The wise Ms. Day

People say, ‘What is the sense of our small effort?’

They cannot see that we must lay one brick at a time, take one step at a time. A pebble cast into a pond causes ripples that spread in all directions. Each one of our thoughts, words and deeds is like that. No one has a right to sit down and feel hopeless.

There’s too much work to do.

-Dorothy Day-

I have been inspired lately by the life and words of Dorothy Day (thanks jonnali!)....Her words above resonate with me, as often I seek to move mountains and make big changes into lives of hurting people, or my own life and situations, or those that I love...However, Ms. Day was so wise and I think she is right on. Often, if we think the challenge is BIG we never get going because it seems so intimidating and daunting. A smaller task we are more apt to move on and feel confident about accomplishing it. But let us not get discouraged by the enormity of the work to do, people to love, things to change or things that are "wrong", but MOVE now and in the PRESENT. Let your conversations be seasoned with salt. Do not speak idle words (read James!). Speak forth blessings and not curses. When you touch someone (the shoulder of a child, kisses on your baby) bless them in the name of Jesus. The great thing about this is that you don't have to tell someone you are blessing them, but can do it quietly and discreetly. The kids I worked with are blessed in the name of Jesus, but they don't know it...My hand on their shoulder is a way to impart blessing (if I am intentional about it)..Oh the Father has been faithful to give us gifts that we need on this earth and to have access to everything Jesus had on this earth in His ministry. The Holy Spirit! Dear Lord, help us USE what YOU have GIVEN for YOUR glory and redemption in this world. Let us have energy, purpose and renewal. I need You to fill me up!

So Long Sweet Summer.

Have you ever heard that Dashboard Confessional song?

It reminds me of younger days. Specifically the year after college, after my friends and I traveled Europe and then I moved to Atlanta....I was so carefree, yet I didn't know it, but life was full and good, filled with adventure, unknowns and ideas for all that was ahead. While in Europe, on many of the train rides, I listened to a song such as this and journaled and thought a lot.

Pondering, as I watched Europe go by through a train window. I am still that same 22 (or was it 23?) year old gal in some ways but yet so different. Hopefully, in a good way different. But I sometimes yearn for those carefree days. No husband. No morgage. No real job. Grad school, yes, but not compareable to work.work.work. I didn't know the hurt in the world. My reality was different than the reality I know about now. The stories of kids and broken families that I have heard since then. My outlook was sunnier perhaps. But heartache is the same, younger or older. Things with Jonathan were unsettled. I dated looking for excitement but it wasn't satisfying. I had inner struggles of how to relate psychology and my studies to my belief in Christ and how He is working in the world. I was still my self with my own issues, 23 or 27.5 years old. Struggling, falling, needing grace. And more grace. Sweet fellowship was a blessing then. I had dear friends in Atlanta. Many dinners with laughing and wine, walks around the city talking, shopping and fun. I had more time for friends and people and that always means a more fulfilled life and time. Girl roommates watching sex and the city all day, walks around Piedmont Park, dinners with unlimited wine refills.

Ahhh. So many seasons in life, all with their sweet and yet hard moments.

Anyways, this song takes me back there and it reminds me of days like this, where summer is fading and a fall chill is in the air. The sun was gone today and I ordered wool slippers from LLBean....Yikes. Summer is officially gone, huh? White pants folded and put at the top of the closet. Summer concerts done. The pools closed. Tan fades. Vacation days consumed.

Here is to a new season...I'm reluctant to let go of summer but maybe the beautiful leaves and cool weather will romance me. I hope so.

Back to Real Life.

Uncle Jonathan and Eli

My sweet nieces: Sydney, Ruth Anne and Hannah

Jonathan and the Lively girls from Belle Glade

Lively family!

DC Lively's at the beach

Our 12 days in Florida were wonderful. I have been full force back to "reality" in DC and haven't had much time to contemplate our vacation, but the fact that when I came back to work I got comments that "I look different" must mean that 1.) I needed a vacation and 2.) It was well taken and I soaked up every minute including a nice tan and rest for the baggy eyes.

While the day to day includes more stressors, free time and some "blah" activities, I was happy to come back to our home in DC, a city that we love and can't imagine leaving, and to get back to work. My Dad sometimes drives me crazy when he constantly says how important it is to love what you do....And this was modeled to me my entire life by my Dad. I have never heard him complain once (this is in 27.5 years!) about his job and working, making him entirely the most positive person I know to the point where you have to think something is wrong with him, but he really just chooses to be positive and genuinely enjoys and finds purpose in his work. SO, while I have not reached even close to his positivity, I am thankful for my work and that when I got back from vacation, caught up around the office, called my children and families to reconnect, I felt enthusiastic, challenged and some kind of genuine joy. So, thanks Dad for instilling in me the importance to like what you do all day long and for God/my workplace/coworkers to contributing to making this a reality for me.

Two weeks back into the full swing of things, vacation sure does feel like it was a long time ago but here are some pictures (above).

Rest.

I guess it is a good thing that you don't know you are tired until you stop, or something like how that phrase goes....In anticipation of my vacation, which begins tomorrow night, I have been completely unmotivated this week to do anything. If I felt like this continually, I would be a restless, bored, unhappy mess! My guess is that I am just mentally "checked out" for vacation and my HOPE is that when I return in 12 days that I will feel refreshed and ready to go once again. Eek. My perspective this week has freaked me out a bit in that idea that I thought I loved my job, life, DC, day to day activities, but this week every task has felt like that dread before going to the dentist or something. Not a fun way to live life and I am thankful that NORMALLY I am happy, optimistic and purposeful in my days.

So, we are off to Florida for the most consecutive vacation days I have taken since working this job for 2 years! I am thrilled to rest, have a stack of books I have been wanting to read, and even a checklist of movies to rent in my head (we have gotten far behind on movie watching-it's hard to stay inside during the wonderful summer in DC!). Plus, we get to see all of our families and we will have enough time to actually just "be" with people and not rush around "catching up". Excited to feel loved and in the sunshine for a great rest called vacation.

Be back July 20....

How do we do this?

"More and more the desire grows in me simply to walk around, greet people, enter their homes, sit on their doorsteps, play ball, throw water, and be known as someone who wants to live with them. It is a privilege to have the time to practice this simple ministry of presence. Still, it is not as simple as it seems. My own desire to be useful, to do something significant, or to be part of some impressive project is so strong that soon my time is taken up by meetings, conferences, study groups, and workshops that prevent me from walking the streets. It is difficult not to have plans, not to organize people around an urgent cause, and not to feel that you are working directly for social progress. But I wonder more and more if the first thing shouldn't be to know people by name, to eat and drink with them, to listen to their stories and tell your own, and to let them know with words, handshakes and hugs that you do not simply like them, but you truly love them."

-Henri Nouwen, from his book Gracias!

Yes! In our world of being "busy" I feel so moved to reject that culture and learn how to "be" with people. Luckily, my job allows me to do this for some extent, becuase I am with people all day and do get to sit on their porch stoops, or go on a walk, all in the name of mental health treatment and community based services, BUT how do we make this how we LIVE? How do we work for a living the 9-5 + a few more hours AND share life with each other in a real and genuine way?! Any ideas about how to make this a reality and not just a pretty quote?

Friendship.

From CS Lewis' The Four Loves,

"...in Friendship...we think we have chosen our peers. In reality, a few years difference in the dates of our births, a few more miles between certain houses, the choice of one university over another...the accident of a topic being raised or not raised at a first meeting--any of these chances might have kept us apart. But, for a Christian, there are, strictly speaking, no chances. A secret Master of the Ceremonies has been at work. Christ, who said to the disciples, 'Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you,' can truly say to every group of Christian friends 'You have not chosen one another but I have chosen you for one another.' The Friendship is not a reward for our discrimination and good taste in finding one another out. It is the instrument by which God reveals to each the beauties of all the others."


I love this! It is truly amazing to think about those special people in our lives and how we have met them and become connected. My bestest friend lived across the street from me in Orlando growing up (since we were infants) and we lived together 4 years in college! My parents sent me to a private school, against my protests, for middle school and I met more of my bestest friends who I have known now for 15 years. I took dance with a friend, who I still treasure and adore, even though its been years and years. While I was sad to go to college in Florida, which was a feeling shared with my future husband but didn't know it, Jonathan (who was bummed he couldn't go to an Ivey League in the NE), so we met at UF as "little" 19 year olds (in comparison to being old 27 year olds). In Atlanta, I met girlfriends by somehow getting in a small group, even though we went to different churches and met in "rebellion" to normal formations of small groups! Starting a job around the same time as someone, sitting on the plane next to someone on a flight....It's awesome to think how people come into our lives and while some only for a season, that God orchestrates all of this for our enjoyment, growth, encouragement, and ultimately for His glory. Nuts.

hope is the thing with feathers.

"Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.

I've heard it in the chillest land,
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me."

-Emily Dickinson

I found this in the quite delightful children's book, Feathers, today as I read it with a child and we stopped to discuss this poem and it's beauty...The 8 year old girl "got" it and my adult soul was also perked up a bit during the normal afternoon slump.