Five Minute Friday :: Fly

I'm linking up again to Lisa-Jo Baker's blog where she hosts a Five Minute Friday Party where she invites other bloggers to write freely for five minutes.  This week, the prompt is fly.

GO.

Fly
Fly away.

I think some of my favorite dreams are those in which I'm flying.  I feel powerful, full of possibility, like I can do anything.  I don't fly in an airplane, or like a bird.  Generally, it's like Peter Pan and Wendy, just flying.  It feels an awful lot like swimming, but swimming in the air.  I've done somersaults in the air before.  It's quite beautiful, actually.  I get to see a different perspective of life from way up high.  I get to fly over conflict and danger to get myself where I need to go.  I can even share the power with others in my dreams.  Sometimes I can teach others to fly.  I remember once in a dream I taught my children to fly with me.  It was such a joy to fly with my little ones!



I wonder why the word fly brought out my dreams.  I could have thought about flying in airplanes and cellphone usage (that was on the news this morning).  I could have thought about flying creatures.  I could have thought about flies.  But I think about my dreams about flying.  I used to think that it would be amazing to learn how to go hang-gliding, to soar like an eagle from the Alps.  I suppose when you have the ability to fly, you no longer have to fear heights in the same way if you don't know how to fly.  Flying means you can control your descent as you jump off the cliff.

Flying means you don't fall anymore.

STOP

Five Minute Friday:: Tree

I'm linking up again to Lisa-Jo Baker's blog where she hosts a Five Minute Friday Party where she invites other bloggers to write freely for five minutes.  This week, the prompt is tree.

the last oak tree before school

I walk my children to school, rustling the leaves as we go.  My mother taught me to rustle, that it was worth going out of your way just to make noise in the leaves.  I, too, tell my kids to walk through the piles of leaves directly in front of them that I might miss.  We walk under the few trees to the last oak tree before school.  It's where we kiss and say goodbye before school, because otherwise I don't get goodbye kisses before school.  As soon as they hit the door at school, my kids go directly where they need to go.  They have a life of their own at school, and almost don't need me anymore.  They need me, I know, but they're all set for the few hours they're at school.

I'm happy to have the last oak tree before school.  It has become a line of demarcation, our place to stop and say farewell.  If I'm ever in a rush, and forget to stop, my kids remind me.  "Mom, THIS is the tree we need to stop by."  I chose it because it's far enough away from school not to be seen for a growing fifth grader, but it's close enough to school to be at school and no longer at home.

And STOP.  Wow.  Five minutes goes quickly sometimes!

I haven't written enough this month.  I'm trying to find the right rhythm for my life and my blog.

Five Minute Friday :: Grace

I'm linking up again to Lisa-Jo Baker's blog where she hosts a Five Minute Friday Party where she invites other bloggers to write freely for five minutes.  This week, the prompt is grace.  I wrote this on the train to NYC on Friday, but I was not able to format the way I wanted before posting since I left my computer at home!

Grace.  Grace to my husband because he tried his hardest, and was still late.  I had plans.  My plans needed to go just right.  But they didn't.  I tried my hardest, but I couldn't change any of the delay.  It just happened.  So what do you do when your best laid plans are foiled.  (Ha! Foiled again!)

You move on.  You have grace.  Even though things don't go as plan, you can be gracious about things rather than anxious.  I was getting anxious.  Dinner starts at 7:30, and if I'm late, I'll miss it and have to make other dinner plans.  I'd rather not change my plans.  I like going with plan A, not usually plan B.  Plan C makes me anxious.

Now.  If my husband had deliberately messed up my plans, I would have had the right to be angry.  Even still, it's best to have grace.

I love the Newsboys song that goes, "When you get what you don't deserve, it's a real good thing, When you don't get what you deserve, it's a real good thing."  Grace and mercy go hand-in-hand.  Grace is when you don't get what you deserve.  So.  My anxious self wanted to deal out anxiety to those around me in response to being excited about this trip, and making the train.  But in light of grace, I can swallow the anxiety, trust in God, and make it on the train. 

I made the train.  Not the 5:24 train I'd hoped to be on, or the 5:33, but the 5:53.  I didn't have to wait until the following train at 6:50.  There are so many things to be thankful for.  Me being anxious doesn't help the situation any at all.

So, now, New York City. People. Worship. Connections.  I don't even know what to start hoping for. 

Maybe a little grace?