Salvation

I wrote this on an email discussion list, and it seems worth posting here.

What salvation means to me on a personal level.

It means not being alone.

It means having a solid trust in myself and in the world around me. Now, by a solid trust I don't mean an absolute trust. It means a trust with a firm foundation and that's not going to be shaken. And part of having that solid trust is knowing the limits of trust -- knowing when not to trust.

Salvation means being able to love and being able to experience the love of others.

Salvation means believing in my own goodness.

Salvation means healing.

So, what is it I am saved from? Pain. Brokenness. Aloneness.

Humor and Marriage

Today, my husband Mike and I have been married 13 years. We've know each other a little over 14 years. Okay, 14 years, one month, and 3 days.

A couple months ago at a Bob Walkenhorst show, I laughed at something Bob said, and Bob said that he likes me because I laugh at his jokes, among other reasons. That night, my husband and I got home about the same time (ah, cell phones are nice), and my husband said something, I forget what, and I laughed. Nothing profound. Innane silly humor. And I thought about Bob's words, and my marriage, and I thought, that is something good in our marriage. Laughing at each others jokes.

I think it's a bit cyclical. Liking and loving my husband makes me more inclined to laugh at his jokes. And laughing at his jokes builds the like and love between us. And somehow, the same humor repeated, instead of getting old and stale, it somehow remains fresh. I think the love helps keep the humor fresh. But I also think the humor helps keep the love fresh.

I think shared humor, being able to laugh together is good for relationships. Not just marriage and other romantic/sexual relationships. Humor, laughter, is good for friendships. And marriage is, among other things, a friendship.

Ties That Bind, Ties That Break (book)

Ties That Bind, Ties That Break by Lensey Namioka.

This was a good book. Worth reading. And a quick read, too. 154 pages, I read it in one day.

It's the story of a girl in China in the early 1900s. She, as a young girl, decides she doesn't want her feet bound. Her father, who knows far better the seriousness of this and the consequences that will follow, okays her remaining with unbound feet.

It's a book about change and gender roles. One thing I found interesting was the idea that, in traditional roles, it's not that women lacked power — they had power within the family — but they lacked choice.

Read more at Amazon.com.

Easter

Happy Easter everyone. :)

I sing in church choir. We sing 4 days in a row at Easter time, Thursday through Sunday. I do enjoy it, but by the end of mass today my voice was definitely feeling worn out.

This after noon, Easter dinner with my husband's family. That will be nice.

I feel like I should add a proper Easter wish. Something about the Risen Lord. But, I guess, for me, wishing blessings or such doesn't fit with Easter. And, plus, I think I spiritually connect more with Holy Thursday and Good Friday than Easter. And Christmas for me speaks more to my sense of God is here with us than Easter does. I guess I don't much buy into the sin and redemption thinking. For me it's more broken and healed. And I guess Easter doesn't much speak to that idea of being healed.

I'd to share a poem I wrote. I haven't really given it a title, but I think of it as my Holy Thursday poem. Written last year on Holy Thursday, it seems to me to fit the theme of the day, though I didn't have that in mind when I wrote it. Perhaps the poem also works for Easter too.

I love you.
I love all that you are.
My inner child loves you.

The broken places in me
relate
when you share the brokenness in you.

And yet, I see, you are strong and beautiful.
As, I have come to realize, so am I.

older blog entries

For older blog posts, please visit my old blog at Live Journal. http://mysteryroad.livejournal.com/