define success
To laugh often and much, to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children, to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends, to appreciate beauty, to find the best in tothers, to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch... to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded!
-- Emerson
i would add living a life modeled after Christ to that definition but oh! how i need to wed my heart to such ideas. so often i get caught up defining my worth in areas of my life that should not occupy even a sliver of my concern. what does it matter if i do x, y, & z if a, b, & c aren't being fulfilled? over and over my life is being turned upside down - this season in my life is marked by reevaluation of my priorities. what are my actions saying about what i value? truth be told - the internet is ruling my time more than it should. suzanne gave me some laughs today when i read this comic on her blog, but it rang a little too close to home for me. it might not show it but i've been trying little by little to pull back from the virtual world and more into the real real world. back to cooking and cuddling (no that either are in short supply, but you can never have too much). back to sleeping and drinking tea, planning a garden, cleaning out cupboards, thinking aloud, and shoveling snow, reading books, getting the mail when the babies are sleep instead of using the stumble! feature on my firefox for an hour or obsessively checking to see if it is my move on scrabulous. the interwebs gives me too much to think about and none of it really matters on a foundational level. like, is my life being enriched by facebook? hardly! while i have developed true and meaningful relationships with many many people that otherwise would never have come to pass had we both not plugged into this little box together, i need to live in my own life more instead of plugging in (and thus unplugging from present-life) sigh. im really tired today. ignore my musings
6 comments:
you are one of a handful of people i have learned to know & love through this interweby thing. i mean, we've known each other since before we were married! and that just seems like so long, even though in the grand scheme of things it is not. you are among only a few though, that i know i could sit in a room with or you could show up in my kitchen & we could bake & let our babies play & our husbands chill on the couch & just BE together, like real people, not just through this machine. i don't think we'd skip a beat & in fact, i think we'd get along even better. nothing would get lost in translation, you know?
peace & love to you.
(this was just my very long way of saying i feel the same way, am doing the same things)
We are a lot alike yet we hardly know each other. I'm greatful for the people I have met online but feel I'm spending WAY too much free time "plugged in" as you say. That comic was hilarious because it seems like everything I do is scripted in my head as a live journal entry before it has even finished. I need to stop. But spring is coming soon. GARDENING TIME! WEEE HOOO! Keep up your crazy/awesome back to the earth thinking. You kick ass!
There is great good to be done here in the world, while we are here. That includes the internet, and I am grateful that you share so much of yourself there. I'm grateful to have met you here. This is the way I handle the issue of balance. I check my email. I write what my heart wants to send into the cyber world, and when I feel the balance is off - I turn the computer off. May my children's memories of me be mostly of my smiling face, and loving arms. What I write is for them, too - and someday they will read it and know that I was human, too. That is one of the greatest gifts, next to my faith in Christ, that I can give to them.
amanda - i couldnt agree more!! i cannot believe we have known each other that long! WOW! time flies indeed.
radiantsun - i think you're onto something with the seasonal change thing. i feel like ive been in a "plugged in" mode for a while now but im not giving credit to the fact that it is winter and thus much more homebound than we would be in nicer weather.
abby - you are very encouraging, always!
you are very inspiring.
a true testimony that there is real love in this world,
and you've provided me with the comfort of knowing that it's alright to spill out your heart to these crazy kind of strangers, because there is compassion, and there is hope.
it's a crazy thing, this internet.
thank you for inspiring me to be honest and real.
good going.
OH- &you really are a superhero for birthin them babies at home.
[looks down guiltily]
I understand completely. One of my new year's resolutions was to avoid plugging in on the weekends (my primary family time).
So far, fairly good. Other than looking up directions or exchanging messages with local friends for the purpose of actually MEETING UP... pretty good (But I do still find myself THINKING about plugging in! ugh!).
Post a Comment