Something fun and sobering: My dear son asked me the other day if he brought a puzzle downstairs would I do the puzzle with him. I said yes. Not too long ago, I came to the plan that if he asked me to see something like when he was little, “MOM, LOOK!” I would watch. If he asked me to do something with him, I would say yes. Here’s the bottom line, him and I haven’t had an easy go of this mother and son business. We butt heads a lot. He comes by it honestly because he is my son – we both think we are right! But the truth is from today when I am writing this, I have 767 days until he is 18 and I want to make the most of it.

Something Read: Just this little quote that made me think and ponder..

Because it seemed to me that you
Didn’t see me as human too,
Not till all your standards were met.

Dr. Marshall Rosenberg

This little quote is from a song that Dr. Rosenberg wrote from the perspective of his son. It’s a song about moving forward in relationship – but it shows how hard things have to be said, revealed. We hide so much of our existence and emotion inside. Trying to live up to standards. Also, we miss so much of life enforcing our standards. It causes us to sometimes just treat people less than because we think they must be a certain way or live up to something in order to be in our presence.

This is a much larger conversation I feel is stirring about boundaries, barriers, and the biblical call to lay down our lives for our friends. Jesus did this very thing. Jesus knew what Judas would do and he still had a seat at the table.

People won’t always do what is right, what we want, or even what we need but they are and always will be humans too.

Something Beautiful: This week we had some foggy weather, and I was struck by the whitewash on all the things especially the trees.

Something I noticed: For a little bit I have been allowing myself to stay slow and not rush. Everyone runs at the beginning of the year. Goals! Resolutions! GO! But I look outside and see animals hiding away and trees bare. I see the earth resting. So, I am doing the same. However, I am an active minded person. So, I often get caught up just scrolling on my phone in the evenings because I’m not watching the fish show my hubby is watching and my son usually is upstairs playing guitar. Then he asked me to puzzle with him. Puzzling is a whole different way of focusing. We put on some soft background music and let our minds roam while our eyes and fingers sift and search for patterns and pieces. I noticed I have longer sustained energy. Scrolling makes my eyes tired. But all that was just the lead up to what I noticed. I actively noticed during my working hours how frustration, disappointment, and self -judgment caused me to not be able to concentrate well and it drained my energy.

I had prepared something, but it ended up not being what was wanted. The sense of how I wasted my time putting it together to be ready was where the frustration came in. Then the disappointment followed as I felt I was now having to play catch up. The self – judgment was heavy and I went home feeling so tired. It’s amazing how the energy of negative emotions has such an impact. The fact that I noticed was a real win. I am a great stuffer. I was able to be present to the emotions, but I still am unsure how to neutralize the effects of such emotions without them coming out sideways or sarcastically. Which is why I often just stuff them. I do not like letting my emotional shrapnel to hit others. So, I hold them and then put them in a journal later. But that doesn’t fix the drain in the moment!

He gives power to the weak, and to those who have no might He increases strength.

Isaiah 40:29

Something astonishing: A leaked a conversation between Kari Lake who ran for governor of Arizona in 2022 and is currently running for Senate and the current Arizona GOP chairman Jeff Dewitt. This recording is something else. This man can be heard clearly asking her to name her price to stay out of politics for two years. To take a pause, saying, “There are very powerful people who want to keep you out.” She flatly tells him she can’t be bought. He resigned shortly after the release of the recording. We know this stuff happens, we’ve seen it on TV but to hear it, wow!

We finished: this is our first puzzle

Thanks for Listening,

Starla