This is the
From Donald Miller’s A Million Miles in a Thousand Years
When I got back from Los Angeles, I got together with my friend Jason who has a thirteen year old daughter. He was feeling down because he and his wife had found some pot hidden in their daughter’s closet. She was dating a guy, too, a kid who smelled like smoke and only answered questions with single words: “Yeah,” “No,” “Whatever,” and “Why?” And “Why?” was the answer Jason hated most. Have her home by ten, Jason would say. Why? the guy would ask. Jason figured this guy was the reason his daughter was experimenting with drugs.
“You thought about grounding her?” I asked. “Not allowing her to date him?”
“We’ve tried that. But it’s gotten worse.” Jason shook his head and fidgeted his fingers on the table. Then I said something that caught his attention. I said that his daughter was living a terrible story.
“What do you mean?” he asked.
To be honest, I didn’t know exactly what I meant. I probably wouldn’t have said it if I hadn’t just returned from the McKee seminar. But I told him about the stuff I’d learned, that the elements of story involve a character who wants something and overcomes conflict to get it. Even as I said this, I wasn’t sure how it applied to his daughter.
“Go on,” my friend said.
“I don’t know, exactly, but she’s not living a very good story. She’s caught up in a bad one.” I said a lot of other things and he kept asking questions. We must have talked for an hour or more, about how novels work and why some movies are meaningful and others simply aren’t. I didn’t think much of it. I just thought he was curious about movies.
A couple months later I ran into Jason and asked about his daughter. “She’s better,” he said to me, smiling. And when I asked why, he told me that his family was living a better story.
The night after we talked, Jason couldn’t sleep. He thought about the story his daughter was living and the role she was playing inside that story. He realized he hadn’t provided a better role for his daughter. He hadn’t mapped out a story for his family. And so his daughter had chosen another story, a story in which she was wanted, even if she was only being used. In the absence of a family story, she’d chosen a story in which there was risk and adventure, rebellion and independence. “She’s not a bad girl,” my friend said. “She was just choosing the best story available to her.”
I pictured his daughter flipping through the channels of life, as it were, stopping on a story that seemed most compelling at the moment, a story that offered her something, anything, because people can’t live without a story, without a role to play. “So how did you get her out of it?” I asked. And I couldn’t believe what he told me next.
Jason decided to stop yelling at his daughter and, instead, create a better story to invite her into. He remembered that a story involves a character who wants something and overcomes conflict to get it.
“I started researching stuff on the internet,” Jason said, “and I came across an organization that builds orphanages around the world. And that sounded to me like a pretty good ambition, something maybe my family could try to do together. It sounded like a good story.”
“Right,” I said, trying to remember the elements of story myself.
“So I called this organization,” Jason continued, “And it takes about twenty-five thousand dollars to build one of these orphanages. And the truth is, we don’t have the money. I mean we just took out a second mortgage. But I knew if we were going to tell a good story, it would have to involve risk.”
“That’s true,” I said, remembering it from the seminar.
“So I went home and called a family meeting,” my friend continued. “I didn’t tell my wife first, which it turns out was a big mistake. But I told them about this village and about the orphanage and all these terrible things that could happen if these kids don’t get an orphanage. Then I told them I agreed to build it.”
“You’re kidding me,” I said.
“No, I’m not. And my wife sat there looking at me like I’d lost my mind. And I looked at my daughter, her eyes as big as melons, and she wasn’t happy. She knew this would mean she’d have to give up her allowance and who knows what else. They just sat there in silence. And the longer they sat there, the more I wondered if I had lost my mind.”
“I actually think you might have lost your mind,” I said, feeling somewhat responsible.
“Well, maybe so,” Jason said, looking away for a second with a smile. “But it’s working out. I mean things are getting pretty good, Don.”
Jason went on to explain that his wife and daughter went back to their separate rooms and neither of them talked to him. His wife was rightly upset that he hadn’t mentioned anything to her. But that night while they were lying in bed, he explained the whole story thing, about how they weren’t taking risks and weren’t helping anybody and how their daughter was losing interest.
“The next day,” he said, “Annie came to me while I was doing the dishes.” He collected his words. “Things had just been tense for the last year, Don. I haven’t told you everything. But my wife came to me and put her arms around me and leaned her face into the back of my neck and told me she was proud of me.
“You’re kidding,” I said.
“I’m not,” my friend said. “Don, I hadn’t heard Annie say anything like that in years. I told her I was sorry I didn’t talk to her about it, that I just got excited. She said she forgave me but that it didn’t matter. She said we had an orphanage to build, and that we were probably going to make bigger mistakes, but we would build it.” My friend smiled as he remembered his wife’s words.
“And then Rachel came into our bedroom, maybe a few days later, and asked if we could go to Mexico. Annie and I just sort of looked at her and didn’t know what to say. So then Rachel crawled between us in the bed like she did when she was little. She said she could talk about the orphanage on her web site and maybe people could help. She could post pictures. She wanted to go to Mexico to meet the kids and take pictures for her website.”
“That’s incredible,” I said.
“You know what else, man?” Jason said. “She broke up with her boyfriend last week. She had this picture on her dresser and took it down and told me he said she was too fat. Can you believe that? What a jerk.”
“A jerk,” I agreed.
“But that’s done now,” Jason said, shaking his head. “No girl who plays the role of a hero dates a guy who uses her. She knows who she is. She just forgot for a little while.”
-Donald Miller
Talk to me, Monkees. Do you know what you’d like your family’s story to be?
I’m thinking about drafting one. Scary, though.
Love, G
I am too tired to say anything intelligent, but i just want to express my gratitude for this post, Glennon, and for this incredibly thoughtful discussion, Monkees. Wow. Love it all.
Awesome, awesome, awesome. That is about all I can say. I will print this off and save it and thumbtack it to my head when I start to lose my way
Abbey
couldn't go to sleep without checking your comments one more time.
diane — we have that sign in our kitchen "home is where your story begins" —
looked at it differently after reading today's blog and comments.
G — brought up your post today in our marriage counselling session. it led to a 45 minute discussion on how we are raising our child in the church and finding one that would suite all of us as a family (since he rarely goes) and our social lives.
anyway, just want to thank you all for thought provoking day.
7 Habits of Highly Effective Families by Steve Covey (sp?) has an excellent chapter on family mission statements. forgot it was in there, but pulled out the book thinking how this all related and there it was. God is good. Trust and obey.
kate
Yikes!– the randomly selected word confirmation for my post a moment together spelled out "angst."
Luckily, as we bumble our way through marriage and parenting, we seem to be in sync ideologically (and aesthetically, which really helps in the home design decisions). I don't know that we'll start with the building of an orphanage, but he has recently been thinking more about how we spend money. He wrote 2 big checks at the end of the year to our church and the summer camp where I serve on the board. That was the best Christmas present! We discussed giving money to Haiti and then he made a bigger donation to Partners in Health than i was expecting. We've also been talking about how we'd rather spend discretionary money on experiences than on stuff.
I had a revelation about my family yesterday– my sister who is the most materially and professionally successful is the unhappiest by far. I ache for her and her family to rewrite their story, but I don't know if she would take this post as a criticism rather than a hope.
another post that makes me uncomfortable with my very comfortable life.
thank you.
4 or 5 beers, Virginia. This is a biggie.
I love your definition of spirituality. I shall write it down, and perhaps use it in a post down the road when you've forgotten you actually wrote it.
I've been thinking about this essay all day– and so many comments really speak to me.
The "choose your own adventure" story really clicks to me. I'm the youngest of 4 daughters and we are definitely variations on the theme of my parents' story. I am the youngest and was the only one left at home for many years– which were also the years when they became really involved in the church and in pursuing their own faith lives. They took me along on that part of the story, mostly because I was there, but it really strikes me that I am the only one of our family who stayed with our faith tradition (another converted to Catholicism after she got married and the other two have mostly opted out).
As I look at my 4 kids, I wonder what they will choose and refuse from what we offer.
I need a larger narrative in my life– one where something bigger than me is at the center. Call it service or community or God, but it is a sense that I'm part of something larger and more important than my own needs or wants. That's my definition of spirituality– that we are all connected and that our individual biological selves are not as important as the whole system. It keeps my own stresses in check a little to remember that we are all struggling to do the best we can and that my own contribution, however small, is still important.
For now, that's in the micro level at home. We try to remind our older kids that they are part of a family and that each of us sometimes has to take a backseat to the larger needs of that unit. When they complain about having to wait for something fun while the babies nap, I'm reminding them of how much time the girls spend hanging out in the stroller during a karate class or a school pickup. I'm hoping they will get the idea about the larger world in time as we make baby kits for Haiti or pray for friends and family.
I love the idea of having a core mission for our family– I'll get my husband a beer before I bring this up. It seemed to help Craig.
G,
4 books in a box that arrived from Amazon.com today (gotta love Prime) speak to the fact that you're not too shabby a beauty collector either! You're welcome, Chimmy.
Thanks, Diane! LOVE IT!
Rebecca,
Mine is brewing and bubbling, too. It's exciting. I love that description. I think God is the brewing and the bubbling.
Diane, where would we Monkees be without you? Thank you, beauty collector.
Here 'tis, G,
from PROVERBS AND TINY SONGS by Antonio Machado
7
I love Jesus, who said to us:
heaven and earth will pass away.
When heaven and earth have passed away,
my word will still remain.
What was your word, Jesus?
Love? Forgiveness? Affection?
All your words were
one word: Wakeup.
I really enjoyed reading this post and all of your comments. As a child I often wished to be a part of something, I felt ok and pretty good at many things, but I had no passion, no drive, I longed for "my thing". I think I was missing my story. I wanted to be a part of something but had no idea how to do that. I joined a church on my own at age 13, I walked there each Sunday. I signed myself up for confirmation class…I was searching, but I was still not finding. I think I am still searching in a way, but I feel closer now than ever to finding my story. I feel it brewing and bubbling. I see it blooming in raising a special needs child, I see it in finding my way as a parent, I see it in new creative ideas that seem to keep coming at 2 AM.
I don't want my children to feel lost like I did. I really like the idea of being proactive about a story for my family.
"Those Who Stand For Nothing, Fall For Anything" – Alexander Hamilton
I like this quote. Now what do I stand for? I am sick of falling!!
Diane, Diane are you there?
Remember that amazing poem you sent me about Jesus and WAKE UP? can't find it, although i typed it up to keep it. chimmy keeps reminding me of it.
Great post and comments! So many things to think about.
Chimmy, your pastor's quote is perfect — "It is tough being an Easter people in a Good Friday world." I never thought about it in that way, but it is so true.
Chimmy, now I have some new things to order! yay!
I hope I didn't throw things off by adding the "writing" part. Miller's point was just that a good story and a good life are made of the same elements. And we can make our lives (and our families) a good story by taking risks and involving ourselves with life and people and adventure and goodness.
I THINK that was his point. You out there, Don?
Help us out.
Before I go, thanks for sharing Carol! We've got to recognize and change what we can when the plot thickens, twists and turns.
I interpreted Miller's passage to be less about having high expectations and setting goals, but more about giving your life purpose and meaningful direction at every turn- 'living deliberately and consciously' as Glennon summed it up. I'll recommend it again – Living Buddha, Living Christ by Thich Nhat Hanh and I'll also add a film recommendation- Wide Awake with Joseph Cross, Dana Delaney and Rosie O'Donnell.
Now, I'll go and stay awake.
Bravo Tricia! Getting the kids involved early is a great idea! Passing on mission work, keeps you and the kids involved.
We need a Monkee mission trip!! If you are in Seattle, Monkee West Coast Mama Marie is involved in Sustainable Seattle and I'm sure they could use some volunteers to keep Seattle clean!
If you are in and around NoVA or the D-M-V… e-mail me about projects you are already involved in that could use a volunteer. I love putting myself to good use (especially when the weather is sooooo nice) – chimmymunthali@yahoo.com.
I've gotta sign off for now. I need to go buy a new shelf for the "G books". I've got just the right spot for them in my new house
Great essay! Lots and lots here to contemplate. While my rebellious or uh restless side really likes, scratch that, loves the unwritten path. Still, I do like the story metaphor and the idea of sitting down and writing it, in my mind or physically writing it down on paper. And I do agree with SLM 100% and heed her concerns about the story being too rigid.
I believe most every monkee will lean towards the type of flexibility Erin described as we live out our stories and our family stories.
Our stories evolve
But we can shape that evolution with purpose.
Carin and Kate, hang in there sisters! My Mom was and is the family spiritual leader. My Dad's family is Roman Catholic, but he converted officially to Presbyterian to marry his love. (All together now, "Awwww"). She did all of the taking us to church while he checked out for many years, but eventually, joined the family's religious story Mom had been writing all along. I can't put it to words how she did it except to say that she encouraged us to be on our journeys with God, personally, intimately,in a way that we would never relate to anyone else. That God would find that way to touch us and we just needed to be open to it. Dad came around during a time when our family went through some crazy downs and he could witness her unshakeable faith and the church community that supported us. Good luck to you both, I can not imagine it being easy, especially as the children grow older and really start trying to understand their faith.
Many prayers for the WV miners and Chinese miners. And still more prayers for the areas that are experiencing a serious spike in violence – Pakistan, Russia, Afghanistan, etc. My pastor's Easter sermon rings true. It is tough being an Easter people in a Good Friday world.
You can replace Easter with Hot Pink and Good Friday with Khaki if you aren't a christian.
Have a good, hot pink kinda week, monkees!
Ooh … I might have to think about this some more and come back and comment properly. But I just had to stop now and send out a comment back to thegoodwench: (bear with me, this is long …)
My husband was raised KNOWING that after school he was going to go to University (here in the UK 'College' often means the equivalent of the last 2 years of US high school). He's plenty smart enough, and it was always assumed that University was the right thing to do. Everyone would tell you that he should go; nobody stopped to ask whether it was actually the right fit for him. Going on to University is what bright students who seem to have it all together and who get lots of As do, right?
So he went off … and had a depression/panic/anxiety-related breakdown in his first week. This was a Uni where he was living away from home, he was miserable from the time we dropped him off, and after sticking it out for about 4 or 5 days it was obvious he wasn't coping and that this wasn't going to work … his mum and stepmum (the latter works in counselling) went down and saw him and it was just clear that he had to come home.
So he dropped out for that year … and reapplied for the next year, to a university which was closer to home, so he could commute, to reduce the stress/shock of moving out and living on his own etc. (He spent his year out doing work experience at a primary school and trying to sort himself out, and by the end of the year he seemed a lot better.) That went better … he got through the first year okay, really stressed about exams at the end, but what student isn't?
Then the second year was much harder … and he got into a complete state before the second year exams, talked to his tutor about it, went to the University Counselling service who assessed him and basically agreed that he was shutting down due to stress and that he wasn't going to cope if he kept trying to push through it. He left then (without taking the exams), with the University offering him the chance to take a year off and then come back to the degree (he'd scored extremely well in the first year).
It's now a few years since then, and he's been working in retail, and thinking and learning a lot more about himself, and basically working out that just because he was really good at academic stuff at school doesn't mean that doing a degree is right for him, so he decided against going back. Depression is an ongoing issue – he struggled through the end of high school but kept it pretty quiet and coped on the surface, basically it gets worse with stress, but the last few years have been a lot better.
Oooookay end of the massive story! Anyway, the point I wanted to make was that I don't think having things that aren't discussed is healthy. One of the things my husband had to deal with when he left for the second time was suddenly feeling that he'd failed at what everyone expected him to do, and that was … pretty tough. And then there was 'Well … what do I do now? I mean, it was always laid out: school, then university, then something directly related to my degree … what now?'
Don't get me wrong, high expectations are definitely (in general!) a good thing. But I think that what you've done with your kids sounds good, and wanted to share that the expectation that College is definitely the Thing To Do can go wrong.
–Carol
(sorry for really long comment!)
This post brings up so much that is going on in my head right now. For one, I want my children to be involved in mission work, so I am trying to figure out how to go about that. Locally with the homeless. Internationally as our church sets out to raise money to build an orphanage in Rwanda. Nationally as we have a mission trip headed to TN in July. There are so many ways and I am trying to sort through what I think my children could handle. I have also contemplated and still am, enrolling them in a Christian school where mission work is just part of their school. Because truly I feel like social activism should be part of our lives. I am very interested in getting this book and will definitely put it on my list of reads.
Thank you for posting this Glennon. Very well written.
Tricia
One thought about writing a story:
It's interpreted differently by each reader. I think of this as the middle daughter of three and how each of us girls chose such different paths in life in terms of dealing with our family story (major plot points were divorced parents, alcoholic father). I know each "character" is subject to things others aren't so maybe the story is more like those choose your own adventure series that were out when I was a kid…
Just thinking/saying out loud.
Yes! – either an intentionally written story (even though probably with some unintentional twists and turns) or a drama all their own. Lots to think about here – good stuff, Glennon, thanks! I have not read any Donald Miller yet but have Blue Like Jazz on the way from amazon!
Liz
The largest wooden sign in my house reads, "Home is where your story begins." I love the family as story metaphor. Besides living deliberately, what speaks to me is that our children, the "characters," are going to want and expect a plot in their stories. If we don't provide them with some shared action (i.e., drama), they'll find their own…
After I read this book I thought, this sounds so much like Glennon, but as a single male, and not quite as good. I stand by this review.
Yes, Sue Ann and Kate and Erin! I really do also wish I had you all as neighbors..
Life really is all about choices. And, Sue Ann great point about Love being an action not just warm and fuzzy. I think we lose sight of this often.
Those choices in hs did make for a much happier story for me and I can attest to the opposite, as well. I floundered in college, no real purpose or "story" and in turn took part in a much sadder story during college and young adulthood. Purpose and better choices eventually took hold (Thank you, God) and now I'm once again in a better story. We really do all have Free Will to write our own stories. I've been thinking about this all morning.
Thank you, Glennon, as was said earlier, this was definitely a post worth waiting for. I have to say, my first thought was, "Wow, you mean, I get to write the story?" Silly when I say it out loud, but really I think I spend so much time letting life happen and reacting to it rather than driving it. This post has really gotten me thinking about what I want my family's role to be and how we can get there.
wow. very thought provoking indeed. i think it is so important to teach our kids to live purposefully and deliberately. and, if we aren't doing it ourselves they have no example to follow.
i love the idea of writing my family's story but i will deliberately leave it unfinished, or open-ended so it can evolve as we grow. how fun would that be to keep adding to it and have the kids add their own chapters as well? you know, to really involve them so they understand at an early age that their lives aren't just something that are happening around them. that they are actually the authors of their lives.
G – I shared this blog with you before. Vitafamiliae is another blog I really enjoy. The author wrote a post about being purposeful in your parenting – what are you really trying to achieve with your parenting, etc? Here is a link to the post.
http://www.vitafamiliae.com/?p=2887
Also, she homeschools her 3 children, with 2 other younger ones at home. She has a whole category about homeschooling ideas that you might enjoy.
yes Sue ann, yes! hi Sue ann! and SLM and Carin and Krystal and Kathleen!
Brooks,
NOT heavy on the religion. Actually nothing about religion, although I think he mentions Jesus at the end. And he calls God "the writer," when he mentions him at all. Maybe you could just pretend he's talking about Howard Zinn. (Sister got me the People's History for my birthday. Can't wait)
You know what I wish you would read? The Irresistable Revolution. The author is like you, or Howard Zinn, but Jesusy. A serious activist. Also brilliant and funny. I just think if you read it, you might be comforted to know that there are lots of peeps out there who are down with Jesus but you could still dig and love and respect.
I think you should just let me send you the books. Or I'll leave them with MK and she can read them and then send them to you, and you can read them or use them as door stops, whatever.
I want to hear what you'd like your family story to be.
My family story is that my kids watch cartoon while I type on this here computer.
What a great essay. I might need to read that book, but tell the truth – is it a religious book?
Dave and I don't even have kids yet, but we talk A LOT about what their story will be like. I just never thought to call it that. I'd like to point out that a family's story need not be heavy on religion or money (I mean, at least I HOPE it doesn't, because I'm lacking in both.)
XO
Brooks
First, thanks for being here Monkees. Wish we all lived in a neighborhood together! I like the idea of writing our family story…being deliberate about raising my children and not just floating through life. Love is an action, something that we do and not just a "feeling". I have the same ideas about my faith–it is an action, something that I do and not a "feeling". Jesus is a man of action, not warm fuzzies. Although, with that action, the peace that comes can be like a warm fuzzy. Hope that makes sense! I find that when I am most "faithful" or "faith-filled" it can be really hard, tiring work except that I don't notice the hard and tiring part because the work part is so awesome.
Molly that makes PERFECT Sense. your parents invited you into a better story. love it.
Kate, you just said what Miller says throughout the book, that we are all writing a story each day based on the choices we make. No writing it down necessary.
And sometimes the hero goes to the pet store when she's really, really tired and sets up a 20 gallon tank when she (and he) are even more tired. and then she struggles through all of the pain and challenges of marriage without giving up hope, one day at a time. i like your story. you sound like a hero to me.
family mission statement — there is lots on line about this. it would give a guide for those who want to write their family. it's something our former pastors had us do. i miss them so much. so important to have strong leadership at work, church and in the family. it's our job as parents to be strong leaders for our childre. in order to do that, we need to know who we are and what we believe. also, important to let them learn who they are and not who we want them to be, as miss molly was saying.
Kate
Great post and I agree with Carin…I think I need a sponsor for my book list…
"No girl who plays the role of a hero dates a guy who uses her. She knows who she is. She just forgot for a little while.” I LOVE this. A HERO for a young girl or boy can me sooo many things. Your family's story, of course. But in addition, Another way that I interpreted this is that as parents, it is so important to encourage children's dreams or aspirations; whether that be in sports, dance, music, writing, activism or the church. It is so important to feel we have a role; a purpose. I know that I felt very lost when I moved to a new school during my early teen years. That first year was filled with much doubt, insecurity and loneliness. Kids can be so cruel and unwelcoming. My parents encouraged and encouraged (drove me crazy!) to participate in different group activities that I had previously enjoyed. When I eventually mustered up the courage (With parent's encouragement) to try out for a sport, it changed my hs experience. I actually got pretty darn good and become the captain…in my little world I was a hero and I wasn't interested in some of the other "sad stories" that were taking place aound me.. does that make sense?
Yesterday our 7 year old broke down in tears that he wants a brother and said i (the mom) don't know what it's like to be an "only child." And then it spiraled into wanting a pet to keep him company. Since our dog died in Jan., we went to the fish store and got a 20 gallon tank. It took my husband 2 hours to put the thing together.
Don't know how this relates to our family story, but as i write this i think we are all creating "family stories" everyday. Even if it's just preparing to bring fish into the home — not ready for an orphanage.
A good thing to do would be write a family mission statement. More on that later.
Carin — I am also struggling to be the spiritual leader of our family, as my husband rarely goes. On Easter our son asked why daddy didn't come with us. I also feel like i'm drowning with it all and need to be strong and stay afloat for our son — good analogy as we'll bring home fish at the end of the week.
Kate
Love, Love, Love this post Glennon! It has provided me with much needed food for thought this morning. Thank you for sharing!!
It just felt true to me. I know there will always be a million unexpected plot turns in our stories no matter how carefully they're written, but I like the idea of trying to write your family as a story. It's just about living deliberately and consciously, I guess. It's a way of saying THIS is what we believe in, and then doing it together instead of just saying it.
I don't think it matters what your story is, every family's will be different. But just that you have an idea of where you're going.
Without a map, it's hard to find the destination, right? Which is why you'll never find a successful business who doesn't have a carefully written mission statement.
And most importantly, this writing your story thing forces you to think about what you care about instead of running on auto-pilot and just caring about what everybody else tells you to care about. I love it. Every life is a story, why not write your own?
Also, I think we BORE our kids with Jesus sometimes, so they think church is lame. But it shouldn't be. Jesus was the ultimate rebel. Maybe if we involved them in life projects that Jesus would have cared about, they would know in their souls that they were involved in a big, great story, and they'd stay in the right kind of trouble, since it would be scary and wild and true.
Just an idea.
You know, this might not be related, but it reminded me of how my brother and his wife have raised their kids KNOWING that after school they will go to college. It's not discussed, it's just the way things are going to be. Their kids are in elementary school and will tell you "after high school I'll be going to Va Tech". My kids haven't been told that. They've been told "after high school you either go to college, join the military or get a well paying job(unlikely), but you can't stay here unless you are doing something with your life". Now that they're bigger and facing those choices, I kind of wish that I'd taken more of a staunch stance in terms of their future. It's not a regret and I'm still not sure I did it "wrong" because my one college aged child is in college. I just know that when they were little I was making choices for them, not allowing them too much freedom of choice, because I felt that I owed that to them. I think I may have given them the freedom of choice just a bit too early.
My head tells me I'm not cut out for massive plot lines like Jason's family but I'll give it more thought because my gut tells me that I am. Annoying gut.
Great post today, Glennon. Well worth the wait!
Oh, yeah, and can we throw in a Monkee prayer for the miners still trapped in WV and for the families that lost a loved one yesterday? So sad and they work so hard.
Thought provoking. Just remember though, that sometimes the story you write for your family isn't the story the members choose to participate in. In your writings G, you show that your parents provided a beautiful, wonderful story opportunity for you to participate in (and most of us are envious that we didn't have THOSE parents!) Nonetheless, the self-image issues persisted and the festive years occurred.
Sometimes, the things that look destructive to outsiders are in fact, part of the story that helps us become the beautiful woman God has in mind when he starts out with that XX growing inside a mom!
Okay. This one is going to involve a lot of meditation, prayer, and a TON of coffee. And here I'm struggling with how to be the spiritual leader of my family when my husband doesn't like my church because it's not Catholic and yet he doesn't go to mass, and I have no idea how to do it on my own and I may be drowning in the deep end. Although, maybe the 2 are hand-in-hand. Did that make ANY sense?
What I really meant to say is "Thanks, Glennon. I really really really loved that and I'm going to be buying that book in the next week". Oh, and stop adding books to my list it's going to cost me a fortune to buy all of these (buying so I can highlight and write in the margins). I may need a sponser
Wow. I'm going to have to give this one some thought. What a big idea. Huge . . . I wonder what it means for me?
MK