The headlines of late are sobering and saddening.
And though certainly worthy of being given space and time and attention and prayers, they are not the only news.
I repeat. THEY ARE NOT THE ONLY NEWS. I don’t want to be the kind of person who lives in denial of the pain and suffering around me. But I also fear we (at least ‘we’ Americans) are so prone to dichotomist thinking that we don’t make enough space to hold more than one truth. The world is either a terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad place OR it is a all rainbows and kittens.
Living in the messy middle is about being able to name the pain and suffering and look for ways to help AND being able to name the joys and successes and look for ways to enjoy life.
You know the headlines that crossed your path this week, but they were not the complete truth. We did this over a year ago and I thought it would be fun to see a few you might have missed this week.
Mother has not one, not two, but three home vomiting
Family of six (well, eight if you include Grandma and Aunt) had six out of the eight share a bug. At least three of the four under 15 years of age vomited … repeatedly. At what point does a tragedy become a comedy? Mother reports, when the hamster who got out staggers out from under the couch.
In other news, and better yet, fun was also had attending the district marching band competition on a day when no one vomited. I repeat, no one! It was a marching band miracle.
When Two Hours Of Pain Become 40 Seconds of Joy
Combining sports and entertainment, Star Wars influenced the NFL in this most epic ending. If you can’t see the video in your email, click here.
May the force be with you.
Strangers Meet, Leave As Friends
This week editor Amy Young of Velvet Ashes, on an line community for women serving overseas, got to meet community member and Connection Group Mentor Marie. Unbeknownst to Marie, Amy always wished her middle name was Marie so her initials could be A. M. Y. Three hours and 53,491 words later, the two left having covered over 20 years of personal history. It was a fairly raucous and lively encounter.
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There are other headlines in our lives too (there was a two-year-old killed near us), but if all we share are these kind of headlines, it’s not a balanced diet for our souls. If there is anything we learn from hanging around Jesus in the Gospels, it’s that he dined from all tables and didn’t fed himself with just one kind of food. Our minds and souls need to be fed a balanced diet too.
Please share a headline from your week in the comments and help to feed my soul :) — all headlines welcome! (Ok, most, welcome :))
WOMAN AMAZES FOLLOWERS
Amy Young, a writer living in Denver, Colorado, continues to amaze her readership with insights and encouragement.
I saw the game and I knew there were Forces acting that we knew nothing of.
Wait…. I saw that cat!!!!
The past couple of days have been about the moon and He who made the moon. DIY moon cakes made and just pulled out of the oven to be eaten tonight with a family of five “fake Asians” (having lived in China for 6 years), two Thai friends of Chinese ethnicity and my hubby and me. Some moon cakes are filled with chocolate and some have apple, walnut and honey filling! Happy Zhong Qiu Jie!!!