Lenten Challenge, Day 15: Hear

Shhhh.

Do you hear that?

I'm having a moment of silence.

In this world full of things screaming at us all day long to BUY ALL THE THINGS, TWEET ALL THE THINGS, FACEBOOK ALL THE THINGS, I have to stop myself every once in a while and just listen. Just be still. Just be.

It's one of my favorite things about snow. It's so quiet. In fact, the weathermen calling it a "snowstorm" seems incredibly oxymoronic to me. A storm is loud. It's thunder, and pelting rain and lightning strikes. But snow? There's something so beautifully silent and soft about a snowfall. You hear nothing, but somehow, can't help but pause to listen anyway.

The older I get, the more filled with chatter my life becomes, and the more I realize how important silence is. Last year, I gave up the radio/music/iPod in my car for Lent. It gave me 30 precious minutes of silence on my way to and from work every day. It gave me time to think, time to pray, time to start and end my day with a quiet, steadied soul.

Even a year later, when I find myself becoming overwhelmed with ALL THE THINGS, I go back to those moments of silence--in the car, in the snow, holding a sleeping baby--and I pause to breathe in the silence.

Shhhh.

Do you hear that?

It's my soul at peace.

Lenten Challenge, Day 14: Lift

I went to a work presentation recently where a woman talked about her love for the book Life as a Daymaker. Essentially, the book is about a man who ended up unknowingly saving someone's life simply because he made her day.

Now of course, not every action we do on a daily basis is going to have that kind of effect, but there certainly is something to living life focused on lifting others up. It forces you to focus on others instead of yourself, which is always a good thing. Think about it. I mean really think about it. How different would this world look if we all tried to lift up the spirits of everyone we came in contact with?

It sounds overwhelming, doesn't it? But small, simple acts add up to a lot. Letting that crazy driver merge in front of you on the freeway, making a casserole for a friend with a new baby, helping a neighbor shovel his driveway.

If everyone did those little things, the cumulative effect would be world-changing. Because even on your shittiest day, someone reaching out in kindness can change the course of your day.

You can buy this poster at this web site.

What can you do to lift someone up today?

Lenten Challenge, Day 13: Cover

At a work team-building day a few years ago, my fellow co-workers and I each had to think of some fact about ourselves that none of the others knew. We listed them, put them up on a corkboard, and then had to guess which fact belonged with which co-worker. Some people you could guess right away, some took a little more thought, and still others I wouldn't have guessed in a million years.

It's situations like those that make me wonder how well we really let people get to know us. How much do we share, and how much do we keep under cover? Does my neighbor know I'm an editor at Hallmark? Do my co-workers know I like to have jammie days on the weekends? Do my friends know that I tend to cuss a lot? Okay...maybe that one is pretty obvious.

And maybe where I work, and the fact that I like being cozy on the weekends isn't that big a deal in the grand scheme of things, but what about the bigger stuff? I know I share my joys, but am I as open about the things I struggle with? Probably not.

But if we're meant to be sharing this life together, to be living in community with one another, why do we only share what's on the surface and keep the real stuff under cover? Sure, it's a defense mechanism to protect ourselves from the jerks out there, but what about the people who really care? What about the people who genuinely want to become a bigger part of our lives?

I think those people deserve our truest self...good, bad, cussing and all.

Lenten Challenge, Day 12: Vision

Vision. Discernment. Looking forward with purpose.

All of the above means inevitable change, which is so uncomfortable for so many of us. And it's hard work too, isn't it? It's this delicate balance between not fixing what isn't broken, and not doing the same old thing just because you always have.

When I was in high school, I remember having an assignment to map out my life over the 10 years following graduation. What would my life look like five years after I graduated? What about 10 years? Selfishly, I was quick to map out the perfect life for myself (or what I thought looked like a perfect life at 17). Who wouldn't, right?

What I didn't realize at 17 is that real vision isn't about what you want for your life. It's about finding what you're called to do, finding who you're called to love. But even more, it means putting aside your own personal agenda for the greater good. Because when you try to discern what your life is all about, it shouldn't be about you...it can't be about you. Because real vision is selfless.

Lenten Challenge, Day 11: Live

Live every day as if it were your last. Carpe Diem. Live life to the fullest.

I hate those phrases. I hate them because they've become so cliche that no one even realizes what they mean anymore. (Raises hand...guilty.) We go through the motions, stuck in our routine. Wake up, go to work, make dinner, play with kids, watch TV, go to bed, repeat. This is how we live.

But the person who first coined that phrase? They meant it to jar us from our routine. They meant it to shout, "Wake up, dammit!" How many days do we go through our routines missing the real life that's happening all around us?

Those phrases should mean being five minutes late to a meeting at work so you can give your kiddo that extra kiss and hug before you leave. They should mean missing your favorite TV show to ask your hubby how his day was at work, and really caring about the answer. They should mean unplugging from media and playing a game, calling a friend or talking with a neighbor.

They should mean really living. Now quit reading and go live.

Lenten Challenge, Day 10: Spirit

When I hear the word "spirit," I think it's the old Catholic in me that makes me automatically think "ghost" or "soul." It's the part of us that remains once our bodies have left this earth. Our spirit is our "essence."

It makes me think of the people I've loved who are gone, and that in the times I miss them, or dream of them, they are still very much a part of my life. I like to think they're looking down on me approvingly when I get things right, and shaking their heads in mock disgust or having a good laugh at my expense when I screw things up.

My senior year of high school, my good friend, Jennifer, died in a ridiculously preventable car accident. She wasn't wearing her seatbelt, and was in a car with someone driving recklessly...the usual I'm-an-immortal-teenager crap. She had just turned 18.

Jennifer had a spirit full of energy and life. She was wild and spontaneous, goofy and fun, spunky and silly. She knew the value in a good laugh better than anybody I knew then or have met since. When she died, I remember thinking that there was no way all that spunk could just be gone. I took comfort in the thought that her spirit would live on, even though her body had not.

Because our spirit is the most important piece of us. It's our soul, our essence, the part of us God cares most about. Because it's who we are.

Lenten Challenge, Day 9: Love

I love that every time I think I have love figured out, it surprises me with its many shades once again.

When I was little, and my mom would tell me she loved me, I would answer with, "I love you more." I always balked at her "not possible" response because, well...I was a kid. I thought I knew everything. Then I became a mother. In those first weeks of Gavin's life, I remember telling my mom, "I get it now. I know you love me more."

I remember thinking how I couldn't possibly love Ryan any more than the day we said our vows, and then I saw him being a Daddy to our little guy and fell in love with him all over again.

And almost a year ago, when I was so worried about how I could possibly love another child as much as I loved Gavin, Bennett entered my life and my heart expanded instantly. And the love I thought I knew Gavin was capable of? Well that expanded instantly, too, which is probably why this will be my favorite picture of my boys for as long as I live:

If that's not true love, I don't know what is.

But the thing that never gets old about love, is how much it's in and under and around all the little everyday things in our lives. Snuggles with a sleepy baby, a game of candyland with a big boy, thank-you cookies from a neighbor because you snowblowed their driveway.

They're there, every day. It's just that sometimes we fail to notice them. But that's what we're here to do, right? To love and be loved.

Love is everything.