- This amazing sunrise. I love sunrises and sunsets and this was a truly beautiful sunrise. I couldn't stop with just one picture. I posted these pictures on Face Book, and a friend commented that the red sky meant there was moisture in the air and that rain would be coming. Sure enough, we did get a little rain the day after I took these pictures.
- Rainy days. It started raining about dinner time yesterday and went a full 24 hours without really letting up. It only got up to about 60 degrees today and this cool wet weather is the closest we get to winter here in "The Valley of the Sun." This was my drive home from school this afternoon. I do love rainy days - they make me feel cozy inside!
- 100 day mark. Josh has been a missionary for over 100 days now. I'm not really counting, but another missionary mom, whose son left the same day as Joshua posted that her son had been out 100 days, so I know that Josh has also been gone that long. In fact, he has been in Mexico over two months now. He is meeting some interesting people and having some good/funny/challenging/scary/ spiritual experiences. His missionary plaque finally came in and is now hanging in the "missionary case" in our church building. I took a picture of Chary pointing out Josh's plaque to attach to the email I sent him last week.
- A good book. a friend from church gave me this book a few weeks ago. She said she heard about it on a documentary she had watched about Fred Rogers of the PBS children's show "Mister Roger's Neighborhood." She said this was Fred Roger's favorite book, and she had read it and really liked it too. I am also enjoying it and learning from it. There is some great ideas to ponder in this book, and you can see that I have marked a lot of pages to refer back to.
- Treasure hunting at Goodwill. Charly and I enjoy half-price days at Goodwill and go about twice a month to hunt for books and other treasures. We discovered some great finds there last week, and are looking forward to going again in February.
- My word for 2015. Since it is almost the end of January, I though I really should share the word I am focusing on this year. My word for this year is CHOOSE. This year, I want to carefully choose the things I do and say, instead of just reacting to what others do and say. There are so many things we do not have control over in life, but we can always choose our attitude and how we respond to the situations and people God places in our lives. During this week that has marked the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, I have been thinking of Holocaust survivor, Viktor Frankl and his excellent book Mans Search for Meaning, which I read years ago. I love what this man, who survived one of the worst atrocities of all time, said about choice:
“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”
So this year, I will choose to act and say and live according to my conscience, instead of waiting for the actions and words of others to determine my words, actions and destiny. I hope to do some posts about some of the opportunities I will have this year to choose how I act and respond to challenges. I want to keep myself accountable for making good choices.
This rainy Friday evening, I am choosing to join with Susanne at Living to Tell the Story for Friday's Fave Five.
