Dinosaur Train from Brent Spore on Vimeo.

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I just had one of those great experiences that you don’t ever want to forget.  This afternoon we were celebrating students who were reclassified as English Proficient on the front yard at the district office.  It was really very nice.

Wow!  Talk about a heart-warming experience.  Now you know one of the many reasons I became an educator.  Not for the thanks, but to plant seeds that grow in the hearts of my students and come to fruition!

Love,

Mom

I worry about the dog pee on the floor. We haven’t had a dog in almost two years here in our home. But our previous dog Max would pee all over the place. (Come to find out he had a pretty bad bladder issue that needed fixing…) So I have continuously shampooed our carpets in the 6 years we’ve lived here. But I can still tell that there is pee damage. Gross. I hate it! And when our baby came along, I freaked out about the carpets. (And who has $2K+ to get new carpets now days?) So, I still am embarrassed about the carpet. But not only does it have old pee, but it also has a 2 year old’s tornado’s-worth of raisins, crackers, etc, etc. But our guests continue to come over & enjoy themselves. So, I’m trying to relax about the flooring. (But it’s tough!)

Another thing I have worried about in the past… the drainage. I’m not talking about plumbing. I’m talking about getting physically and emotionally tired. You see, I’m one of those people that gets really, really exhausted being around lots of people all the time. I didn’t grow up in a big family so maybe that has something to do with it. I really get my R & R by being by myself a little bit.. taking a walk or reading a good book really helps me revive. But there is something about actively participating with your community that really changes people (and me!) for the better. Some people feed off of being around people 24/7. They really get recharged by it. (I think I’m married to one of those types of people!) So another source of anxiety about the looming guest visits was knowing that I’d be on the spot, having to entertain and talking for several hours. Pillow please.

Last week there was a renewal in my commitment to do a little more practicing ‘hospitality.’ I’m pretty sure we had a new person over every day/evening. It was a little tiring, but man was it awesome. I kinda said in my heart to God, that whomever comes across our path this week that we’d invite them over (in some cases they’d invited themselves over!). It was great because of those awesome people and also because I didn’t get freaky beforehand.

I know lots of people who can handle a constant stream of visitors coming over to their home at all hours of the day and night. I don’t think I can hang with that. But I do feel more comfortable than ever before with enjoying others here. Heck, that’s what our house is for anyway, right?? (Other than it being a place to sleep & eat & build up our family…)

How are you practicing hospitality, hmm?

But we people… We’re still the same. Our beauty and our ugliness are heightened as we jump into global networks. As we try to let others know, “Heck yeah I’m a cool kid,” by dropping Facebook status updates every other minute, the funky, scared little person inside us is hoping that we’ll be noticed, that we’ll somehow connect.

It’s nice to see content out there that is directly targeted at my demographic. Yes, people have spent time and money to be relevant to ME. But it really doesn’t fulfill me as a human being. What does? To start, connections and relationships with real people I think is where it’s at. Where we’re not trying to rip each other off. And then I think it helps to have an end point, goal, place that we’re all headed toward. The same place. That’s important.

There’s been a lot of crap happening lately with so many friends of mine, which leads me to this question: What’s relevant in a marriage? Well that could be answered in a million different ways. Love, hope, self-sacrifice, self-control… The list can be endless. But I also think a lot has to do with two people who are connected and have decided to moved in the same direction and will do what it takes to help the other get there. The two individuals can be completely different yet they totally become the same life force (yes, I said those words) when they choose to connect to each other and head out into the world together, as one entity. A husband is relevant to his wife when he really wants to help her get to where she should go. His actions, advice, prayer, words, touch, etc, all are for her benefit to see her light up when she gets closer to where she wants to be. And of course a wife can be relevant, timely, accessible, helpful in the same way for her husband. But don’t you think relevant is such an odd word to use when it comes to marriage? Maybe not.

Sometimes I think the word “relevancy” has a tinge of insincerity to it. Like big mega corporations or churches or whatever are trying to pull a fast one. They seem like the know what their talking about, but peel a few layers back, and all you’ve got is the same humanity that the rest of us share. It can be ugly. But we can redeem the word relevant or relevancy, by putting it in its proper place. Yes, relevancy is totally important. But what is more important is that we’re bound by humanity. We’re all people, and we are due dignity and honor and respect. All of us. Having right motives and intentions and understanding that we’re here to help each other will naturally make us relevant. No hidden agendas, total acceptance and love should do it. An honest pursuit for truth so that we can be free. Heck, let’s have some grace for one another!

We will never completely agree with one another. We will never get people to conform to our ideas 100%. Thank God. (We need to be about conforming to One to transcends all of us!) But our living will only be relevant when we get our hearts and minds straight. SNAP OUT OF IT!! Wake up and see the world around you. You can learn about the fancy clothes and media tools any time. For now, it’s time to unlearn what you think will “work” on others and start to see them as the unbelievable people that they are. How can YOU help them? Let’s appreciate all the beauty and strength in our community, then let them know it!

In the words of a very old rap (yes in the 80s): “Check yourself before you wreck yourself.” You’re the only one who can change you. So let’s get busy!