Home

Home. Such a loaded word.

I've been thinking a lot about 'home' through the past few weeks. Since I've been fighting bronchitis, strep, sinus, and ear infections I've spent more time at home than 'normal.' I've also spent more time in other people's homes because of the holiday season. I've decided that some homes have a wonderful feeling of welcome - like I could just stay (forever) and some homes make me want to go home (pretty quickly).

Biblical hospitality is so much more than cleaning house and perfecting meal plans... it is rooted in welcoming the stranger and in having a higher regard for the stranger than for oneself...  This is something I long to offer to others as they have offered it to me. (And let's face it - even in our own families we are sometimes 'the other' or 'the stranger'... anything we can do to welcome each other will go a long way toward wholeness in our homes.)

The difference makers (between a 'real' home and a 'fake' home) for me are two-fold:

1) the people
when the people open their home to you and welcome you into their lives - you want to stay

2) the surroundings
when the surroundings tell a story of the people, you feel drawn into the story of the people and into their lives

I want to be 'that' kind of 'people' and have 'that' kind of 'home'...

I don't want a 'Southern Living' home (no offense intended to 'Southern Living' - beautiful though the layouts may be in their magazine). I want a home that speaks of the people who live there. A home with a door ready to be opened to friend and family and strangers... A home where people can freely look for a blanket in the closet or Advil in the medicine cabinet or a mug in the cupboard...

I've never before considered how deeply spiritual a practice creating a home like I've described is, but it's certainly something I want to work toward. So creating space in my life to practice this each day is going to be necessary. Do you have certain spiritual habits that you 'do' while you straighten or clean or cook or decorate or organize? I'd love to hear about them.

The deeply spiritual practice of making a home that is open and welcoming to the stranger - true biblical hospitality - that's what I'm longing for. And that's what I've been thankful to have been reminded of in several homes this past month.

Peace & Presence,
MB

Rest

Today I am resting. I wasn't even sure I was going to be 'connected' to anything today (other than my mom and dad - I'm hanging out at their house since the dear husband, son and daughter are still away.) But my vision for today is rest.

Rest is something I rarely do. I tend to run hard and then crash. (Brilliant, I know!) So in Living 2010, I'm going to explore ways to improve the rhythms of doing/being, working/playing, activity/rest, etc.

How do you rest? Are you a person for whom rest is a natural part of your rhythm of living or are you like me, running on adrenalin and then crashing? I'd love to know.

A New Way of Being: Living 2010 as a Spiritual Practice

After years of thinking that the ideal life is one that is authentic, fully integrated and non-compartmentalized, I've begun to see the limitations of that short (though worthy of pursuit) list.

This year I am going to experiment with living all of life - as a whole - as a spiritual practice. I'm guessing in many ways this will be similar to beginning an intentional practice of living a more contemplative life at a pace suited to my own God-created rhythm.

1000 thoughts per second is definitely the way my brain works, so I am very interested in finding ways to both intentionally slow down and to effectively use my brain's natural way of processing information. Some of my content will be related to these 1000 thoughts per second and some will be specifically oriented to this journey toward Living 2010.

I will also be tweeting bits and pieces of this journey with #living2010 and #1000thoughts. As I'm actively involved in both 'Real Life' (RL; f2f; face to face) and 'Virtual Life' (SL; Facebook; Twitter; etc.) communities, I'm interested in integrating those worlds in my own personal context.

You can follow me on Twitter, mbmccandless, or you can find me on Facebook MaryBeth Hancock McCandless (you'll have to log in and friend me, let me know you found me through this blog). Or if you just want to offer ideas beyond a comment, feel free to email me. I'd love to be in conversation with those who are pursuing different ways of living, loving and being.

Peace & Presence,

MB