I teach beginner piano to the girls I babysit and so enjoy watching them connect with music! The youngest came to her lesson in a princess dress and draped it over the side of the bench as she sat beside me with a lovely bow in her freshly brushed hair. We talked to her fingers about how strong and capable they have grown since we began. They have each learned to take their place on the keys and take turns offering their note to make beautiful melodies!
After reviewing the keyboard, intervals and notes on a staff, she sailed through four songs earning stickers with each success to mark the wins! To finish I asked her if she wanted to play a game on the piano together or if she would prefer to dance while I played a song.
With her spectacular dress, I'm sure you can guess her preference was to dance and twirl. I asked if she wanted a fast song or a slow graceful one. Graceful it was!
I love how music can be such a gift to destress, create, move and play! Andrew often goes to the piano after a day of classes to unwind and use a different part of his brain! I love listening as he grows his ability to play complex arrangements! And, of course, I love to play, create, dance and worship with music!
The harmony of music is also full of wonderful metaphors. I told the eldest about the song "Ebony and Ivory" from the 80's performed by Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder. I remember our Hudson version of the song harmonizing with my brother as we did the dishes! It still captures my heart's prayer that we would all thrive together!
Ebony and ivory
Live together in perfect harmony
Side by side on my piano keyboard
Oh, Lord, why don't we?
We all know that people are the same wherever you go
There's good and bad in everyone
We learn to live when we learn to give each other
What we need to survive together alive
Ebony and ivory
Live together in perfect harmony
Side by side on my piano keyboard
Oh, Lord, why don't we?
Songwriters: McCartney Paul James, 1981
Blessed are the peacemakers, dancers, poets, artists and musicians who add such beauty and insight to lighten our days!
I was sitting with my family last night and we were reflecting on how differently our Facebook feeds can be depending on what we have shown interest in. We are aware of the echo chamber of social media. Our preferred new sources, political and religious slants are echoed back to us to make us feel more justified in our perspectives. It's soothing to live in only one mindset and to not have to stretch to understand another point of view.
There is a lot of division at this point in the pandemic. We have had two years of making the best of the hand we have been given, but there is fatigue, loss, fear, judgement, blame and anger expressed behind the divisions as people want this to end.
My house has three guys who make decisions based on logic and want science and objective reality to be the guiding factors. Two of us are more tuned into the emotions of the people around us. We all want to be sensitive to the lenses we wear as we try to see the way forward. Our experiences, desires, losses and challenges create different mindsets that drive decisions.
I guess the question that landed in my heart today was: What will we choose to amplify: fear, doubt, anger, tolerance, grace, understanding, peace?
Today the prayer of St. Francis of Assisi was helpful to me as I look for a way to amplify productive movement.
Jesus wanted us to move in unity of the Spirit of Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness and Self Control. Those fruits are the nature of who God is. I'd like to be a conduit of that Spirit in the midst of a difficult, challenging, prolonged marathon this pandemic has been. Want to amplify love and grace with me as we seek to build bridges of understanding, empathy and hope as we help one another through the hardships?
Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi (Prayer for Peace)
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.
O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.
O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
“If you have to do it, decide to do it!”
I heard this quote from a speaker over 20 years ago. It stuck because it was the attitude adjustment I needed!
I had an overactive 'should' streak in me that led me to burn out. So I made my life quiet for a few years and practiced saying 'no' to people and commitments.
But as my health improved, I had to find rhythms of responsibility that allowed me to become a trustworthy friend, parent, homeowner and partner again.
There are a lot of things in everyday that aren't glamorous or fun - doing dishes, cleaning bathrooms, flossing teeth, making grocery lists, chopping veggies, doing the 4th dog walk of the day or going one last time to meet a need when you're already tired.
But I have found it true that if I make the shift in my head to want to care for that need or see that sink sparkle or find the surface of my desk again - it can be incredibly satisfying! It was a small mental shift I have used repeatedly through the years that takes me from resentment to singing through the task - which made all the difference to my sense of joy and satisfaction.
I also like to savor the moments after the task is done and reward myself with a pleasure like a snuggle, a good book, an episode from Netflix, time at the piano or a warm tea! The photo below was a family holiday!
What mental shifts help make your tasks lighter?
This was what my heart spoke in the quiet this morning.
It has become important to me not to silence my inner world by letting the noise of demands crowd it out.
What is your inner voice speaking today?
What is your inner voice speaking today?
When I was praying with our prayer group this week, I was struck freshly by the joy that came in realizing we each have a unique place in God's story. Becoming and being more fully the self that God designed allows us to live our purpose without feeling burdened and weighted down by it.
When I was a teenager and into my twenties, I had an idea that I was supposed to put others before myself which fit well with my Pleaser ways. But I often went to bed empty, weary and teary wondering where the abundant life was that Jesus talked about.
I had a martyr syndrome that made considering my own needs feel selfish. Boundaries taught me that I was not carrying my own needs, preferences, managing my own emotions and health. Instead I was trying to take responsibility for others that leaned on me and were happy to have me carry them. This was a recipe for burnout!
The image I got this week was inspired by the scripture:
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30 NIV
I was struck by how the burden is only light when we live out of our shape and passion and pull next to the One who can do imaginably more than all we ask or imagine. This world is full of pressure to be more, do more, comparisons that make us wonder why we can't keep up.
Maybe the reason we can't keep up, is because we are trying to be like someone else. Jesus invites us alongside His movements of compassion and justice. The yoke is already moving with God's energy and passion, we are invited to just slip into the place made just for us. The space only we can fill. The part of God's story that we are beckoned into that will satisfy the deepest longings of our soul for purpose, passion, belonging and healthy service. We are needed and God has the best ideas about where we fit!
