Tuesday, December 06, 2005

MAKING A LIST...CHECKING IT TWICE

The trip to Will's was great. Can't believe it is only a week until I leave for Dan's in Germany! I haven't even started packing! (Of course, I'm living out of suitcases, so how hard could it be?) I will have to be careful not to bring anything prohibited. Maybe I should make a list and check it against the airline's website.

I finally found the Lego set that David wants for Christmas! It's set 7259 - the Star Wars ARC-170 Starfighter. Dan was stressing a little when he told me they were sold out in Germany and also on the Lego website. He will be relieved to know I found one in Texas.

I left Will in a similar predicament; he still doesn't know what to buy for his sons. I wonder if my parents ever worried about what to get me for Christmas. Somehow I doubt it. They never seemed stressed, anyway.

...

NO! HO! HO!

Hoo Yeah! I finally finished reading John Grisham's Skipping Christmas! (after it sat on my nightstand forever) Very funny, but the movie was funnier.

If I ever meet Mr. Grisham, I'm going to suggest he make a movie sequel with Tim Allen and Jamie Lee Curtis. The next one should be about Blair's wedding to Enrique. I think Mr. & Mrs. Krank would have a real time meeting the new In-Laws and hosting the reception in their back yard (with all the neighbors invited, of course). Dan Aykroyd could officiate the ceremony...Can't you just see Vic Frohmeyer as a JP?

I like Chunky Monkey

NEW BLOG

Occasionally, I'll write a post about one of my "Passions of the Moment." Rather than filling up this blog with them; I decided to post a new one each day in my NEW BLOG! I named it "I Like Blogger." There's a link on my profile.

Check it out!

L + O + V + E = COURAGE?

I feel like I'm standing at a doorway in my life and staring into the keyhole.

Here's where my mind was all last week: Are courage and love the same thing? Or are they so intertwined that they are inseparable? Can cowardice and love coexist...cohabitate in a soul? Are they mutually exclusive forces? And what about the mother who makes decisions to protect her children? Is she motivated by fear? Are her actions loving? I guess it takes courage to tell a child, "No." Does all love require courage? Is love the only weapon we can use to defeat anxiety and fear?

I wrote an earlier entry about three people I admire. While journaling about them, I realized their common trait: they weren't too afraid to love. Don't misunderstand. Their stories didn't involve romantic love between two people, but love as a general motivation for living. Love was the reason for everything that they did...or dreamed of accomplishing. Love made them dream big. But fear could have kept them from acting on those dreams: fear of rejection, of failure, of repeated mistakes, of loneliness, of discomfort... cripling, disabling fear. But in all three stories, love won out. Fear was repelled by love, cast out, displaced...love left no place for fear...because love had filled them up (perfect love casts out all fear), made a home for Himself in them. He had taken ownership and recharted their courses.

I want to be like that.