Grace Blankets. And, Happy New Year!

Nope, not Waco.  This is a bit of River Road in Topsfield, Massachusetts which is the town over from my hometown.  I took the picture last January when I was home for the holidays. Growing up, I loved River Road because the grassy pastures folded and rolled the way I imagined the moors in the English countryside did.  Why exactly I had an interest in English countryside is past me,  but when I decided to study abroad in Scotland and saw that the hills and pastures did, in fact, look like my American muse, the real and prettier thing made me homesick. Funny how that can work. Sometimes, I still get homesick for the River Road hills. 

I have spent some of this morning thinking back on the space between the time I took this picture a year ago, and the time now and my eyes well up.  My 24th year was so hard.  I have no pretty way to say it because it felt so raw most of the time.  And we all know that raw can be refining at best, gut-wrenching at worst, and the in-between can feel, just, well, lonely and orphan-like. At least for me.  I really have no idea who reads this, so I won't make slush all over the page.  I will say, however, that in spite of the way I walked into each day frightened to take another step, my God led me, and the way was opened. The ground?  New and rocky- but solid and good and NEW.  In spite of feeling quite vulnerable, exposed and altogether deserted, I woke up with the conviction that I am dearly loved--beloved in fact, and perfect for the One who matters.  And in the midst of happy and sad tears, I found myself believing more than I ever have in my whole life that He who has promised is faithful.  Thanks be.  

So, I have no idea what 2010 holds.  None. I have my wishes of course and I sure hope it's better than last year, but I don't really know.  I figure the odds are in my favor, since the ebb and flow of life and history and time, is usually a good news-- bad news-- good news--bad news sequence. Regardless, I am intent on being at peace; peak or valley, mountaintop of joy or depth of sorrow.  In fact we are called to be this way because in and throughout Grace abounds! And that Grace in His Glory covers over the earth, like water over the seas. Or, perhaps, as Grace was once described to me, as snow covers the hills.  As lovely and green as those River Road hills are, I'll tell you nothing compares to their snow-covered perfection. The snow falls, and it blankets.  The messy, muddy, dried up brown stuff underneath? It's no matter.  The snow is absolutely pristine and pretty, so the hills are too. Can we take on perfection like the hills do? 

Whatever this year brings you, and before we run full force into it with our resolutions and the like, may we be still for a moment in the perfect warmth of our Grace blankets.  And may we thank the One who wraps us up so tight. 

With that, Happy New Year! 

Anything Can Happen if You Let It

About a week ago, I saw Mary Poppins in Dallas with Brooke. It was one of those spur of the moment things that just turned up and then, turned out quite well. I tend to think spur of the moment things always do. 

I have always loved Mary Poppins.  I went through this figurine stage when I was about nine years old. You know, the little porcelain things that collect dust on your bookshelf?  Yes. I was an avid collector.

I had a bunch of farm animal figurines that I purchased during summers in Wisconsin, and then I had a Mary Poppins.  Additionally, four years ago I bought a purse because of what (I thought) was its pretty quilted pattern.  I always receive compliments on the purse, yet on numerous occasions people have told me it looks like a Mary Poppins carpet bag (you know, the bottomless one). The resemblance must be striking because that's a random comment so I cannot help but think that Mary and I are aligned in some way.  And I know it's lame, but whenever I hear that Feed the Birds song and think about little Michael saving his Tuppence for the birds, my eyes well up. 

So, you understand why I had to go see it last week.   

 

The performance was vivid and colorful.  Brooke and I were a bit weirded out by the way all of the Banks' nannies prior to Poppins were made out to be angry closet drunks but I think that's part of the artistic license.  Besides, maybe they were.  I like how performances always make people and circumstance exaggerated, dramatic and downright eccentric but it all flies because it's a musical. Let's be honest. You sit watching the performance and inevitably think, "This is a little bizarre..." but for some reason everyone smiles more than they get uncomfortable. Because it's on the stage?  I guess.  I wish we did that more in real-life, not just stage-life, because everything would be a lot funnier that way.  

So we listened, with great enthusiasm, to the Mary Poppins songs: Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, Spoonful of Sugar, Let's Go Fly a Kite, Feed the Birds (tear-jerker) and ChimChimaRee.  To my great excitement, there was a new song to add to the Mary Poppins repertoire! This one was called: "Anything Can Happen If you Let It." Another way to light up, in her Poppins way, that nugget of wisdom that I know but don't do:  Let go. Relax.  Be still. 

Letting go of these things that we hold with clenched fists is no easy task even though the catchy melody makes it sound like it is.  What a challenge it is to be still when we aim to secure and to manage.  To control and to change.  Even more so when we label this managing and controlling and changing with virtuous words like ambition and prudence. And who are we kidding?  The security is cozy, but temporary and illusory, and could vanish in a hot second. 

But Mary, in her controversial but glass-half-full kind of way, reminds us that something even better might be beyond that coziness we've settled into. 

Love it. And her.  

Thanks, Mary :).