fill the vacant place.
Be the means through which the
Lord reveals His grace.

Add to your believing
Deeds that prove it true,
Knowing Christ as Savior,
Make Him Master, too.
Follow in His footsteps,
Go where He has trod;
In the world’s great trouble
Risk yourself for God.

Let your heart be tender
And your vision clear;
See mankind as God sees,
Serve Him far and near.
Let your heart be broken
By a brother’s pain;
Share your rich resources,
Give and give again.

“I think that’s my new favorite hymn,” Rebecca said.
“Mine, too,” I replied. “Mine, too.”

May we each move faith to action, and may we spend more time standing for than standing against. May we stand for Love, and may we trust Love to push out everything not good, right, or life-giving. Amen.

On Amelia's 8th Birthday

On Amelia’s 8th Birthday…2.4.16

Today is my Amelia’s birthday.
She’s 8.
I adore her.

Because of another obligation, I cannot attend Amelia’s family birthday party tomorrow night. Knowing that this would make Amelia sad—she still thinks I’m wonderful and loves spending time with me—I tried to figure out another time to visit with her this week but couldn’t figure out a time to do it.

Then something unexpected happened. My appointment at Massage Envy (I’ve been going in for therapeutic massages for the past couple of months) got bumped back from 8pm to 8:30pm. This extra thirty minutes was going to give me the time I needed to see my Amelia!

Then something else unexpected happened. When I got to Joe-The-Counselor’s office, it was locked. When I called his office, I learned that he was out of the office this week. I had scheduled my appointments so far in advance that I’d scheduled an appointment before he’d blocked off this week and then we forgot to talk about it! So. There I was. Five minutes from Amelia’s house. With an unplanned hour of time. I didn’t think twice. I went to see my little girl.

Shortly after arriving at the house and surprising the whole family, I found myself standing behind Amelia as she sewed a small pillow for Stanley. Amelia got a sewing machine for Christmas. Amelia learned to do her own bobbing and threading over the past couple of weeks. Amelia is quite the 2nd grade seamstress.

“So, Amelia. Is it true that you made everyone who attended your friend-birthday party a blanket and pillow for their dolls?”

“Yep,” she said as she sewed.

“And she helped me sew recorder bags for all of the students in my recorder classroom, too,” my sister chimed in.

“Yep,” Amelia said with a humble smile on her face—as if this was completely normal activity for a now eight-year-old.

Then later, as Amelia and I snuggled on the couch, I asked if she got any special presents for her birthday. She said, “I didn’t get presents for my birthday. I asked everyone to bring something to donate to the local animal shelter.”

“Oh,” I said. “So let me get this straight. For YOUR birthday, YOU made everyone gifts and then asked for donations instead of gifts in return?”

“Yep,” she said with that same humble smile as turned her sweet, freckled face up toward mine.

“Wow!” I responded, my heart about to burst with love and pride. “You really are my favorite girl in the whole wide world.”

Amelia’s life inspires me.
And on Tuesday night,
And every time I see her, really,
Seeing her was therapy enough.