Alone

Honestly, I cannot remember the last time I was alone at home. Completely by myself. The only human here.

Yet, here I am. I have 20 minutes between the time Tyson has left with ALL of the kids and I need to leave for a meeting. This. Is. Amazing.

Don't get me wrong. I have an amazing husband who takes the kids (especially the little ones) periodically so that I can get some quiet time or a much needed power nap. But he usually takes the most energetic ones and leaves me with the ones who are napping or who will probably leave me alone. Sometimes that works...and...sometimes it doesn't.

But right now, for the next seven minutes, I am home alone. And really, I have nothing pressing to do. Most everything is picked up and clean. The bed is even made.

This is a very peaceful time.

I was going to go into what it is like when all seven children ARE here. A kind of - you don't know how peaceful it is until you remember how chaotic it can get. But instead, I'm not even going to think about it. I'm not even going to check my email to see who may want my attention. I am going to be by myself and not invite any other human in to this sacred space and time.

I have two more minutes.

Find some time for yourself and tell me how it goes. Do you enjoy it? Would you rather be amongst others? Do you need some background noise?

Until then...

Breathe your life.

Breathe deeply.

amy

Comfort

I'm not going to spend a bunch of time making excuses for the length of time that has passed since I've posted.. I'm also not going to make some grandiose empty promise about how often I've "resolved" to post this new year. Let's just move on.

We had a missionary from Botswana, Africa at our church this past Sunday. In case you are geographically impaired, here's a map.

So, yeah, just above South Africa.

What I really wanted to get into, is the fact that half the population in Botswana has HIV. That it only rains a few inches during the entire year there. That, in many places, people are afraid for their life for one reason or another.

The missionary shared that his home is surrounded by a NINE foot concrete wall with several strands of electrical wire over that. His home is separated in two different parts. There is the living quarters and then past an iron gate they have their sleeping quarters. The strategy to this is that all of their valuables are in the living quarters. If someone wanted to rob them, they would hopefully stop at the living quarters and leave the missionary and his family alone in the sleeping quarters.

Then there is the topic of the churches there. The missionary showed us many pictures of what I would call shelters that the believers use for churches. I'm not saying that their are no beautiful buildings in this country, but in these far off towns, the people their only require a structure that is helpful for keeping the sun off their bodies and some sort of wall to keep the animals out....I'll try to find an adequate picture for you...

Here are some things that we (as Americans) require in our churches: (I am NOT exaggerating about these things.) Air-conditioning, heat, soft and comfortable seating (hopefully some that I can etch my backside into because I will claim that seat as my own), amazing music that is not too loud/not too old/a good amount of hymns/not so many hymns/sounds professional etc. etc., a sermon that is not too long/not too short/uses the correct amount of scripture/is practical/is informative/gives me the greek and latin and hebrew pronunciation AND definition - BUT don't ask me to actually LIVE by what is being preached, programs for my kids because I certainly don't want them in church with me because then I would actually have to teach them to be respectful during service, no noise from children because that would be too distracting.

Okay, I'm sure you get where I'm going with this. We are obviously spoiled compared to third-world countries. But really, we do not have to compare ourselves with people who are starving (both physically and spiritually) we just need to have compassion for them. The kind of compassion that leads us to productive action.

And we should stop complaining so much.

Breathe your life.

amy