Stairs Are for Climbing

Posted on February 28, 2012 by Sharon

Do stairs fascinate you the way they do me? These elegant stairs are in the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles. The architecture of this museum is as much an artistic masterpiece as the art housed in it.

When we rounded a corner and found this massive stairway, my husband asked if we should go up and see what art was at the top. “Yes, we should go up. We should go up because we should climb these stairs,” I answered without even thinking. Whatever waited at the top was not relevant to the decision. “We should climb the stairs because they are there.”

Stairs are there to take us somewhere. So we should go, whenever we can. I’ve climbed the picturesque spiral stairs in the Sistine Chapel. I’ve tromped up 284 stairs in the Arc de Triomphe and watched the traffic far below swirl around this monument. I’ve mastered the 234 stairs in the Dome of Sacre Coure to be rewarded with a panoramic view of Paris, the City of Light. At St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, a special treat came in the middle of the climb up 530 stairs — we found ourselves in the Whispering Gallery, famous for its acoustics that allow people to whisper and be heard over a vast distance.

One of my earliest memories of stairs is of those outside my Grandma’s house, leading up to the neighbor’s above her. This neighbor was the meanest man in town (at least in the imaginations of my cousins and me) and we dared each other to mount the dark, rickety staircase shadowed by looming trees and knock on his door. Which I did. And then I ran terrified down the stairs and around the corner before Mr. Meanie could answer. Those were stairs that made my heart beat faster for reasons beyond the physical exertion of climbing.

The thing about stairs is they go two ways. Up and down. Like life. Some days we’re full of the exhilaration of the climb, and other days we’re running down, fleeing from some promised pain, real or imagined. Some stairways are filled with light, like those at the Getty, and some are covered in shadows and foreboding, like my childhood experience.

What “stairs” are you on today? I hope that you look at the climb and trust that you’re heading somewhere with a rewarding view. Don’t be afraid; don’t turn and run away from some imagined bogeyman. Continue on, letting the light stream in.

Linking up with Sweet Shot Tuesday, Leigh vs. Laundry, and Texture Tuesdays, where the theme this week is the color white. The photo of the Getty Museum is processed using Kim Klassen’s texture, Revolution.

Good Reads: All Is Grace — Beyond Pious Piffle

Posted on February 27, 2012 by Sharon

All Is Grace by Brennan Manning

For some troubled souls who find grace, life changes dramatically. Forever. For others, the path winds, meanders, doubles back. Lacking the polished perfection of the obviously reformed, these pilgrims are, like Manning, “hardly a poster child for anything . . . anything, that is, but grace.”

“It’s okay not to be okay.” That’s the message Brennan Manning communicated as a priest and speaker and writer over the course of more than 40 years. His book, The Ragamuffin Gospel, launched the public part of his career. He was in high demand and helped countless people who needed to hear of the grace of a loving God. Behind the public persona, the private Brennan struggled. This book is his story — one with themes of an abusive childhood, alcoholism, divorce, deceit, and still more alcoholism. He writes the book “for the younger and elder prodigals who’ve come to their senses again and again, and again, and again. It is for those who strain at pious piffle because they’ve been swallowed by Mercy itself.”

The light in Manning’s story shines through. He succinctly tells of the afternoon when, as a young seminary student, he suddenly understood Scripture. Weeping uncontrollably, he “was battered by wave after wave of the theology of delight, that God not only loves me but also likes me.”

Readers may not “like” Manning. He makes no attempt to portray himself as an appealing person. Yet Manning connects readers with God because he clearly is weak, and what else can he (and we who may appear more “holy” but really aren’t) do except throw himself on the mercy of God? Manning’s mission is to spread God’s love. He has often been confused, imperfect, secretive, scared, rejected, a failure. He has always been loved by his creator.

Manning wrote this book to encourage us. He figured that his flawed life can be an inspiration to us to keep going, keep leaning in the right direction, keep loving.

If you’re in a place in life where “pious piffle” just isn’t cutting it, grab this book and think on the truths in it. Grace to you!

I love this video of Manning today along with bits of him speaking in his energetic earlier years.

On Keeping a Cheerful Heart

Posted on February 21, 2012 by Sharon

I’m inspired by the life of John Adams, our country’s second president. This month we celebrate President’s Day and we focus on George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, but John Adams also has much to teach us, too. His story is one of giving to those who needed him, of serving those who called on him. Here’s the home in Quincy, Massachusetts where he was born and raised and began his career as a lawyer.

John Adams led our country during war, during its formative years, through criticism and conflict. He spent the prime of his career traveling back and forth to Philadelphia, then abroad in France and the Netherlands, then in the newly built capital in Washington, D.C. He was at the helm when America was so spanking new no one knew if it would survive. When he was not elected to a second term as president, he retired to this lovely home, Stonyfield Farm, about a mile from where he grew up.

Here’s what I find fascinating. This industrious, energetic man went from president of the United States to countryside farmer in the space of one bumpy carriage ride. How did he handle this drastic change?

“The only question remaining with me is what shall I do with myself,” Adams wrote in a letter soon after arriving at Stonyfield. He referred to himself as Farmer John. He expressed concern that, after the decades of total dedication to his role in assisting the birth of a nation, the stillness “may shake my old frame . . . . Something I must do, or ennui will rain upon me in buckets.”

Battered by years of mean politics and an absent spouse, his wife Abigail Adams focused on the beauty and tranquility of farm life. One day, looking out on the garden, she contemplated the blooms and wrote, “Envy nips not their buds, calumny destroys not their fruits, nor does ingratitude tarnish their colors.”

In their later years, John and Abigail lost their only daughter to cancer. Adams wrote that death was no stranger, as he had lost children and grandchildren, but the pain of these losses did not diminish. Still, he approached life with fortitude. Abigail wrote to her son, John Quincy Adams, during this time of the good remaining, including “the life, health and cheerfulness of your father. Bowed down as he has been . . . he has not sunk under it.”

He endured loneliness, loss, rejection, illness, estrangement from friends, and the death of his children. Yet he enjoyed the blessings of love and accomplishment and of living on a peaceful farm that still stands.

“The phrase ‘Rejoice ever more’ shall never be out of my heart, memory, or mouth again as long as I live, if I can help it.” Words of John Adams worth emulating . . .

For more inspiration, I highly recommend David McCullough’s book, John Adams, and the superb miniseries based on the book.

Linking up with Sweet Shot Tuesdays and Texture Tuesdays. Photos of the John Adams homes are processed with Kim Klassen’s Felicity texture.

How Do You PIcture Happiness?

Posted on February 14, 2012 by Sharon

How do you picture happiness? Here’s one of my favorite ways. Happiness is exploring the world, learning, keeping the wonder of a child in your heart no matter your age. And maybe getting so enthused about what you discover that you want to point it out to someone else. Like this.

What’s even better is when you share the excitement with those you love.

Whatever you see in the green, ever-changing world out your window, I hope you’re looking with wonder — and love.

Linking up with Sweet Shot Tuesdays and with Texture Tuesdays, where the assignnment this week is to picture “happiness.” Textures used are Kim Klassen’s pumpkin grunge and phoebe.

Why You Are Like a Lighthouse

Posted on February 7, 2012 by Sharon

Have you ever thought about the light you’re shining into the lives of those around you?

This beautiful lighthouse sits on a bluff at the southwestern tip of Cape Cod, a beacon seen from the shoals beneath it and as far out as 17 miles into Vineyard Sound.

Boats and ferries glide past it daily going to and from Martha’s Vineyard to the tiny town of Woods Hole. Since the first lighthouse was built on this spot in 1828, thousands of boats made it safely to land with the guidance of the light cast out into darkness.

The bay, seen from the lighthouse, appears murky on this overcast day, blending with the gray sky. Imagine the many days when fog covers this edge of the cape.

The tower, made of cast iron lined with brick, is more than 130 years old. It’s light, automated now, faithfully beams in the starry sky night after night.

When boats run ashore, the keepers in the house have run down to the water’s edge to help the stranded folks up the hill to safety.

So inspiring, this imposing lighthouse that shines without fail. We can all be like that, shining day after day, even when it’s foggy and blustery and stormy.

Who is looking to you to keep them heading toward the safety of the shore? Who needs you to keep throwing out light?

Linking up with Texture Tuesdays; photos were processed using Kim Klassen’s Providence, If Only, and Storm textures. Also linking up with Sweet Shot Tuesday.

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