Saturday, August 02, 2008

Moments Close to Christ

Every couple of weeks I get together with 3 other women to have our Cursillo Reunion Group meeting. We are a close bunch and I love all of them for their strengths and and their differences. But mostly I love them for the way they love me. This is my first ever women's group and I wonder how I ever grew up without one.

When we do a reunion we share our spiritual lives according to a formula. We remember the things we do to worship God. We discuss books we are reading and how they help us learn to be closer to God. Sometimes we are studying something other than printed words. I study people and the way we all interact a lot. We mention and pray about people and what we hope to be able to do as God's representatives on earth. And we talk about when we've felt closest to Christ.

Friday was our reunion meeting. I brought my guitar and played a song. We talked about loss, which tied into the last session where we first discussed it. Then we went through our sharing ritual. We open with prayer holding hands. This time it was kind of funny. We were stretching our arms across two tables to hold hands to pray. Our shortest member was up on her feet to stretch across that distance. We teased her about that.

When it got to my moment closest to Christ and study I was on a roll. My friends both in church and here in blogland have given me several moments closest to Christ. Paschal and Sandi have both brought me God's love this week. I feel so blessed by them that it tickles me pink.

In an earlier post I asked a career oriented question and got an answer that had so many affirmations of my skills that I was overwhelmed by joy. Paschal waved his magic wand and made me aware that I had talent in both creative and informational writing, photography, and design. Wow! I'd never thought of the memories I share as creative writing. Then I remembered that story telling is an art. :) The idea of design had never even entered my head. Blogging is just something I do. Wow! Am I going to follow his advice? You bet!

Four days ago I put up a playlist and had fun writing about it. Putting it together was the best part. I love doing technology stuff. The next day Paschal put one up! His is really cool! And Sandi asked for help to do hers. So I sent her the directions and she put an awesome one up. Then she went and posted my directions. I'd been concerned that her feelings might be hurt because some folk didn't like music on blogs. I needn't have feared. My friend Sandi is stronger than that. Then I was sitting there and thinking about how they had done it right after, and possibly because of, me. Gee whiz, guys! I was never a leader as a child. And now I have friends who seem to be delightedly following my example. What greater compliment can you give someone than that?

This is such a blessing that it still brings tears to my eyes. So to my two moments closest to this past week I want to say, "Thank You! Paschal and Sandi, you have brought a lot of love into my life this week. I'll be eternally grateful for the kindness your actions and the love you have shown me. God bless you both!"

Love,

4 comments:

murat11 said...

Lee: Thank you for the affirmations. Your example of playlisting was precisely what led me to create my own: it was a gift in more ways than one, too: the joy of playlisting and sharing itself, but also the joy of finding a website with a vault of music that allows you to listen (for free) and listen to entire songs, not just samples of them.

Your comment about my wand reminds me of something we'd been discussing in the past class at Rec: in response to Jim Wallis' admonitions to "get on board" with the "Great Awakening," a few folks brought us back to the notion that it's important that we develop an awareness of what we are already doing now, and build from there. I liked the spirit of that message. I think that one of the things that happens in all of our lives is that we almost discount the things that come easy to us, overlooking them as gifts because they just seem so obvious.

Keep on with your gifted self. Peace.

Lee said...

Thank you again Paschal! For the gift of enjoying a love we both share. :)

It's always easier to see others talents than our own isn't it? You're a teacher. You've been affecting people for over 20 years. No surprise to me that you've developed a real knack for it. Let's keep mirroring each other from time to time shall we?

Joy!

San said...

Such a joyous post, Lee! Thank you for passing along the joy, again and again.

Love from The Land of Enchantment.

Lee said...

You know, San, you do that too...the sharing the joy of life thing. :) Glad you enjoyed the post.

Love back at'cha