Oh Bother!

I am beginning to think that I have some camaraderie with Winnie the Pooh. Some Pooh-isms just seem to flow out of my memory bank, somewhere tucked away for just the right perspective on life.

Like: I’m a Bear of Very Little Brain, and long words bother me.

Or: You can’t help respecting anybody who can spell TUESDAY, even if he doesn’t spell it right, but spelling isn’t everything. There are days when spelling Tuesday simply doesn’t count.

Oh bother…

Perhaps too much thinking can get in the way of creativity when it comes to writing and spelling?.

And the way Pooh Bear spells, why it’s so unlike the way I was raised to spell.

Every word, precise, used in the ‘right way’…Oh the thinks I ponder and the spellings I spell when I try this hand at writing, at being creative.

After all, what does it matter to me or my readers if I spell honey, ‘hunny’. To my rather rigid mind, it does bother me, but to my creative imagination, it looks and feels quite nice to write ‘hunny’ for I feel a bit more giddy and less thinking about the thinks I am pondering.

Yep, a bit more Pooh Bear in me should help unleash that creative imagination which I know is deep down there somewhere.

Through my years of aging, becoming wise and protective in my thoughts and my speech, choosing my words with more restraint sometimes than with wisdom, I have inadvertently placed boundaries around this thing called imagination.

Imagine that?

The very thing I have been asking God to expand in me, I have been protectively building walls up around it.

My imagination that is. The ability to creatively think outside the box.

Oh it sounds soooo fun to be able to write and think that way. Yes, that’s what I desire. But and there is a big but in the sentence, I am afraid to let God have the boundaries, the parameters that I’ve set around my imagination.

Oh bother!

Pooh was cool about who he was.

Pooh Bear wasn’t befuddled by too much jargon. He was simple.

And creative in his approach to life in the woods.

He would scratch his head a lot and think aloud. Yes, aloud! Whether there was an audience of one, two or none. Didn’t matter.

He hemmed and hawed and hummed and hmmmed his way through the hundred acre wood. Pondering and imagining all sorts of adventures.

His imagination oft times led him into trumped up troubles and worries that were quickly dispelled by the appearance of Christopher Robin on the scene. With his ‘silly old bear’ Christopher Robin would try to remedy the situation.

Now I am not really comparing my brain to a bear, especially an imagined bear but I do love the character that AA Milne let us in on, which was a big part of his own imagination.

Perhaps a sprinkle of carefree and somewhat crazy but loveable thoughts that are ‘thinked’ out loud, can set this old imagination free.

Pooh says: Poetry and Hums aren’t things which you get, they’re things which get you. And all you can do is go where they can find you.

Oh bother!

For more info on CPRR Blog Talks and to join us on our BLOG TALK journeys, visit www.callandpurpose.org or visit my blog @ www.sandyboller.wordpress.com

Have You Lost Your ‘Marvels’?

It seems that this sabbatical has been chock full of personal/family celebrations. Birthdays, anniversaries… every couple of weeks or so we stop our plans, stop doing normal, stop with our sabbatical-ing of studying, reading, writing, and…celebrate.

There have been wonderful mile markers for our family as we have added two new birthdays to our growing list of family celebrations.

We continue to add to the years of our marriage (36 years today!) and now celebrate this summer another first of many wedding anniversaries to come for our son John and his wife Andrea.

Celebrations, remembrances, milestones as our grandkids continue to grow up. As our grandbabies continue to move into toddlerhood. Amazing stuff we get to participate in as we put away the more mundane activities and trade the day for family celebrations.

But wait. Every summer for our family will be full of these same celebrations/ remembrances/ milestones. And more to come. The sabbatical we are taking this summer from our normal duties isn’t the reason that we get to participate in our family stuff.

So why does it seem much more like celebrations, much more like remembrances, much more like milestones, much more fun, much more anticipation of such events?

Today, I have had a discovery moment. I realized that this sabbatical has caused me to stop and take a look around, to take in the moment, the moments and to not just appreciate them but take the time to enjoy them. These times have become more kairos ( time as expectation) than chronos (time as duration).   This gift of sabbatical which has been recuperative and restorative has brought to the forefront the more important moments, those kairos moments, where I have desired to take the time out for remembering and for celebrating.

Marvelous! Marveling over these things… I have been marveling at God’s gifts to our family all summer long.

This is the discovery moment where I found my ‘marvels’.

You see, I had nearly lost my ‘marvels’.

Really now, don’t you mean ‘marbles’? Well, yes sometimes I feel like I have lost my marbles. But I really do mean ‘marvels’. That ability to marvel at something. Taking the time to allow God to show you something.  Or taking a moment to pause and consider something that just may have been overlooked in the past.

Another way of putting it is this: Have you lost the ability to be astonished? To be surprised? To consider an event or a season with awe?

The ability to be astonished…hmmm. The other day as I was pondering on this I realized that over the past couple of years I have nearly lost that ability to marvel, to be astonished, to be surprised by God, to hold on to His joy in the moment, in the going.

I nearly lost all my ‘marvels’. And losing the ability to marvel has nearly cost me my ‘marbles’.

I had been on a treadmill of endurance, just enduring the day, the week, the season without taking the time to really appreciate, to fully enjoy those moments. Life had been beating me down in more ways than I realized. Until I took the time to step out of the traffic for a season, this summer sabbatical season, and take a long loving look at God above everything.

Can you relate?

When was the last time you stood in awe, in astonishment, marveling at God’s handiwork, taking a look at His hand in your life and the lives of your loved ones, stopping and considering moments full of meaning?

Take the time today to put into practice what the psalmist wrote in Psalm 46:10:

Step out of the traffic! Take a long, loving look at me, your High God, above politics, above everything.

For when we find ourselves in the place of stepping out of the traffic of life and taking a good long look at Him, we will see the marvels of God! (v.8)

We will have found our ‘marvels’. And along with finding our ‘marvels’, perhaps we will recoup a few lost ‘marbles’!

For more info on CPRR Blog Talks and to join us on our BLOG TALK journeys, visit www.callandpurpose.org or visit my blog @ www.sandyboller.wordpress.com

A Hobby in the Making

Just last week I was asked if I was pursuing any hobbies during my sabbatical. I sputtered a bit with an “oh, I don’t know. Uh. Visiting my grandkids? Spending a day without doing anything on my ‘to do’ list? Writing, thinking, reading…”

As Marty and I have embarked on the “new to us” adventure of bike riding, I had not thought of it as a hobby. Oh, biking will be good for us at our age. We need some regular exercise. Or perhaps this will help our aging joints and growing waistlines…And on and on.

I hadn’t let myself off the hook that I simply wanted to ride a bike for pleasure, for fun.

Until today.

As we took on another wonderful Cedar Rapids trail, which started with a few inclines, ie. hilly for us novice riders, I began to realize that I didn’t need a reason for biking, I just needed to ride for the fun of it. For pleasure. A hobby!

There goes that word again. Hobby. I have a hobby. Hmmm. Hobbies should be fun.

I always wanted to establish a hobby. But with many starts and no finishes usually due to not being able to afford a hobby and/or losing interest after just one try, I would give up.

One time some 20 years ago I started to cross stitch. I say I started, because each time I actually finished a piece, I didn’t have the money to get it framed and stretched.

And then there was the time I tried knitting. I began by making a scarf. It became a looong scarf as I didn’t remember how to finish it off. I think I still have that sucker stored away somewhere.

But this biking thing seems to have life and vibrancy and fun to it that some of the other hobbies didn’t have for me.

I have lived here for 21 years and am just now discovering all the beautiful trails we have at our doorstep. Most of them are paved which is my kind of trail.

These trails are hidden treasures.

Today we came upon a bridge, cattails blowing in the wind, a river, streams, ditch lilies, farm fields fresh with the smell of (no, not manure) soybeans and much more. Our eyes feasted on both rural and residential all on one trail, with a pond or two thrown in the mix.

A hobby in the making. Biking for fun. Need I say more?