This weekend it was a delight to be around family as we celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving (yes - it's a real thing and actually older than Thanksgiving in the United States!) We had the added gift of my niece, her husband, and little girl (Lauren, Sheldon, and Aria) visiting for the last two days. Aria quickly wormed her way into my heart. I love this child. The family lives in Thailand, and my niece's husband is from Colombia, so Aria is growing up with English from her mom, Spanish from her dad, and Thai from all those around her. Right now the result is a delightful tonal babble along with a bit of sign language. The tonal babble is clearly understood by her - and none of the rest of us. It was a joy to spend time with them and I've included a bit about them in this edition of #Onlythegood.
Putting Faith to Work - from the Lakewood Sentinel. Lauren and Sheldon are medical professionals who train health workers from the Karen people group. Their work enables these health workers to go back to their communities and provide quality healthcare in areas that have little access. You can read more about their work here and here.
The Return of the Lost Wedding Dress - by Lisa Ferland. Five years ago my friend Lisa realized that some photo albums and other non-specific, but sentimental, items had landed in a dumpster outside of Atlanta, Georgia. But something else ended up there as well - her wedding dress. She thought about trying to replace it, but realized it was ridiculously expensive and she would be replacing something she was unlikely to ever wear again. The article is about the sentimental value of things; about moving and having to pick carefully what we choose to keep and to throw or give away; most of all about losing, loving, finding, and giving.
Included in the article is a video - do yourself a favor and read the article and watch the one minute video. I cried. It is an amazing story of something precious lost and, through love, work, and sacrifice, found.
In the morning, my husband handed me a card with my coffee that read, "When I saw you in your wedding dress, I thought you were the most beautiful woman, and I was the luckiest man in the world. You are even more beautiful today than you were then."After kisses and hugs, he told me to come upstairs in a minute with the kids....Read the rest here!
Lisa is editor and author of the book and community Knocked up Abroad:Stories of pregnancy, birth, and raising a family in a foreign country
The Art of Doing Nothing: An Ode to Ferry Boats - by Tatum Dooley in Catapult Magazine. When I visit my brother and sister-in-law in Istanbul, we ride a ferry. Istanbul relies heavily on this mode of transportation to meet the needs of a massive city. Multiple times a day ferries transport millions from the European side of the city to the Asian side, and back again. Ferries remove you from the bustling city and give you a chance to breathe, even as you catch your breath at the beauty of the skyline that is Istanbul.
It was with this in mind that I read the article I have linked above. The author captures that feeling one gets on a ferry that time and productivity are unimportant; that all that matters is the slow movement, the trajectory, and the passing scenery.
"There's a feeling of unknowing once you've boarded a ferry. The vessel is so large, the trajectory so slow, that it's often hard to decipher if the boat is moving or not. This in-between feeling sometimes lasts the whole ride over; the passage of time marked only by the moving tide below you, the slight change in greenery along the coast."Ferries are a salve against a society that prioritizes productivity.
I've always felt like my best self on ferries-the same goes for bus rides and airplanes-or at least less stressed. The pressure to work constantly, answer emails swiftly, and network prolifically has led to a culture that discredits the leisure of doing nothing. The stark contrast of the ferry-its ability to sweep you away and demand laziness-results in a sanctuary that doubles as transportation. Ferries are a salve against a society that prioritizes productivity: It's hard to feel as if you should be doing something else, when there's really nothing else to do. - Tatum Dooley
On my morning commute yesterday, I saw this. I usually try to enjoy these moments, knowing they can't be captured - but yesterday, it was so glorious that I took the chance.
The morning sky - a fraction of the glory of God.
Quote:
"So the journey is over and I am back again where I started, richer by much experience and poorer by many exploded convictions, many perished certainties. For convictions and certainties are too often the concomitants of ignorance. Those who like to feel that they are always right and who attach a high importance to their own opinions should stay at home. When one is traveling, convictions are mislaid as easily as spectacles; but unlike spectacles, they are not easily replaced. " Aldous Huxley
That's it for today! What can you add that goes beyond the sadness and horror of our news cycles?