BUILDING BLOCKS OF CHANGE: A Habitat for Humanity Reflection

ONE THOUSAND GIFTS (Voskamp) Part 2

Part 2: Based on Devotions 11-20 from ONE THOUSAND GIFTS: A Devotional

Finding Everyday Graces  Ann Voskamp (Zondervan, 2012)

FRIDAY, September 26  Singing Grace

Ephesians 5:20 MSG

Sing songs from your heart to Christ. Sing praises over everything, any excuse for a song to God the Father in the name of our Master, Jesus Christ.

You can only hear your life sing when you are still. (AV)

            How does life sing?  It sings constantly in the voices of birds, frogs, crickets, and the rush of the wind, the patter of raindrops.  It sings in the conversations of friends, even the sounds of traffic that can remind us that we live in a land of plenty. 

            But do we hear it?  When we walk through a forest, the birds quiet, the frogs cease their croaking.  Only when we pause in silence, do we begin to hear the sounds of God around us.  When we hush, we hear.

            But we also can sing.  May our songs of praise pour forth from our lips like an ever-flowing fountain.  May we sing out and share the moments we find God-gifts revealed.  Over and over again.  

SATURDAY, September 27 Ugly Grace

Colossians 1: 19-20 MSG

So spacious is he [Christ], so roomy, that everything of God finds its proper place in him without crowding. Not only that, but all the broken and dislocated pieces of the universe—people and things, animals and atoms—get properly fixed and fit together in vibrant harmonies, all because of his death…

God longs to transfigure all, no matter how long it takes.

Somewhere, underneath the grime of this broken world, everything has the radiant fingerprints of God on it.

Seeing the world with Jesus’ eyes, we have the astonishing opportunity to daily love the unlovely into loveliness. (AV)

If we look closely, we can find beauty in everything.  If we get close to that which is tiresome, challenging, or worrisome, we can find the face of God.  God sticks close to us, seeking to transfigure.  How well do we seek the daily communion with God that can and will change us? 

            My challenge today is to find the God-gift in something that seems marred and ugly at first impression.  Transfigure it in God and through God. 

SUNDAY, September 28   Graffiti Grace

Isaiah 43:1 GNT

“Do not be afraid—I will save you.
    I have called you by name—you are mine.

Graffiti can be grace. What seems a defacement can be a glimpse of His face. All the writing on the wall could be love notes.

Grace isn’t a mere Pollyana feeling.  It’s a force. A powerful force. …Grace is the power of God pulsating with this passionate love of God; this jolting, blazing, dangerous love that pierces all of humanities pitch-black.  (AV)

            Graffiti.  We see it most often on the sides of walls, the box cars rolling down the train tracks.  Usually it disfigures and makes us angry or disappointed.  But there is ART in graffiti and perhaps, just perhaps, there is a glimpse of God.  When we see that which initially appears wrong, may we take a step back and look again.  May we seek to see the gift of God in it.  A child-mess in the kitchen? Fingerprints on the walls?  Thank God for the child, for the imagination, for the joyful life the child leads.  Thank God for the blessing in the mess of our world. 
            I'm including today a scribble I did of graffiti on the Israeli Border Wall.  The Wall is a reminder to all Palestinians of oppression and separation.  But hidden within, there are beautiful pictures of hope, peace, and acceptance. My wall is filled with graffiti prayers.  Graffiti grace. Love notes.  

MONDAY, September 29  Coded Grace

Philippians 4:11-12  GNT

I have learned to be satisfied with what I have.  I know what it is to be in need and what it is to have more than enough. I have learned this secret, so that anywhere, at any time, I am content, whether I am full or hungry, whether I have too much or too little.

There it is – the secret to living joy in every situation, the full life of eucharisteo.  Twice Paul writes it, ‘I have learned…’  Learned…..Learn how to be thankful – whether empty or full.  (AV)

I want the hunt, the long sleuth, the careful piercing together.  To learn how to be grateful and happy, whether hands full or hands empty.  That is a scret worth spending a life on learning. (AV)

             In this devotion Voskamp first talks of making her list of gifts.  She asks if this is how you learn the language of God.  Is this the code?

            It made me think of my God-text letters on the beach.  I sought them out as a coded message from God.  What was God saying in the piles of seaweed and driftwood on the beach?   If we approach everything in an attitude of deciphering God’s messages to us, we will find that God is constantly communicating with us. 

            I have started my list….I’m only up to 75 God-gifts I have recognized in the past week or so. 

            Another sampling…..penguin-attired boys, bells chiming in the wind, breakfast with friends, huckleberries and peaches together, building with blocks, pinecone shrimp sticks, candlelight, rainbows, book exchanges, waterfalls, parking spaces, butterflies on mountain tops, pink-tinged clouds…..

Tuesday, September 30  Naming Grace

Genesis 2:19-20 VOICE

Then He brought them to the man and gave him the authority to name each creature as he saw fit: whatever he decided to call it, that became its name.

• Naming offers the gift of recognition.  To name is to learn the language of Paradise. (AV)
• I name.  And I know the face I face.  God’s!  God is in the details; God is in the moment.  God is in all that blurs by in a life – even the hurts in a life. (AV)
• Now, in the Bible a name….reveals the very essence of a thing, or rather its essence as God’s gift….To name a thing, in other words, is to bless God for it and in it. (John Piper, WHEN I DON’T DESIRE GOD)

            To write down a list of God-gifts is to name the gifts.  To name them gives them value.  Our son Luke names everything.  Every stuffed raccoon had a name, his first car was Tinkerbell (Tink for short!); his guitars are named, the tiny notebook computer is Bitsy Betsy.  Names give them recognition as something special.  But how do we name the less recognizable gifts from God?  We have to seek them out.  We put words to the feeling, the experience, the moment.  And those words define the essence as a gift from God. 

            We got cold and wet today at the Habitat build….the 'Names' on my list reflect the joy of today’s blessings:  old raingear still available; hot coffee; hot soup; hot showers; dinner invitations.

Wednesday, October 1   Praying Grace

Daniel 2:23

I thank and praise you, God of my ancestors:

You have given me wisdom and power.

Daniel is a man of power-prayer…three times a day Daniel prayed thanksgiving for the everyday common.

The only real prayers are the ones mouthed with thankful lips.  Prayer, to be prayer, to have any power to change anything, must first speak thanks.

When I give thanks for the seemingly microscopic, I make a place for God to grow within me.

The ‘dare’ to write down one thousand things I love is really a dare to name all the ways that God loves me. (AV)

            Today I realized how important it is to include my thanksgivings in my prayer pictures, not just my requests!  A prayer must FIRST speak thanks!!  Only in the last few, usually because I had extra ‘room’, have I started including my list of answered prayers, joys, and thanksgivings!  I should draw this part first!  Blessings and praise!  Thank you God!  And then….prayerfully include all those for whom I ask God’s intercession, for those hurting and in pain, for situations beyond my control that I leave in God’s hands.  Now I am challenged to scribble another prayer tonight!  

I STARTED with a blue sky of joys and blessings!  THEN I went to a mountain of current concerns; the fall foliage concentrates on Habitat places, people, and slogans, and all the green are my year's worth of ABC prayers.
WHEW!!!
(Scene is from Glacier NP - views up from MacDonald Creek)

THURSDAY, October 2  All-Here Grace

Psalm 50:23 VOICE

Set out a sacrifice I can accept: your thankfulness.
    Do this, and you will honor Me.

• The hurry makes us hurt. ….I don’t really want MORE time; I just want ENOUGH time, time to do my one life well.
• It’s this sleuthing for the glory that slows a life.  In this space of time and sphere, I am attentive, aware, accepting the whole of the moment, weighing it down with me all here.  (AV)

            My first thought here was we are back to ENOUGH.  We’ve tossed it around in terms of retirement money, gratitude and gratefulness, and now time.  What is ‘enough’ time?  Enough time, just perhaps, is the slowing of time.  When we slow it down, we seem to have the more…or the enough.  When we stop to acknowledge the glory, we pause long enough to turn the hurry into the enough.  Giving God ALL our attention for just those few slow-moments can make all the difference in a day, a life, well lived. 

FRIDAY, October 3  Hammering Grace

Matthew 7:24 MSG

 “These words I speak to you are not incidental additions to your life, homeowner improvements to your standard of living. They are foundational words, words to build a life on. If you work these words into your life, you are like a smart carpenter who built his house on solid rock.

• “A nail is driven out by another nail;  habit is overcome by habit.” (Desiderius Erasmus)
• The whole of the life – even the hard – is made up of the minute parts, and if I miss the infinitesimals, I miss the whole.  There is a way to live the big of giving thanks in all things. It is this: to give thanks in this one small thing. The moments will add up.
• Life changing gratitude does not fasten to a life unless nailed through with one very specific nail at a time.
• Little nails and a steady hammer can rebuild a life. (AV)

            Hammers.  Nails.  Foundations of rock.  This screams of Habitat in so many ways.  We are between builds right now, but visiting Habitat friends.  Our discussions have been of builds, and supervisors, and fellow CAVs. 

            We spent three weeks preparing for the three stages of pouring the Habitat foundation.  I had NO idea of the prep work that went into concrete slabs built to withstand freezing temps, built to insulate against freezing temps.  But these homes are built on rock firm foundations, one tiny blessings at a time.  Nail by nail, each step in the process is a little piece of grace.  Trenching, supports, re-bar ties, air bubbles, leveling, foam – all are nails of grace.  Have I mentioned each one in my list?  Did I see the grace in each as I followed Steve’s directions daily? 

SATURDAY, October 5  Awakening Grace

1 Thessalonians 5:18 VOICE

Give thanks to God no matter what circumstances you find yourself in. 

• I had fallen asleep all day to the glory, everywhere.  (AV)
• “The man who forgets to be thankful has fallen asleep in life.” (Robert Louis Stevenson)

            What set off my alarm clock of gratitude today?  What awakened me once again to the blessings, the infinite graces of God?  I think it might have started with the abundance of coffee Pam made this morning long before we came into the house.  Or was it the bubbling pot of oatmeal and a bowl of fresh fruit carefully cut and prepared?  Perhaps the twinkle in Mama Barb’s eyes as we said our goodbyes?  For sure it was the powdery dusting of snow on the Crazy Mountains, then the Big Belts, then the Bridgers!  Sparkling rivers, vast fields of golden grass, herds of antelope and elk.  My senses have been awakened over and over on this day of God-gifts.  But I am sure there are days when I oversleep the alarm, when my thanks are forgotten, and God longs to gently shake my shoulder and whisper, “Look! I’m here!” 

SUNDAY, October 5  All-Is-Well Grace

Genesis 21:19

Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water.

I’m blind to joy’s well every time I really don’t want it.  The well is always there.  I choose not to see it.

If I am rejecting the joy that is hidden somewhere deep within this moment, am I not ultimately rejecting God?

The well is always here….You have to want to see the well before you can drink from it.  You have to want to see the joy, the God in the moment.

There is always a well – all is well. 

            How often do we see the well as dry?  The glass half empty?  We can’t drink of God’s grace when there is nothing to drink ….or so we think.  But the well is always present and we are nearly always thirsty.  Why does it take us so long to realize the joy within the water, the joy within our God?  Come to the water and drink.  

ONE THOUSAND GIFTS (Voskamp) - Part 1

ONE THOUSAND GIFTS: A Devotional

Finding Everyday Graces

Ann Voskamp (Zondervan, 2012)

Wednesday, September 17      Surprising Grace

2 Corinthians 12:9-10 MSG

I quit focusing on the handicap and began appreciating the gift. …. Now I take limitations in stride, and with good cheer, these limitations that cut me down to size—abuse, accidents, opposition, bad breaks. I just let Christ take over! And so the weaker I get, the stronger I become.

Surprising Grace:  Authentic thanks is thanks for ALL things….The life that counts blessings discovers its yielding more than it seems.

Choosing Grace: Choose to say YES to all God’s gifts.  His grace is given to fill us with glory.

            The book begins with the acknowledgement that everything comes from God, and God is capable of wondrous things.  When we become overwhelmed by the evil and sin of the world, the bad stuff, may we open our hearts to God’s bounty; open our minds to see and accept what God is providing.          

Thursday, September 18     First Grace

Romans 1:19-20 MSG

But the basic reality of God is plain enough. Open your eyes and there it is! By taking a long and thoughtful look at what God has created, people have always been able to see what their eyes as such can’t see:….the mystery of His divine being.

Mark Buchanan (Canandian author and pastor): “All the wickedness in the world begins with an act of forgetting.”

First Grace: Turn in thanks and everything turns – and God doesn’t turn away.

     In everything, give thanks and glory to God!  How many times is this concept repeated in the Bible?  Over and over!  And attitude of thanksgiving will change us!  God knows we are going to do wrong.  He will forgive us.  What God can’t forgive is when we ignore Him.  Start the day with thanksgiving and praise for every little grace/God-gift I can see, and it will be a brighter, fuller day. 

Friday, September 19  Thinking Grace

Hebrews 13:15 GNT

Let us, then, always offer praise to God as our sacrifice through Jesus, which is the offering presented by lips that confess him as Lord.

“I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought, and that gratitude is happiness doubled with wonder.”  (Chesterman)

            Happiness doubled with wonder.  I love the thought!  When we seek God-gifts in everything, we will see the world with eyes of wonder.  It can’t help but put a smile on our face. 

“This is what great artists and thinkers do – they stay awake to the wonder of God’s world. Great thinkers are great thankers – the really great live gratefully.”(AV)

Saturday, September 20   Here-Now Grace

Luke 22:19

And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them….

In the original language, ‘he gave thanks’ reads ‘eucharisteo’ or thanksgiving. Fully broken down, eucharisteo means charis or grace and chara or joy.

THANKSGIVING. GRACE. JOY. A triplet of stars, a constellation in the black.  This search for the constellation in the dark – grace, thanksgiving, joy – it might be like that – a reaching for stars. 

            When we approach the world with thanksgiving, we discover the grace and joy that comes with God-gifts in the world right at our feet.  We find the grass isn’t greener over there….we don’t have to go somewhere new.  We simply need to look closer and acknowledge what is growing right next to us, to the here and now of our lives. 

            I rode a ski lift today to the top of Big Mountain outside of Whitefish, MT.  The view was spectacular as the jagged peaks of Glacier National Park rose to the east, the mountains of Idaho to the west, Flathead Lake and valley to the south.  The here and now of God was in the patchwork of color on the hillsides, the red-orange, gold, green of huckleberry bushes, tamarack trees, and dark green spruce.  The here and now was in the deep blue skies and a blaze orange sunset.  May we never be so preoccupied with looking for the extraordinary somewhere else that we miss the God-ordinary in our own backyard. 

SUNDAY, September 21      Anti-Anxiety Grace

Psalm 13:12 NASB

Surely I have composed and quieted my soul;

Like a weaned child rests against his mother,

My soul is like a weaned child within me.

What is the answer to anxiety? Calvin wrote, “The stability of the world depends on this rejoicing of God in His works……If on earth, such praise of God does not come to pass….then the whole order of nature will be thrown into confusion.”

Our worlds reel unless we rejoice.  A song of thanks steadies everything. (AV)

            I would never have come up with the term anti-anxiety grace, but I have used the concept before!    We discuss Voskamp’s ideas In my Stress Management class when we ‘focus on the positive’ and students are encouraged to count their blessings.  Praising God doesn’t remove the anxiety, but it does allow us to cope with our fears, our schedules, our stress.  It helps us approach each day with a smile on our face, a song in our heart, and a dance in our step.  

PS.  I have begun my list of God-gifts and added to it daily...  Deep belly laughter, technology that allows communication, a good coach building teamwork, campfires and marshmallows, pixie dust, flowers growing in old trucks, compliments, hummus, mountain reflections in windows, free firewood, patchwork of hillside colors, gracious hospitality.....just a sampling.  

MONDAY, September 22   TRUSTING GRACE

Philippians 4:6 VOICE

Don’t be anxious about things; instead, pray. Pray about everything. He longs to hear your requests, so talk to God about your needs and be thankful for what has come.

An untroubled heart relaxes, trusts, leans assured into His ever-dependable arms.  Trust, it’s the antithesis of stress. (AV)

If trust must be earned, hasn’t God unequivocally earned our trust with the sacrifice of his Son? (AV)

         Now, I look again at the verse above and am reminded again of the second half.  Ask God, pray to God, and BE THANKFUL for what has come.  Everything that comes as a God-gift we should give thanks….one by one. 

         Yesterday Rick and I hiked on an absolutely glorious fall day in Glacier National Park.  Our gifts from God?  Abundant sunshine, solitude, butterflies, panoramic views of fall foliage and jagged peaks, rock colors, flowers, mountain goats….I could go on and on.  Did I have to trust?  Yes….Rick left the bear spray in the parking lot.   So I breathed a short prayer…”Lord, keep us safe” and then quickly went about savoring every step of the way

TUESDAY, September 23   Urgent Grace

Psalm 103:13-14

As a father has compassion on his children,

            So the Lord has compassion on those who fear him;

For he knows how we are formed,

He remembers that we are dust.

-         God gives us time.  But who has time for God?

-        Hurry empties the soul.

-        Who knows how to take time and live with soul and body and God all in sync?   (AV)

So what if we really paid attention

And nickel-and-dimed life away

On afternoon tag by the cedars?

A string of bare toes with a stack of old books,

This one lone bowl filling with morning light

Day after day, shelling out slow mindfulness

On whatnots of amazing grace,

Collecting pieces of God=glory.

This buying a bit of medicine

That cures A.D.D. of the soul.  (AV)

            I loved the last phrase: ADD of the soul.  We are a hurry-up society, time is short, rush, RUSH!  But God grants us an eternity of time AND enough hours in a day IF we get our priorities straight.  A little slow-down will lead to a richer and fuller life.  I am guilty of Soul ADD.  May I remember that urgent=slow.  Take the time to stop and smell the roses! 

WEDNESDAY, September 24   Silk Grace

Psalm 102:25-28 GNT

Long ago you created the earth….
    they will all wear out like clothes….
    and they will vanish.
 But you are always the same,
    and your life never ends.
 Our children will live in safety,
    and under your protection
    their descendants will be secure.

“What if, instead of discounting the current moment, the uncontrollable, the simply given – what if I counted it – and on the God who controls it all?

What if all our running around is only our trying to run away from God – the great I AM – the power in the present moment?

What if I woke to now and refused to hurry because I didn’t want to refuse God?

What if I didn’t discount this moment but counted it for what it is – God here?” (AV)

In God there is no time, only eternity – or more simply, only now. (AV)

            What is one of the widely used phrases now, ‘Live in the Moment’.  It can be abused as a careless, wreckless way of living, life without regard to any future.  But there is something to be said for LIVING in the moment, for truly savoring the seconds we have and rejoicing in them.   Praise the now moments.  Try to revel in each minute of God-grace within grasp.  If we do, I think we’ll find our day is filled with life, not hurry.

THURSDAY, September 25   Recognizing Grace

1 Corinthians 7:29,31  MSG

…time is of the essence. There is no time to waste, so don’t complicate your lives unnecessarily. ….Deal as sparingly as possible with the things the world thrusts on you. This world as you see it is on its way out.

Life is not an emergency.  Emergencies are sudden, unexpected events…but is anything under the sun unexpected to God?

Life is dessert – too brief to hurry.  It takes a full twenty minutes after your stomach is full for your body to register satiation.  How long does it take your soul to realize that your life is full? (AV)

            Our time is like a fragile bubble held with care…if we hurry, it will pop.  But if we stop and savor, we might see the rainbow refractions of God-grace pouring out.  The more we recognize God in these moments, the more we slow down and honor God with thanks FOR these moments, the fuller our soul will become.  Where will I see bubbles today on the job?  I saw the magic yesterday in Malachi's grace during Habitat opening - his words, his actions, his delight in life.   Look for bubbles; hold them with awe.  Grace is inside.  

SIMPLIFY YOUR LIFE (St. James)

SIMPLIFY YOUR LIFE: 

100 Ways to Slow Down and Enjoy the Things That Really Matter

Elaine St. James  (Hyperio, 1994)

I am going to take the next week or so to take a look at the book SIMPLIFY YOUR LIFE by Elaine St. James.  There are 8 sections filled with suggestions.  I will highlight several ideas in each section that I feel I might realistically need or want to adopt or have already found to be effective!

MONDAY, September 8

One: Household

1.      Leave your shoes at the front door.  I know many cultures practice this concept, which helps maintain a clean house (hence less housekeeping!).  I have noticed guests who slip their shoes off, especially in the winter months, as they arrive. We come in and out the back door….wouldn’t be that hard to do. 

2.      Keep the plants outdoors.  The author discusses all the time we spend on maintaining indoor plants, hard to water in the pot only, fussy to keep up.  I have just a couple, but my mom has so many it takes her an hour a week just to water them!  But, then again, at her age maybe that sort of simplification isn’t necessary!  She enjoys those plants!

3.      Buy in bulk.  A good way to cut costs, but it can be taken to extreme when you don’t keep track of what you have!  We know of one couple living in an RV who bought so much in bulk they couldn’t use their shower because all the paper products were stored there! 

4.      Cut laundering in half.  Washing machines were supposed to cut back on this chore, but instead it seems like our society now wears the clothes for a half day and washes twice as much!  Pants can be worn multiple times!  Maybe even a shirt if you didn’t get all sweaty in it!  We only wash 2 loads a week with an extra load for sheets etc. every 3 weeks or so. 

5.      Use food trays.  An interesting rule some households have….you can take food anywhere as long as it is on a food tray and eaten from the tray.  You can catch a lot of crumbs this way and keep a lot of spills in one spot.  You need trays with an edge to them!

So…where is all this practical advice leading?  I think the concept is that if we free ourselves somewhat from the mundane demands of the ordinary, we will feel more open to contemplate the extraordinary of God and each other.  Seems like a good place to go.

Tuesday, September 9

Two: Lifestyle

1.     Get rid of most ‘toys’.   Toys include excessive recreational equipment that gets used once or twice (stuff that could be shared among friends?), clothes and purses and shoes, etc. etc.  We don’t need all this STUFF and we let it control us.

2.     Turn off the TV.   I should probably change this one to Turn off the Computer for myself!  I can easily have the TV off for days, but my computer??  That’s another story!  One of the suggestions I make to my Stress class is to turn off the technology for a day! 

3.     Don’t answer the phone JUST because it is ringing. This is a tough habit to break!  There is something magical about the phone ringing!  Who is it?  But when it demands our instantaneous time that ring controls us and it shouldn’t.  The cell phone actually is easier than the home phone was….I know messages can be left and I usually can see who is on the other end! 

4.     Gift giving simplified. Why continue to give STUFF that people don’t need?  Last year I found a poster that described the perfect gifts of five hands: handmade, hand-me-down, second-hand, hand-in-hand (time together), helping hands (service).   What a great philosophy!

WEDNESDAY, September 10

Three: Finances

1.     Pay off the mortgage.  What goes along with this?  Don’t buy more house than you need to begin with!  We have been blessed to have paid off a mortgage twice, and now, in early retirement, we have the freedom to leave and travel with clear conscience.  That money allows us to buy gas! 

     Teach your kids fiscal responsibility.  I can’t believe the number of children who either have no idea of their parents expenses OR leave home with a credit card they have never practiced with!  Our boys had checking accounts before high school and a credit card when they turned sixteen.  We had two years of helping them monitor the use of the cards.  Each had to pay late fees once and learned that lesson quickly!  They know how to live on a budget.  They knew their college ‘play money’ was what they earned.  We paid directly to the school.  It was a good system and one that I think has paid off.

THURSDAY, September 11

Four: Your Job

1.      Work where you live and play.  Time spent commuting is often time lost and a stress builder.  We have thoroughly enjoyed the fact that when working we could both walk or bike to work.  Now we’ve retired, we might eventually move somewhere further from town, but the ease of not having a commute or of being tied to picking up kids all the time was liberating for both of us. 

2.     Turn a hobby into a job.  So many people don’t LIKE their job.  With jobs hard to find at times, to simply quit and grab a more desirable one isn’t always easy.  But a place to start is something you already enjoy.  I’m using this as my mantra for extra cash during retirement.  (Sorta….I’m NOT a businesswoman: creating is my passion!)  

FRIDAY, September 12

Five: Your Health

1.     Have a fresh fruit or juice fast day once a week.  This has long been a suggestion of dieticians for a cleansing effect for the body.  Smoothies that are JUST fruit are good, as well as a full variety of fruit, both common and more exotic.  Use Fast Day as a chance to try something different!

2.     Make water your drink of choice.  To say this will simplify things would be an understatement.  Eliminate soda beverages if possible.  Concentrate on drinking a couple quarts of JUST water daily.  What a difference this can make!   (I’m preaching to myself here – I MUST drink more water!)

Go take a walk.  Expensive exercise equipment isn’t necessary, gym membership isn’t mandatory.  Simply go outside and take a walk daily.  Even three times a week for a half hour will provide the aerobic exercise necessary for good health.  How simple can it get?

4.     Learn to laugh. Learn yoga.  The book listed these are two separate suggestions, but one part of the Stress Management class I teach is Laughter Yoga.  Yes, a type of yoga that simply involves laughing.  It is actually VERY therapeutic and quite good for us!  There IS something to the old adage that laughter is the best medicine!  It’s scientifically proven!

1.     is actually VERY therapeutic and quite good for us!  There IS something to the old adage that laughter is the best medicine!  It’s scientifically proven!

SATURDAY, September 13

Six: Your Personal Life

This chapter is filled with nearly 20 suggestions, many good ones.  I’ll try to limit my choices to some of the best…in my eyes!

1.     If it’s not working, stop doing it.  Why spend a lifetime butting your head against impossible situations?  Pull out.  Not everything can be solved. 

2.     Stop trying to change people.   We can only control one person – ourselves.  When we feel the need to change another, ask first if we need to change ourselves or our expectations of that person.  Ask for God’s help. 

3.     Take time for solitude, time to do nothing.   Alone time!  Schedule it.  It can be the daily walk time, personal space time, whenever, but it needs to happen.  Also schedule some regular ‘do nothing’ time when there is no guilt for not producing something.  Read a book, watch the clouds, listen to music.  This is an area I can work on….I let my TO DO list control my desires too often. 

4.     Change your expectations. This doesn't mean LOWER the expectations, but sometimes we have to realize that we are putting undo pressure on ourselves by our expectations.  Alter them!  

5.     Get out of dysfunctional relationships.  (See #1 above!)  Obviously this is harder if we are talking long term relationships such as a spouse or family.  But if they are simply friends who rub you the wrong way, it isn’t a friendship worth nurturing!  Off the top of my head, I can’t see where I would personally pursue this suggestion, but it seems sensible to me.  Limit the time you spend with people and activities that bring you down consistently!  

SUNDAY, September 14

Seven: Hard-Core Simplicity

1.     Get rid of heels, make-up, fancy hair-dos.  OK, so I probably don’t need to mention this one personally.  I am simple in this aspect.  But when I think of the time and money some people spend to make themselves look ‘natural’ I am amazed. 

2.     Quit making the bed.  This was my favorite suggestion in the whole book.  The author quotes Aunt Myrna, “If its good enough to get out of, it’s good enough to get into!”  Home decorators have convinced us we need 10 pillows, dust ruffles, coverlets, etc. on a made bed.  How crazy!  What a time waster!  Rick and I have a multipurpose quilt on our bed.  Last one out pulls it up when they get up.  Bed made.  Done.  

END OF THE BOOK! I've simplified the space in my trailer and already returned it to the used book exchange in the RV park office!  A few more 'Simplify Posters':