Recently, I read the book One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp. Below are my thoughts on one specific section. Enjoy!

“Sanctuary of Time”---Excerpts from pages 64-77

            In this section, Ann talks about busyness and hurry verses living in the present moment. All of life doesn’t have to be lived rushing, hurrying. “Hurry hurts the soul.” Everything is not an emergency. Ann says that when we live eucharisteo, we “redeem time from neglect and apathy and inattentiveness” as we “swell with thanks.” In giving thanks to God for the moment, we actually “multiply the moments” and time is made enough. According to Ann, “It’s ridiculous how much joy a moment can hold.”

My natural propensity is to make lists, to feel good when I am checking things off, and to feel overwhelmed and frustrated when I’m not making satisfactory progress. When I lunge and plunge head-long into preparing for what’s ahead, hurrying toward something and someday, I fail to notice the gifts of the moment, the joy of the here and now. How can I say, “Thank you” for all the blessings, the gifts, if I am rushing past them without even noticing.

Imaging driving up Hwy. 1 along the Oregon coast and failing to notice the breathtaking splendor of the rocky coast as it touches the crashing waves. What if all one did was read the map, look for road signs that give the distance to the next town, check the time, and glance over at the speedometer.  What a shame it would be to miss the beauty of the moment, while of staring at the pavement ahead, fretting about getting to some destination ahead.

It is sad but true---I have at times been like that. What have I missed along the way? Slowly, I am changing. As I look for and anticipate the “gifts” and then give thanks, I am more and more living in the present. I don’t want to miss the goodness of God in a single moment.  While a case can certainly be made for making preparations for the future or having goals, the future can’t always take precedence over the glory and grace of the present.

Like Ann, “I want enough time. Time to breath deep and time to see real and time to laugh long, time to give You glory and rest deep and sing joy, and just enough time in a day not to feel hounded, press, driven, or wild to get it all done.” “I want to slow down and taste life, give thanks, and see God.”

             I want to notice more, enjoy more, and worship more. When my joy level increases, my focus on the negative decreases. The problems and struggles in this broken world are tamed by gratitude.  My attitude and perspective are improved, my spirit is renewed, and gradually I am changed.  I don’t want to miss any of my “one thousand gifts.” Thus, I will go on naming and numbering God’s goodness.

             Eucharisteo. Living more fully by thanking the Giver of all good gifts.

 

(c) Marlene Depler. Permission needed to reproduce or publish in any form.

Book Review: The Same Kind of Different As Me

By Ron Hall and Devner Moore with Lynn Vincent


It’s often said that truth is stranger than fiction. So it could be said of the unlikely, true story of Denver Moore and Ron Hall. One black. The other white. One the son of a dirt-poor sharecropper, an ex-convict, homeless man. The other a college-educated man, an international art dealer.


What could possibly bring these two complete opposites together? Read this heart-warming, New York Times Bestseller and be amazed at how God works in ordinary lives. Fix a cup of tea, find a comfy chair, and start reading. Don’t let a bit of a slow start stand in the way of finishing the book. You will be glad you did.

Book Review: The Gift of Years

Book Review by Marlene Depler

The Gift of Years: Growing Older Gracefully by Joan Chittister

I look in the mirror and see the signs, the wrinkles and the gray hairs tucked between my highlights. Some signs sneak up almost unnoticeably while others are not so subtle. One thing is for sure: I AM aging! With this marching on of time, I am experiencing a wide range of thoughts and emotions. Some I bemoan to my husband or close friends, but many thoughts I never verbalize. And in spite of my best efforts, I see myself becoming more irrelevant in the world in which I live.

Recently, I started reading Joan Chittister's book, The Gift of Years: Growing Old Gracefully. What a breath of fresh air! Her perspective is both honest and insightful. In the introduction Joan writes, "It is time for us to let go of both our fantisies of eternal youth and our fears of getting older, and to find the beauty of what it means to age well." I couldn't agree more.

Joan has written forty short chapters filled with wisdom. Some of the chapters included are Fear, Forgiveness, Fulfillment, Faith, and Freedom. Others chapters are Legacy, Limitations, Loneliness, and Letting Go. Each chapter bears pondering. Don't expect to fly through this book like a novel. I'm reading mine with a highlighter in hand to mark the passages that I want to reread again.

In the chapter titled Regret, Joan writes how that often what "pretends to be reflection" and "claims to be insight" slips into brooding, dragging us down. She says, "Regret is a temptation. It entices us to lust for what never was..." Then we may "doubt the God who made us."

Joan's overall message is to see aging is a gift. (It means we didn't die young!) We should not abandon our lives prematurely---before life in this world is truly over. This season is different that the previous seasons of our lives. Nevertheless, we can embrace it and live it fully.

Joan's words are making me often say to myself, Don't quit the game in the fourth quarter! Play on to the finish! This is a book I will read multiple times in the coming years. (I'm even considering leading a discussion group using this book as the focus.)

I hope you will pick up this book---maybe buy it for yourself for Christmas. Then if you enjoy it, recommend it to a friend. Whatever you do, appreciate your days and years, live fully until the time comes for "melting into God."

(c) 2009 Marlene Depler

Motley Friends

Just a few of my favorite books!

MOTLEY FRIENDS
By Marlene Depler

Companions old and new;
tall and short, thick and thin.
Some don jackets, colorful and bold;
the attire of others—simple and plain.
Well-known and obscure,
yet each a friend to me.

Standing in rows, leaning, or stacked,
both hardback and paperback;
fiction and non-fiction;
favorite children's books-
first read to my children-
now to my children's children.

A world without books—who could imagine?
No Holy Scriptures, no C. S. Lewis,
no Harriot, no Hemingway,
no Dr. Suess, no Robert Frost;
no feasts of syllables and sentences;
no food for soul and spirit.

For the printed word, I'm grateful—
the various volumes in my possession:
cookbooks to commentaries,
thesaurus and assorted travel books
on castles, catacombs, cathedrals,
Paris, Pompeii, and Pearl Harbor.

These books reflect who I was,
who I am now, who I am becoming.
Each mirror a part of me—
where I have been and what I know.
If you know the company I keep,
you will also know me.

(c) Marlene Depler (Must have author's permission to reprint in any form.)