Where I am From

Saw this on my friend's blog (For Good, For Awesome) and loved it. Took me a couple of a days to sit down and actually do it, but I'll post the directions below and then my poem. If you do it, please post in on my wall so I can read, too!

Where Are You From?
"If you don't know where you're from, you'll have a hard time saying where you're going." Wendell Berry, among others, has voiced this idea that we need to understand our roots to know our place in the world. A poem by George Ella Lyon is called "Where I'm From." I first heard it read by Appalachian poet Rita Quillen. Six months later, we used it as a writing assignment in a class taught by my friend Elizabeth Hunter at the Campbell Folk School in North Carolina. The poem lends itself to imitation and makes a wonderful exercise of exploration in belonging.

I'd like to suggest that you give it a try. The prompts have a way of drawing out memories of the smells of attics and bottom-drawer keepsakes; the faces of long-departed kin, the sound of their voices you still hold some deep place in memory. You'll be surprised that, when you're done, you will have said things about the sources of your unique you-ness that you'd never considered before. What's more, you will have created something of yourself to share--with your children, spouse, siblings--that will be very unique, very personal and a very special gift.

I'll give you the template here. You can search on "where I’m from" and find many others who have taken the time to do this valuable exercise. More often than not, one person having completed it, will encourage all their brothers and sisters to complete the poem template for their parents and each other.

Glad you stopped by. Since posting this in 2005, I've written two books I'd like you to know about: Slow Road Home ~ a blue ridge book of days; and What We Hold In Our Hands: a Slow Road Reader. Both are described at slowroadhome.com and can be ordered here.

The WHERE I'M FROM Template

I am from _______ (specific ordinary item), from _______ (product name) and _______.

I am from the _______ (home description... adjective, adjective, sensory detail).

I am from the _______ (plant, flower, natural item), the _______ (plant, flower, natural detail)

I am from _______ (family tradition) and _______ (family trait), from _______ (name of family member) and _______ (another family name) and _______ (family name).

I am from the _______ (description of family tendency) and _______ (another one).

From _______ (something you were told as a child) and _______ (another).

I am from (representation of religion, or lack of it). Further description.

I'm from _______ (place of birth and family ancestry), _______ (two food items representing your family).

From the _______ (specific family story about a specific person and detail), the _______ (another detail, and the _______ (another detail about another family member).

I am from _______ (location of family pictures, mementos, archives and several more lines indicating their worth).


Where I'm From

I am from hand me down bicycles, toys and clothes, from Gospel Bill and a sandbox that was a beach, a desert and a kitchen.

I am from the house on North Parker with the rolling green hills, magnificent oak trees, prickly gumballs, surrounded by a forest filled with forts and an evil dictator, a crunchy gravel driveway and hot summer days.

I am from the land filled with dogwoods and cat tails.

I am from family nights and laughter, competition, from the Smiths and the Glazebrooks, now a Mueller and proud of a first name passed down to me.

I am from the loud and loving.

From no matter what you do, I will always love you and no matter what you decide, all I care about is that you love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind.

I am from Abba. Wonderful, Merciful Savior, Precious Redeemer and Friend.

I'm from Greenville and Lawrenceville and California all at once, from bean burritos and chicken and dumplings.

From the time Mara pushed me off the tiny trampoline because she wanted to and I sat on the ground and cried while a picture was taken in case I ever forgot about it, wearing a leotard of course, with a mushroom cut of course, and the world of dressing up, or rather, fighting over who got to wear the blue dress...the green one itched.

I am from in my warm living room, hanging on my walls, living down the street from them, from a place where family surrounds me, where I can't forget about those who I love and how they love me, a place that reminds me of how I grew up, loved first by my Father and always by my family.

Lunch You Need to Have

Here's what I had for lunch today. And I think you need to have it as well...unless of course you're allergic to peanuts...then you should stay far away.

Peanut Butter, Banana and Honey sandwich. Perfect combo...mostly because I used the perfect honey: Perdue's Mountain Honey. I think it' the honey from the Land of Canaan...you know, the land flowing with milk and honey. It's that good.

Check out Perdue's website:
http://carolinafarmers.com/perdue/

We've picked blackberries here, and they are so good. Pretty much everything is. But isn't that just true of all food? It's better when you put the effort into picking it, and from experience I can say it's the best when you put the effort into growing it!

Which reminds me, I need to weed the garden so we can get to planting in February. Looking forward to zuchinni, squash, tomatoes, peppers, and yay, even corn this year!

Today's Groupon Deal for Bath Lovers

I always forget about the closet full of bath stuff I have so when I'm in the shower and soaking wet, it's too late to go and get some. But that doesn't stop me from buying it, with hope that one day I'll actually use it! Besides, bath stuff is always a good gift to have on hand.

So without further aduie, today's groupon, for bath lovers:

http://www.groupon.com/greenville

Losing Friends?

Do we lose friends?

I suppose we do...to death, to distance, to hectic schedules, to time...

But are they ever really gone?

I guess the death one is pretty complete. But other than that, our truest of true friends, can they be lost as long as their are living souls on earth?

I don't know. But I like to think and hope not.

I like to believe that our friends, my friends, are there. Where is there? Everywhere. California, Georgia, Texas, South Carolina, Georgia! Ya, I know I put Georgia twice...I've got some good ones there so I mentioned it twice. But I believe that there are people I know who I don't speak to regularly...maybe not even monthly...but if I were to see them right now...we would hug and be right back to wherever we left off...and we would just sit and catch up and laugh and be friends.

I'm writing this because Charlie and I recently found out that some very close friends of ours (and we don't have too many of those...friends of 'ours'...like normally they are mine or his, but no, this is a couple...a family) are probably going to be moving. They don't know how far. Possibly a plane flight but maybe just a car drive. But either way, it won't be the same. We won't see them as much. We won't see their kids as much. We won't talk as much. It will be different.

But what I hope is this. That it will also be the same. That though our physical relationship will change as in physically where we are and where they are...that our friendship will remain untouched. That whenever we do see them, it will be like they were never gone.

That's what I hope. I have to. Because otherwise, I'll just missed them and wallow and be sad until I somehow forget them forever and all would be lost.

When friends are leaving, you realize how blessed you were to have them close. But when friends are gone, that's when you realize how blessed you are to be united in Christ. That's the difference maker. It's not because of our own merit. But it's because God has the ability to tie our hearts together in a way that we by our own merit, cannnot. And once tied, it would be unnatural for them to sever.

Hope, friendship, love. I am thankful for these today. Knowing that my true friends are tied to me by a bond that is not easily broken and perhaps not broken at all; God's love.

Proverbs 17:17
A friend loves at all times,
and a brother is born for adversity.

Psalm 97:10

Okay, so the following post was written like a week and a half ago and wasn't posted until today because I haven't had time. But that's good. Because after I wrote this post, it seemed like God really blessed the time I did have and helped me use it more wisely. So....ya....

Let those who love the LORD hate evil, for he guards the lives of his faithful ones and delivers them from the hand of the wicked.

Do I love the Lord? Yes. Do I hate evil?

Well, what is evil?

I think a better definition would be anything that is not of the Lord.
And I think even better, would just be write examples of evil:
>sexual immorality, lust
>anger, bitterness
>gossip, discord
>envy, jealousy, coveting
>slothfulness, laziness, wasting time
and many more

So do I hate evil? I should. But sometimes, I think I indulge in it.

By watching TV, wasting time (not my time, because I didn't obtain time on my own, it literally, isn't mine, and if it is mine because it was given to me, wasting it is wrong because that is the last thing I would want someone to do if I gave them some of my time...but I digress), coveting people or things I see on TV or facebook or twitter, enjoying the gossip and discord I waste time reading about on the Internet or watching on television...and this could go on for a while.

What's my point? That I love the Lord, but my actions seem as though I love evil, too. And God really convicted me of this today. It cannot be both. I need to make a choice. And I choose the Lord. And today, I'm asking Him to help me follow through on that choice.

I deleted my twitter account today, and I asked my husband to change the password on his facebook so I can no longer log on. And I am asking Him for help to quit watching TV every night and day. And instead, to know Him more. By reading about Him, writing about Him, being around others who are like Him and being like Him around others who don't know Him. It's a lot, I know. Seems impossible, actually. But that's what makes it great. He does the impossible. And I'm excited. Kind of feel free-er.

Hospital Snow Week

Was in the hospital this past week. Too bad I didn't have a laptop, I really could have caught up on all my blogging.

So apologies there for the 2 months of zero com. (communication, i'm into abbrevs now)

Anyway, it snowed so no one could visit me, and basically tv drove me to the point of insanity. Thankfully, my wonderful mother-in-law, who happens to work at the very hospital I was in, brought me a great book to read thus saving me from total insanity.

Check it out, it's called, "A Perfect Day" by Richard Paul Evans.

It's a great fiction with a wonderful perspective of love and forgiveness, and how we as humans often fail to understand things of that nature until we are forced to by the hardships of life. It's a quick read.

FYI: I'm better now, and I'll be back to blogging. Why? Because I miss it.