"The Moment I Wake Up..."

There is a strong temptation to say "oh no," pushed by thoughts of new things to be done, things left undone the day before, people to talk with, chores to do/delegate/dodge…all in rapid-fire succession, faster than still-sleepy fingers can write them down in a PDA using a stylus, and much more than a 2-square-inch space in a pocket planner can accommodate.

Yet it’s precisely the best moment to pause and ponder.

Trade the rapid-fire succession for a lovely procession. Set down the stylus or plop the planner somewhere (for the moment). Breathe. (Or pray if that’s already a habit for you.)

And then think: GOD, among those of us who tucked in at approximately the same time last night, how many others didn’t wake up at this time—and will not wake up at any other time on earth?

Thanking God for the fresh chance, move on to the next level: Okay, Lord, of all the things screaming, threatening, pleading for my attention, all the big and small tasks that seem likely to either drown or drain me today, which of these are really (really now):
... simultaneously so urgent and important, that it can’t possibly be done at a later date, without posing life-and-death risk, or representing a broken commitment to, or laying an unfair burden on someone?
...absolutely dependent on me because I’m the one most rightfully positioned or best equipped or most clearly accountable to do it?

Consider these two questions as small, simple candles that throw light into a dark room, revealing monsters for the imaginary creatures they are, and cutting seemingly infinite black holes to size till they resemble, more clearly, nondescript shadows in a very real world limited to 24 hours per day.

In the light of these candles, list only the things you MUST and CAN handle. With only one body (yours). With the time you have at hand—computed at the rate of "24 hours less sleeping time, meals, and other requisites for physical sustenance and sanity preservation".

Done? Good.

The day awaits.

"The Lord's love never ends; his mercies never stop. They are new every morning..." Lamentations 3:22, 23 (NCV)

The First Step In Anything

...Is to decide to take the step itself. That is the actual thing, preceded by so many other little things--the preparatory stage vital to any endeavor.

It is in the preparatory stage that questions are first raised, and, hopefully, answered: why must I do this? If it's not something I actually have to do, why would I want to do it anyway? How does this fall into the general scheme of things that I call my life? What do I hope to achieve with this? How will this make me thankful--moments, days, a decade from now--that I actually went into this in the first place?

How will this help bring me one step closer to the person God meant me to become? (Or, conversely, how might this step actually take me farther away from that, and closer instead to becoming someone I may eventually regret turning into?)

Thus, for me, I have begun blogging, officially, today. Because I've looked at my life--as wife, mom to a nine-year-old, and soon to become mom to an infant; as a writer, gifted with, burdened by, enamored with words--and decided: the Internet can stand the addition of another voice. But not just more noise added to an oftentimes-chaotic digital Babel. But, God willing, a soft soothing whisper of wisdom on the worldwide web.