Yes

I've decided that one of my very favorite words is "yes." I love it in the poem from yesterday's post ... "everything which is natural which is infinite which is yes" and I love that the poem below is called "Yes." There's something about "yes" that brings to mind all of the possibilites, the beauty of what can still be, a connection with another human being. It's a word that can change your life. Or it can simply be the difference between receiving packets of ketchup in your McDonald's bag ... or not. Here's hoping that you have many moments of "yes" in your life today.


Yes

It could happen any time, tornado,
earthquake, Armageddon. It could happen.
Or sunshine, love, salvation.

It could, you know. That's why we wake
and look out -- no guarantees
in this life.

But some bonuses, like morning,
like right now, like noon,
like evening.

~ William Stafford

Finding your joy

I know that I've been pretty open here about the fact that our lives have been overwhelmed by difficulties and challenges and dark places in recent months ... even years. In the midst of it, I have worked hard to face it all head on and allow God to do whatever molding and teaching and remolding and reteaching he has in mind for my character and my heart and my intellect. Part of what that's meant is embracing my negative emotions in a way that I've never been able to before instead of trying to ignore them or push them away or intellectualize them. In order to make it through the dark, I've needed to let myself just be there and slowly find my way, instead of running desperately in any and every direction looking for a hint of light.

I feel like I've been in the dark for so long that I've given up looking for the light at all. But recently, I've been telling God that I'm tired - and I'm ready to find some joy and light again. And it seems like ever since I started talking to him about that, he's allowed me to find my joy in people and things that are part of my everyday ...

- My amazing husband who I still cherish and desire and love to laugh with and simply be with after 15 years.
- My parents who are faithful and gracious, giving their love and understanding and support in abundance.
- My friends and family who pray for us and love me with e-mails and phone calls even when I just can't respond.
- My books that provide an escape.
- My cozy bed that is a refuge and a comfort.
- Coffee with cream.
- Fizzy water on ice.
- A ridiculously robust music library that allows me to create a playlist appropriate for any setting or mood (that's Matt again!).

Lastly, I wanted to share one of my favorite poems, written by e.e. cummings and read by my brother Matt at my wedding. This poem is, at its core, a celebration of joy itself and the joy of simply being alive:

i thank You God for most this amazing
day:for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky;and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes

(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun's birthday;this is the birth
day of life and love and wings:and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)

how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any-lifted from the no
of all nothing-human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?

(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)