Lisa notes

What’s happening in June {Daybook}

By LisaNotes June 5, 2014 Life updates 16 Comments

I am thankful . . . God loaned us the original Maya Angelou for 86 years.

I am wondering . . . how many other Maya’s are out there. Great advice here from Glennon Melton to find yourself a Maya to follow and be a Maya to someone behind you.

I am appreciating . . . the wisdom Maya left behind. Three of my favorite pieces:

“When you get, give. When you learn, teach.”
“I did then what I knew how to do. Now that I know better, I do better.”
“I come as one, but I stand as 10,000.”

I am thinking . . . I might like to do this soon: tour Amazon!

I am going . . . to finally transfer our home VHS videos to DVDs before they’re totally unwatchable (but only a few at a time because I need assurance it’ll work before I hand over all those precious memories)

I am looking forward to . . . our annual summer book club with the family girls. This year we’re reading Beth Moore’s So Long, Insecurity and after our first meeting this week, I realize I have a lot more insecurities than I thought!

I am (also) reading . . . Everything Belongs by Richard Rohr (and these) and it is SO insightful about our relationship with God and others

I am pondering these words . . .

“God is always bigger than the boxes we build for God, so we should not waste too much time protecting the boxes.”
– Richard Rohr, Everything Belongs

In my Bible journal . . . this week I’m in Job (I’m using the CEV this go-round).

“You will rest safe and secure, filled with hope and emptied of worry” (Job 11:18).
We always keep something in us. Must empty out the junk (worry) so we will have room for the good (hope). Let so much hope come in that it pushes out all the worry.

I am listening . . . to Jason Gray’s older album A Way to See in the Dark (loving it!) and also his newest single “With Every Act of Love” from his latest album Love Will Have the Final Word

“God put a million, million doors in the world
For his love to walk through
One of those doors is you”

[Click here if you can’t see the video]

I am studying . . . John 15 and memorizing it with this group of awesome people

A few plans for this weekend . . . helping with a 5K race on Saturday to benefit orphans and foster children, locally and nationally. Our worship ministry will be wearing #TeamReggie bracelets to encourage one of our drummers on his #WhenIGetFit journey as he runs his first 5K.

A couple pictures to share . . . I’ve thoroughly enjoyed having my two girls and s-i-l visit the past few weekends

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What are you looking forward to in June?

The Simple Woman’s Daybook
…where every day is a blank page

past Daybooks

Insomnia isn’t punishment {Finding Spiritual Whitespace}

By LisaNotes June 3, 2014 Book reviews, Pain 30 Comments

“Let me sleep, I beg. Because if God is love and yet I’m not asleep, something must be wrong.”
– Bonnie Gray, Finding Spiritual Whitespace

It was another night of poor sleep. I try to rarely mention it. People who are good sleepers don’t understand insomnia. Often they’ll reply with information about the latest mattress or concoction or ritual that might work. I listen because I do want to sleep better.

But sleeplessness is complex.

So when I read Bonnie’s words, I want to cry. Her take is more extreme than I personally feel, but I understand what she’s saying.

“Sleeplessness feels shameful. It says I’m unlovable to God, guilty of not trusting him enough. I didn’t understand that sleep doesn’t always come easy.”

At the root of it, I question my insomnia, too. Is it lack of safety? Is it refusing to take a break, declining the body’s offer to take the night watch?

I don’t want to believe it’s those things. I’d rather think it’s only from pain in my back when I lie down, to neuropathy in my hands when I’m still.

Yet still I wonder.

Bonnie continues, “One of the hardest whitespaces to fill with rest happens at night.”

It’s at night that my mind wanders the most. The what-if’s of the past loom largest then. The future scenarios are most imaginative, both good and bad.

I remind myself that night thoughts are not my brightest, but usually my most distorted. That I need to let them go until daylight. To let them drift on instead of chasing them down.

And when I do, spiritual whitespace opens up a bit more—that extravagant choice to leave more breathing room for good thoughts, for contentment of now, even for rest from dreaming.

For Bonnie, whitespace helped quieten her PTSD. [Read more of her story.]

“It got me thinking. Maybe PTSD isn’t who I really am. Maybe it’s just what I’m walking through. Maybe ‘beloved’ is who I am.”

For me, whitespace—often found through meditation—has helped quieten my insomnia. Because insomnia doesn’t define who I am, it’s just something I experience. It’s something I can redeem. Not always noticeably, but enough to matter. Just like margins that pad my active hours, margins in my 8 hours of rest are helpful, too.

“Whitespace in art directs a viewer’s eye to what’s important. It acts as a border, separating unrelated elements from what’s central. It makes the art beautiful. Spiritual whitespace does the same.”

So, like Bonnie, I’ve come to this conclusion also:

“Insomnia isn’t spiritual punishment. . . . Insomnia isn’t an equation to be solved. Recovering sleep is a journey through the soul.”

Sweet dreams. Both asleep and awake.

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Have you ever struggled with insomnia? Did you feel guilty about it? Please share your thoughts here.

On the blog–May 2014

By LisaNotes May 31, 2014 Archives 4 Comments

Do you want to remember everything (5/29) – Is remembering now the default and forgetting the exception? Review of Delete: The Virtue of Forgetting in the Digital Age
My reading list for June ’14 (5/27) – Brief reviews of books I’m currently reading
If you think you can’t memorize (5/26) – If you think you can’t memorize, here’s an opportunity to prove otherwise with our John 15 memory challenge
Where do you go to church? (5/22) – A different way of looking at church and quotes from Frank Viola’s Reimagining Church
Getting kids to serve (5/21) – 4 ways to teach your kids to serve, at Do Not Depart
Sign up to memorize John 15 (5/19) – Register to memorize John 15 during Summer 2014
Listening to dementia – I’m Still Here (5/14) – Book review of John Zeisel’s I’m Still Here on understanding someone living with Alzheimer’s
Ready for your second chance? (5/12) – I didn’t think I’d see Chasady again after sifting through her tornado debris, but I got a second chance
Why should we encourage each other? (5/8) – 5 reasons why we need to encourage each other, at Do Not Depart
What’s happening in May ’14 (5/7) – Links and personal happenings in May
It matters to me. Does it to you? {Alabama tornadoes} (5/5) – The tornado hit hard; how could I know which remains mattered to her if I didn’t know her at all?
The War of Art – Book review (5/1) – “Give us what you’ve got.” Steven Pressfield motivates us to create in The War of Art.

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Do you want to remember everything?

By LisaNotes May 29, 2014 Book reviews 10 Comments

“Until recently, the fact that remembering has always been at least a little bit harder than forgetting helped us humans avoid the fundamental question of whether we would like to remember everything forever if we could. Not anymore.”
– Viktor Mayer-Schönberger

Some things we want to remember (I’m all about memorizing scripture to help me love God more). And some things we need to remember (ahem, anniversaries, birthdays, etc.).

But other things, why bother? How much do you remember about what you ate for lunch in 3rd grade? About emails you wrote on May 29, 2010? About where you parked at Kroger three visits ago?

Some things we don’t try to remember because we either want to forget (I’d still love to erase previews of Psycho from my memory); or we know it’s not necessary because it’s irrelevant info; or we’re praying others will forget even if we don’t (think back to any arguments you’ve had).

With human memory, we forget far more than we remember. Overall, that’s probably a good thing. Who wants to remember everything they’ve ever seen, heard, or experienced? It’s considered extremely burdensome by those who can.

But in our digital world? Everything is changing. . . .

“Since the beginning of time, for us humans, forgetting has been the norm and remembering the exception. Because of digital technology and global networks, however, this balance has shifted. Today, with the help of widespread technology, forgetting has become the exception, and remembering the default.”
– Viktor Mayer-Schönberger

Therein lies a multitude of new and interesting dilemmas as I read recently in Delete: The Virtue of Forgetting in the Digital Age.

Technological changes in photography is an example that author Viktor Mayer-Schönberger uses in the book.

Back in the olden days, it was expensive to create long-term memories with photographs. I remember taking pictures sparingly with my first few film cameras because a cannister of film wasn’t cheap and neither was the cost of developing.

But now? I take multitudes of shots with a digital camera, download every one to my laptop, then transfer them all to an external hard drive. It’s easier to keep all than pick through and save only favorites. And I love that (although now I’m far more behind in actually printing any photos).

“Assuming it takes only three seconds for a person to look at an image and decide whether to preserve it or not, and that she values her own time at a current average wage, the ‘cost’ of the time alone that it takes to decide exceeds the cost of storage (including having a second copy on a backup device). With such an abundance of cheap storage, it is simply no longer economical to even decide whether to remember or forget. Forgetting—the three seconds it takes to choose—has become too expensive for people to use.”

Mayer-Schönberger says the four main reasons why remembering is now the norm instead of the exception are digitization, cheap storage, easy retrieval, and global reach. He explains each in detail in the book.

He says what’s truly at stake, though, is power and time.

Are you comfortable with Google having records of every search term you’ve ever used? What about your distant past becoming your living present with one click on an online search? In real life, memories fade and we go on with our lives (what woman would ever bear a second child otherwise?), but online, memories are forever fresh.

Digital memory isn’t all bad, of course. The benefits have been culturally-transforming and overwhelmingly advantageous. But the unique problems it presents are becoming more into focus. Saving everything becomes burdensome. (How many old emails do you still have? Ever try to sort through bookmarks you’ve saved on your browser?) Digital memory locks everything in, often without the benefit of context and definitely without the luxury of grace.

The author suggests some possible solutions, including voluntarily limiting what you save digitally; passing more legislation on what can be saved in the public domain and by private corporations; embedding expiration dates (of sorts) on digital information.

Because ultimately, “the value of information is not timeless.” Most information has a lifespan, and we don’t need to forget that.

“We may realize what humans have at least implicitly grasped for millennia: that good information is preferable to copious information.”

Who gets to decide what’s remembered and what’s forgotten? At this point, it’s still under discussion in the digital world, and will continue to be for awhile yet. Court cases keep popping up about “the right to be forgotten.”

Who could have imagined? This article stated it clearly for me in the May 26, 2014, issue of Time:

“To the list of things that our ancestors would have found utterly unintelligible about the way we live now we can add, right next to the epidemic of obesity, its informational equivalent: an epidemic of memory.”
– Lev Grossman

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I’m still not totally comfortable with even God remembering everything about me (and he’s pure love!); I sure don’t want the rest of the world to. How about you? Would you like to remember everything if you could?

My reading list for June ’14

By LisaNotes May 27, 2014 Books I Recommend 25 Comments

I’m concentrating this year on knocking a few books off my to-read list (with exceptions now and again). So it’s been a great season of getting to some books I’ve really wanted to read.

Here’s what I’ll be reading in June, and summaries from three great books I finished in May. Check out more reading lists every 4th Tuesday at 5 Minutes for Books.

JUST STARTED

Everything Belongs
The Gift of Contemplative Prayer
by Richard Rohr

“Spirituality is about seeing. It’s not about earning or achieving. It’s about relationship rather than results or requirements. Once you see, the rest follows. You don’t need to push the river, because you are in it.” – Richard Rohr

Richard Rohr is a Franciscan priest who writes of living actively from the center of a contemplative life. You wouldn’t believe how many pages I’ve already marked, and I’m only halfway in.

Decisive
How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work
by Chip Heath and Dan Heath

First, five stars for coolest bookcover ever. It’s a holographic image of a magic 8 ball (one of my bff’s had one in the 70s that we may or may not have used to decide on boyfriends); it even changes answers from different angles.

Secondly, regardless of the topic, I want to read what Chip and Dan Heath write because I love how easy, informative, and interesting their previous books have been (the principles in Made to Stick continue to influence my writing; Switch was also awesome).

Thirdly, and probably most relevant, I do like the topic of this newest book about making decisions. I’m already implementing some of the principles.

Finding Spiritual Whitespace
Awakening Your Soul to Rest
by Bonnie Gray

My review here

Like many of you, I’d been reading Bonnie Gray’s blog—Faith Barista—for awhile when it suddenly grew quiet. When able, Bonnie explained to us that in the midst of writing her book, PTSD was triggered from some painful memories.

She’s had a rough go, but has been learning how to rest and heal. She’s now completed her book, and I’m learning much from it about our need for rest and spiritual whitespace.

Apprenticeship with Jesus
Learning to Live like the Master
by Gary W. Moon

My friend Kay and I heard Gary Moon speak a year ago (?) at a spiritual retreat and were very impressed with his message centering around Jesus and discipleship. This book is a 30-day guide of apprenticing with Jesus. I’m on Day 11, each day ending with a practical application.

STILL READING

The Brothers Karamazov
by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

My goal is to finish by August (is that troubling?). It is a very long novel, but still. I’m enjoying this Russian classic so far. I’ve heard great things about it for years; this is finally my year to see if they’re true.

The Four Agreements
A Toltec Wisdom Book
by Miguel Ruiz

I’m intentionally going slowly through these four agreements so I can practice them one at a time: (1) Be impeccable with your word, (2) Don’t take anything personally, (3) Don’t make assumptions, and (4) Always do your best. My sister Sandy and niece Danielle set up our own Facebook group where we discuss each chapter and how we’re applying it in our lives.

FINISHED FROM MAY’S LIST

Letters by a Modern Mystic
by Frank C. Laubach

My review here

“But this year I have started out trying to live all my waking moments in conscious listening to the inner voice, asking without ceasing, ‘What, Father, do you desire said? What, Father, do you desire done this minute?’ It is clear that this is exactly what Jesus was doing all day every day.” – Frank Laubach

And so Frank Laubach began his experiment to submit his will to God’s will in the fullest way yet. You might think this would prove discouraging because who can consciously think of God all the time? But his results and conclusions are actually very encouraging.

Reimagining Church
Pursuing the Dream of Organic Christianity
by Frank Viola

My review here

Frank Viola isn’t afraid to question church tradition. This book challenges the way we think about leadership, authority & submission, denominations, the Lord’s Supper, church unity, and more. Viola draws on scripture, church history, and his own experience to make a case for a new option of how we “do church.”

Delete
The Virtue of Forgetting in the Digital Age
by Viktor Mayer-Schonberger

My review here

This book has so many implications, even though it’s written primarily about digital memory. Is it advantageous to remember everything or are there things that are better to forget? And just because we can create easier access to remembering more, should we?

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What’s a good book you are reading or want to read this month? Please share here.

My books on Goodreads
Previous reading lists

If you think you can’t memorize . . .

By LisaNotes May 26, 2014 Memorization 4 Comments

As we get older, many of us think we can’t memorize as well as we used to. Maybe so. (Maybe not?)

But I know we can still memorize some. And the more we do it, the better we can stay at it (or at least slow down the losses?).

If you’d like to exercise your memory muscles this summer in a no-pressure way and for a cause more important than simply maintaining your memory—to stay more connected to Jesus; to better love those around you; to bear more fruit that lasts—sign up now to memorize John 15.

Learn more about how it works here.

We start next Monday, June 2. We go slow and don’t aim for word-for-word perfection. We just want to abide, to stay strong in our belief that God is Love. Memorizing scripture is one way to do that, but only one of many ways. (It’s not for everybody–do what works for you!)

Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.
John 15:4

If you don’t want to memorize, but would still like to journal or pray through John 15 for a few months, you also can register to receive the every-other-week emails with the verses.

Register now and download free printables.

Comments? Questions?