I Am Encouraged

I am encouraged by the number of hawks there are still in the world. I've just seen a lot of them recently, and been kind of surprised by that and very pleased. I think from all the nature videos I watched when I was little, I thought that all the good things were gone. But they're not! And that's cool.*

I am also comforted by the fact that sunlight is blue. And, on a similar note: that sunlight takes eight minutes to reach the earth. For some reason I find that fact very comforting as I stand with the sun on my face. It took eight, whole, leisurely minutes to get here, I think. I think the light is sauntering.

*And I even got to see a hawk up close the other day at Mt. Tabor park. It was sitting on a light pole, and I climbed up the fence as much as I dared to get close to it. It was actually pretty scary to be that close to a bird like that. But it was wonderful.

Reachin' Down (Grateful Tuesdays #24)

Dear Heavenly Father,

Thank you for my wonderful trip to the dentist's today. Thank you for my Dad and for Sigor Ros and that my Dad wants to listen and is willing to listen to music that I choose. That he's curious to know what I like and why I like it. Thank you for the joy of being known and having a good Father. Even though, of course, being known by a human is incomplete (a human can't know me fully), and my father can't be fully what my Heavenly Father is (he can't be with me always, support, encourage, affirm always). But you, Father, have blessed me with a father who goes as far as he can go to fill that picture. My father hasn't left my picture of my Heavenly Father wanting. Thank you so much for that, God. I know that this is not typical, and I know that it's not by his effort only, so I sit here, silent and in gratitude.

I'm happy that my dentist was so happy with my teeth. Golly, he and his assistant were nice. Thank you also for the little bird with the red on his head that I could see outside the window at the office. I'm also glad the T.V. was off eventually.

Whefw! Television and noise and my dad listening to the radio and seeing each other and not seeing each other and why!

God! You are amazing! The complexity of Human existence is mind-blowing! It's beautiful! It's terrifying and heartbreaking and lonely and sad and wonderful.

Thank you for my shoes. I like the look of them, and they are hugging my feet. Thank you for my life-changing hoodie and, more to the meaning, for the loving uncle, aunt and cousins they came from.

Thank you for flavor. I can taste coffee and chocolate, and I can taste them even now, and I know that there is a God. A you.

There is a "you". (Now that I think about it.) There is a person to whom we can make our whole lives a "hey you!" Someone to whom we can direct that. There is someone who I can point my life at, who will notice me.

WHO. CREATED. ME. TO BE NOTICED! And I know, God, that as my other friends hear me pray this, they are not quite tracking with what I'm saying. Save me from the distorted version of being noticed. May I live for you.

You are lovely, God. And you love me, and I'm so grateful for you.

Love,

His banner...

My Creator loves me.

My God loves me.

My Lord and Master loves me.

YAHWEH, the Great I Am That I Am, loves me, deeply.

My Lover, the One who knows me deeper than anyone else, loves me.

My Father loves me.

I am loved.