Becoming Strong

I had a favorite coffee cup that exploded in my hands one day when I poured hot coffee into it. Quite literally couldn't take the heat. It was beautiful. It was comfortable to hold. But it fell apart under the very conditions it had been created for. The problem was that it was created from a mold, not by hand. It failed along the seam. You and I are not patched together, and there are not a hundred or a thousand others just like us out there. Each one of us is created to be a one-of-a-kind masterpiece, and each of us is created for an individual purpose. God continues to make and shape us, and sometimes the process doesn't feel so great. But he's got something in mind for you! Do you believe it?

Honor Your Own Heart

When disaster strikes, the damage can be far-reaching. We look around and count one loss after another, until it feels as if we have lost everything. We have a tendency to tell each other "chin up" messages at these times. If you've ever been in the middle of complete devastation, you know what it feels like to be told some variation of, "It's probably for the best," or "It could be worse." It's interesting to me that God doesn't respond to us this way. In Joel 1:8, when swarms of locusts had destroyed every crop, God told his people to mourn as if someone had died. We are expected to grieve when bad things happen to us. We need to grieve. Grieving is painful, and when you're in the middle of it, it seems to go on forever. In order to stop grieving, though, we have to go ahead and admit how horrible things are, how hurt we are: grieve. Don't let anyone tell you anything different. Honor your own heart by admitting how much you've lost. Your pain matters to God, and it will matter to those who know how to be true friends.

PUBLICATION UPDATE:

Today I will contact my publishing consultant and give the go-ahead for Welcome to the Fresh-Squeezed Life Cafe! to go into print and become available for purchase. The review copy looks good (except for a few typos that no one caught), so we are in business!

Drink Life!

Whatever your occupation may be and however crowded your hours with affairs, do not fail to secure at least a few minutes every day for refreshment of your inner life.

(Charles Eliot Norton)

Drink Life!

Fresh-Squeezed Life is just around the corner

Actually, fresh-squeezed life is right here, right now, whenever you take the time to drink it in. But Welcome to the Fresh-Squeezed Life Cafe! has been typeset and is back from the printer. I am waiting for my comp copy for review, so I can give the go-ahead for more copies to be printed.

Have you had your fresh-squeezed life yet today?

When Things Go Terribly Wrong

When things go terribly wrong in our lives, we have some predictable questions we ask ourselves: "What did I ever do to deserve this?" "Why me?" "Why does this always happen to me?" and complaints: "This isn't fair!" "But I'm a good person!" I know there have been times when I thought to myself, "I'm throwing a raging tantrum in my head, and it's been a long time since I was two!"

What do you do when you find yourself in this situation?

Welcome to the Cafe!

Hey, traveler, turn in here. This is a virtual meeting place for anyone on the journey who needs to sit down, listen, think and talk. Stop in often. Here you can slow down, reflect, share. We all need that. So take some time to notice the simple beauty of the breeze waving the leaves on a tree, or the music of a child's laughter. Think a kind thought about someone. Find something to be grateful for. These moments feed the health of our souls and spirits, widen our hearts and allow our bodies to repair themselves. Then take another moment to post your comments here. Hoping to hear from you.

The Book Goes to the Printer!

Today a few last-minute revisions were handled over the phone, and I faxed the galley and cover approvals to the publisher. The book should go to the printer by the end of this week, and within 2-3 weeks Welcome to the Fresh-Squeezed Life Cafe will be available.

Somehow I managed to do my part to make this happen, despite my design consultant leaving my publisher as of today, my car battery going dead, prevailing on two different neighbors to buy and use jumper cables to get me started, the office store Staples for the second time in a row being unable to successfully fax my forms to the publisher, my neighbor letting me use her home office fax machine to get the forms in today, driving around and leaving my car running while I ran into various auto parts stores to see if they would replace my battery, and a family member having emergency surgery. All this happened today: We just never know what kind of a day we're going to have, do we? (Surgery went well.)

Life has probably squeezed you, today, too, in small ways--and for some of you, in big ways. Maybe nothing was tied up and brought to a nice close, and your mind is not at ease. Maybe you're unhappy with the way you handled things. Take a deep breath. And another. Close your eyes and imagine God's hand reaching down to you, to pick you up, to stroke your hair, whatever you need. You are imagining the real, not the imaginary; He really loves you. He wants to give you beauty where you've had only ashes. There is good stuff ahead. Wait for it!

This just in! REVISED PROOFS RECEIVED FROM PUBLISHER!

The revised proofs of Welcome to the Fresh-Squeezed Life Cafe are now in my possession. Hopefully, no further revisions will be necessary, and I can officially approve them--which means that the book could be in my hands within the month! And it needs to be, as I am scheduled to be available to sign copies at the Women's Retreat in Laguna mid-September. Yay!!!!

Fill in the Blanks! How would you finish this sentence?

You know you're being squeezed by life when