Sometimes it's just written on the wind...

Okay, all my faithful readers, just want to say that I think I'm officially "in" at My New Little Corner. You can click on the link to get there. However, should you actually take the time to type in www.mynewlitlecorner.typepad.com, be aware that the word "little" is missing the second "t." Yes, in my eagerness to settle into my new blog, I misspelled the word.

As a perfectionist I must admit it's been gnawing at my conscience ever since I discovered it.

Oh, well. We can't have it all, right?

In any case, I think I'm blog moving. If you want to adjust your bookmarks and links in your own blogs in order to continue to find me, feel free. I'll leave this site up for awhile, too.

A Blogger Vacation Spot or a New Home?

Well, for the past 7 hours I've been playing around in a neighboring blogging spot. Despite the fact that it was a little slow-going in figuring out my surroundings in this new blog town, I think I'm actually liking the end result. If you want, take a look and let me know if it's worth a move.

Extreme Blog Makeover

My dear friend M.K. Lindsey made a spontaneous trip down to my little corner of the world just to hang out for the last 24 hours. It was a lovely weekend of chatting, good food, and coffee at my favorite local coffee place.

But probably what most consumed our attentions was playing around with our blogs. She has wanted for some time to learn how to customize her blog. Some of her vision for her blog sounded like something I've been seeing from the Typepad blogs I read so we perused them for ideas. I even have ended up setting up a trial version to play around with because there are certain elements about Typepad I'm liking. It's a bit different than Blogger. (If I can get it figured out somewhat, I'll throw the link up and let you take a peek and give me some feedback.)

In anycase, most of our evening last night was spent at my kitchen table in front of the laptop. (Sidebar: It actually reminded me of another time we sat together in front of the computer. Remember the eHarmony questionnaire, M.K.? After 2 hours of sitting through the most grueling personality questionnaire, I hit the search button to find new matches only to receive this message: "Unfortunately you're one of the 20% we have no matches for." Somehow, I always knew. And yet, it was so freeing to have a computer finally break the news.)

But enough about me.

It was a most delightful way to spend an evening. I taught her what little I've picked up over the last several months -- including copying a pasting a backup copy of a template in Word before making changes! After playing around with her current template, she became braver than I've been -- she decided she wanted to change her template. Now, I had heard that in doing so you might run the risk of losing everything. I wasn't so confident. But she moved into the unknown with a laugh and a click...and gave her old blog an extreme blog makeover.

The Lake House

Last night I went with a friend to see The Lake House. I don’t care what the critics are saying; I really enjoyed it primarily because it wasn’t the same formulaic romance. Most romance movies today are based a little more in the here and now. Despite the fact that everything is neatly wrapped up within 2 hours and boy and girl have sufficiently gotten together, we could believe that the story unfolding before us might possibly happen.

But The Lake House depends entirely upon a true suspension of disbelief due to a time travel type plot line. I like that. I actually have to suspend disbelief and step into my imagination. There’s something about wildly depending upon my imagination that is entirely satisfying. In any case, if you enjoy a good romance every now and then and are tired of the conventional, run of the mill ways of telling them, I highly recommend The Lake House.

Packing up is hard to do

Well, I’m taking a pause from a day of packing. Actually, I have about 2½ weeks until I move so I’ve been trying to figure out how to slowly pack what little in my house is left to my name. My garage sale of a couple weeks ago cleaned me out of my junk as much as it did my furniture and so there’s really not much left that couldn’t be packed in probably a week’s unhurried time.

Because I haven’t wanted to sit in a houseful of boxes for the last 3 weeks, I’m trying to pace myself. Within the last several days I’ve packed all of my books which are also conveniently catalogued online. I also catalogued my DVDs online as I packed them just because I was in the zone. I thought that was a good if not easy place to start my packing…but when the books came off the shelves it immediately felt less warm and more temporary. I’m not sure why, but there’s something about books to me that create home, you know?

In any case, as much as it feels weird to be officially putting what’s left of my life into moving boxes, I’m looking forward to the next stage of life…murky as it still is. For now, my plan is to move to an old haunt from my childhood which is a town about 2 hours from where I currently live. “What happened to Florida?” you’re probably wondering. Well, those plans fell through and newer ones came to the surface in the last month. My parents, having been through some major job transitions since February, are actually moving back to Oklahoma. In doing so, they are going to move into the house that I lived in the first 11 years of my life (which has been a rent house for the last 20+ years). And I am going to move in with them and help them do a major remodel for the next several months before looking for a job.

Why the new change? Well, there are a number of reasons, but the primary and most motivating one is healing. Over the last six months I have realized that I need some time to heal from some definite wounds of the heart and spirit that have come over the last nine years of being in ministry. Over the years I’ve watched a number of the hurt and wounded go from one church or ministry to the other never really dealing with the blows they’ve taken. In so doing, unknown or unseen to themselves, they enter a new ministry or church setting and do a lot of damage because they haven’t taken the time (or maybe they just haven’t realized they need that time) to heal sufficiently.

As I looked at a number of different options, I realized that woman could very easily be me. If I don’t take some time to heal up, I could very well be that woman who just brings her old garbage with her to the next location, you know?

So, for now, I’m taking what I’m calling a Life Sabbatical. I’m not setting any necessary goals other than to put my heart in strategic places for healing. What those places look like yet, I’m not sure. For now, the first step into this is to be around family for awhile and serve them. Hopefully jobs, paychecks, spiritual community, and life purpose will fall into place in time.

New Blog Sidebar Additions

Okay, for someone who swore never to mess with her blog template (after nearly losing it all by trying to delete some other pesky addition she added and then regretted), you'll notice that I've been slowly adding a few new things.

The first, obviously, is Pandora. This was previously recommended through my friend Jill and I am thoroughly enjoying it. The concept is simple and innovative. A group of musicians and technologists got together and decided that grouping music into a genre just doesn't work. They believe that all music has a gene...and they've done the work in classifying thousands of musicians. If you're curious, you can read more about this endeavor. Pandora, then, is a culmination of this five year study where we can enjoy their hard work. You type in an artist or a song you love and they'll design a station with your listening tastes in mind and recommend new artists. If you haven't already, I highly recommend giving it a try. I personally enjoy hearing new artists and songs that fit into the variety of sounds that I already enjoy. Already I've shared it with a number of my friends and they are now happily enjoying broadening their music horizons.

The other addition is LibraryThing that I saw over on Rick's blog. The idea is similar to Delicious Library...and not. The Delicious concept is just enough to make me think I should have listened to my sister and bro-in-law who live, breath and die Mac. Oh, well. Laptop and I are doing just fine otherwise...

The Amazon.com addition came when I decided to add LibraryThing. When you type in your books it links to Amazon and allows me a small cash return when anybody clicks on an item I list through my blog and and actually purchases it. So, feel free to do all your Father's Day gift giving right here, folks. Just kidding. There's never any pressure here...other than to drink coffee. I make no apologies for pushing the coffee drinking experience on anyone.

Life Changes and Good Stories

Since Wednesday I have been in Tyler, TX visiting a good friend and her husband. What initially started out with an agenda by my friend and I to “have lots of coffee talk conversations and/or to lay by the pool” has suddenly been taken captive by the reality of life -- my friends have been house hunting for quite some time and stumbled upon a house in the last several days since I’ve been here that has the most potential for the money they’re willing to spend and they needed to make a fast decision. So, because my friend’s in-laws are in real estate, Mom and Dad flew in (Literally – Dad recently bought an old 1940 war plane and flew it from Austin to here!! Very cool.) And since it has been a whirlwind of discussion as well as an education in house purchasing.

The other day after the Parents arrived we went to see the house again. It’s an old house supposedly built in the mid-40s with an unusual exterior of cinderblock. When my friends and I walked through it the previous day, the ninety-year old owner was not at home and we found ourselves trying to piece together the story of this woman’s life – lots of antiques obviously from other parts of the world; no pictures of family or children anywhere; an unusual mixture of slab and pier and beam flooring.

Upon the second viewing of the house we were introduced to Clara Broush Bogard (not sure of spelling), who immediately told us all her friends called her C.B. She was the spryest, most youthful ninety-year old you’ve ever met! After making our way through the house again we began to ask her questions about her home. Turns out she and her husband (both in the Civil Air Patrol) moved into the house in ’47 but when they moved in they decided to change the entrance of the house. So, they lifted up the house (yes, actually lifted it up) and turned the house 90 degrees. They then proceed to add on about another 900 square feet of the house…hence the newer slab flooring. The coolest thing was the story of the cinderblock exterior. Apparently after the war building supplies were scarce. So, Mrs. Clara’s husband individually made all of the cinderblocks from scratch and bricked their house!

We were all totally entranced with Mrs. Bogard’s stories of her life. While you wouldn't have believed for a moment that she was 90, she felt that she could no longer properly take care of herself so she informed us that she was moving herself into an assisted living center and was in the process of eliminating everything that had been home to her for the last 60 years. While she was delighted I think that my friends took such an interest in her life and home, my heart really ached for her. Maybe it’s my own recent events that caused my to identify at some level…and yet, I can’t imagine what it must be like to sell off everything at 90 years old with no children to pass down my stories and precious treasures and willingly move myself into a community of people I have no shared experiences. A place where for all apparent purposes is probably one of the last places to dwell before leaving this earth. It makes me think of my grandparents who also were forced to such measures before they went home to be with Jesus…

Just before we left Mrs. Bogard’s house the other day, she told my friends that she really wanted them to get the house. The following morning my friends made an offer just as a competing offer came in bidding for the same house. Mrs. Bogard sold the house to my friends. It’s my suspicion that after getting to know them that she felt that she was able to leave a piece of her home and her story to some kids who would take care of her story as much as there own desire to create a new home and memories…

Growing in Singleness

Over the years I’ve realized how hard it is to come by well-written books on singleness. I’ve definitely read my fair share of the “strap up your boot straps and get over it” singleness kind of books as well as the “what planet is this reality based on?”

Recently I’ve picked up Connally Gilliam’s Revelations of a Single Woman: Loving the Life I Didn’t Expect. I’m enjoying Gilliam’s honest examination of being a well-rounded, experienced, thoughtful, Christian single woman in today’s world. If you’re single and are constantly looking for books that help you grow in your perspective, add this one to your “must read” list.

Me too

Jill did this one so I figured I had to as well. :-) I think it rings fairly close to home...although I wonder about the "quirky." I mean, am I quirky or just weird?

How You Live Your Life

You seem to be straight forward, but you keep a lot inside. You're laid back and chill, but sometimes you care too much about what others think. Your friends tend to be a as quirky as you are - which is saying a lot! You tend to dream big, but you worry that your dreams aren't attainable.

How Do You Live Your Life?

Memorable Moving Sale Moments

While it was quite an overwhelming weekend of work and letting go of the stuff that has defined my life, there was much to be enjoyed during my recent garage sale. Let me see if I can accurately recount the enjoyment I chose to take out of the last few days…

My friend Andrea’s fiancé, Phil. The first thing you have to know about Phil is that he is quite charismatic: he could sell wind the national government and pass it off as some sort of crucial new weaponry. Recently I shared Pandora with him. For the last three days he did nothing but sit with his laptop creating new radio stations. He currently has 24 music stations. During our garage sale, he sat our table and would tell those perusing our wares that he actually had encountered something that was going to change their lives. He was quite entertaining.

My neighbors who suddenly came out in droves to poke through my stuff. All of them told me they were sorry to hear that I was moving (funny to me, because I never told any of them) and that they were sad to lose such a good neighbor…also weird, because I rarely see anyone out and about in my neighborhood and I wasn’t quite sure how I counted as “good.” Probably because I don’t throw large parties in my front yard and play loud music at all hours of the night…

A little four-year old boy who told us about his mother’s love life. “My mom isn’t married to my dad and she made him move out.” Yikes! As his mom with much embarrassment told him to shush, I realized, it’s not that kids necessarily say the darnedest things as much as they say the honest things, no?

Alex, a most beloved student (recently graduated) who stopped by to say goodbye. He, Andrea, Phil and I had a great time sitting out in the garage telling entertaining stories and watching hilarious videos of comedians online. Most of our customers were highly amused with us…so much that we started saying we'd charge them if they laughed at us. “Nothing’s free at this sale people! You laugh, you pay!” It was great to laugh together.

Despite all the hard work, it was fun and I’m glad that I was able to do it with people. Doing life in any manner with others really enables me to face the hard stuff in life, you know?

Ah, fun times.

going...Going...GONE!

To say that I’m exhausted is an understatement. I have decided that there is no word to accurately describe how tired I feel. My tiredness incorporates a physical, mental, and emotional exhaustion that I don’t think I’ve experienced in my 32 years.

Over the last several months I’ve been cleaning, sorting, and tossing about 9 years' worth (maybe more) accumulation of stuff since college. Not knowing what is really in the next scope of life I’ve been trying to eliminate as much of my stuff as possible to be ready to go…for whatever the Lord had in mind.

Well, over the last two weeks I kicked it into high clean up gear as it looked like maybe some details were beginning to fall into place. A friend of mine (who’s getting married in August) and I decided to throw a garage sale to rid ourselves of much of our junk. For the last week I’ve lived amongst most of my junk as well as all of it’s dust and dirt. (I’m not really sure if my sinuses will ever be the same!) And as details really began to firm up, it looked indeed that I would be moving (more on my move in a later post). So, what initially started out as a garage sale turned into a large moving sale. Instead of eliminating much smaller items, now I was parting with the much larger items of my life…the bedroom suit I’ve had since high school; my first couch I bought just after graduating college; tvs and dvd players; TONS of books; kitchen and decorative items that have over the years created a sense of home.

And, as of yesterday afternoon, most of my life is gone. If it wasn’t sold in the sale, it’s all sitting out in the garage awaiting a Goodwill pick up scheduled for about a week from now.

My home looks like a skeleton.

Maybe that sounds freaky to say, but it does. I feel a death in my life that it hard to describe and I’m sure for some it is hard to comprehend. My friend’s fiancé kept saying to me throughout the weekend, “It’s just stuff, Blythe. Aren’t you glad to be rid of it?”

Yes. I am. And yet, all this stuff has created a sense of place and home not just for me but for others. Some of that is just a deep expression of my femininity. Some of that just stems from how I have been specifically wired. And some of it is a hospitality gift that enjoys creating an atmosphere where others feel welcomed and at rest. It has been such a joy to share my home (especially this one of the last four years) with others. I feel a loss and a death in my life that is quite hard to shake off so easily.

But, I know through all the different details that have been slowly and yet assuredly hammering themselves out over the last several weeks that God is leading and directing in this. And my heart is His. I want to follow Him and learn how to create home in this next season, you know?

So, today I am wiped. But there is a Hope in my exhaustion that helps me set my eyes upon Him. Over the last couple of days, a verse from Isaiah has filled my thoughts and has deeply encouraged me to hang in there with Him in all this. Specifically verse 21 but the whole passage has spoken to my heart:

Therefore the LORD is waiting to show you mercy, and is rising up to show you compassion, for the LORD is a just God. Happy are all who wait patiently for Him. For you people will live on Zion in Jerusalem and will never cry again. He will show favor to you at the sound of your cry; when He hears, He will answer you. The Lord will give you meager bread and water during oppression, but your Teacher will not hide Himself any longer. Your eyes will see your Teacher, and whenever you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear this command behind you: “This is the way. Walk in it.” Then you will defile your silver-plated idols and your gold-plated images. You will throw them away like menstrual cloths, and call them filth. Then He will send rain for your seed that you have sown in the ground, and the food, the produce of the ground, will be rich and plentiful. On that day your cattle will graze in open pastures. The oxen and donkeys that work the ground will eat salted fodder scattered with winnowing shovel and fork. Streams and watercourses will be on every high mountain and every raised hill on the day of great slaughter when the towers fall. The moonlight will be as bright as the sunlight, and the sunlight will be seven times brighter —like the light of seven days—on the day that the LORD bandages His people's injuries and heals the wounds He inflicted.

Hole in One

I guess I'm just a little YouTube slap happy today. But this one was in my inbox today and I just have to share. I was on the girls golf team in high school and my extended family are huge lovers of the sport. So this one's for all the fam who pokes in to my little corner now and then! :-) Love ya!

This is just too funny not to share

I have much to share but am too tired to post. I'll leave you with this that myself and some friends stumbled on today. Chances are you've seen it, but it's just too funny not to share. Enjoy.