Gathering Hope: A poem

I wrote this poem as a response to our church's call for poets/musicians/artists to create a piece that reflects our four themes for this ministry year: Deepening, Gathering, Sending, and Resting. On Sunday, I was invited to read my poem at both of our services. I haven't read many of my poems aloud and so I was a little nervous, but I appreciated the opportunity to speak these words from my heart and hopefully encourage others in their journey.

I wrote this piece as a reflection of how oftentimes we put our hope in temporal things, whether work, relationships, or in other ways that we define our identity. Yet when we step back, what we put our hope in seems as meaningless as wishing on birthday candles or blowing a fallen eyelash from your fingertip. Though these temporal things are often good, they shouldn't be our ultimate. Gathering in community instead points to a greater hope, one that will not disappoint.

Me as a little girl

Gathering Hope

Stephanie Shackelford

How do you capture the smoke

from a blown out candle,


or grasp an eyelash floating to the ground -


wishes rising up and drifting down?

With one puff, a sigh of hope, 


we breathe dreams into dead air,


whether dripping wax or fallen hair.

Because empty hopes cannot satisfy empty souls, 


You require no smoke offering and already know 


when one hair falls and another one grows.

There is hope unending;


just look around,


where people gather it is found.

The hollow sound of our brokenness, 


the laughter or the sorrow,


rings with Your redemption,

freely given, not bartered or borrowed.

And we share in the glory 


of Your perfect story;

our hope in an ending already written,

and our joy in a plot to be revealed.

We gather together on this journey 


to grow into characters unworthy,


but desiring to live out Your story.

That is a hope we cannot capture


and a joy we cannot grasp


except through faith 


in a love that will last.

Best Books of 2012: Gift-Giving

As my last installment of the best books of 2012 series, I want to recommend my top choices for books that make excellent gifts.

My primary choice is One Thousand Gifts, as I already talked about on the first day of this series. If you visit the website, there are also a lot of other great gift ideas to accompany the book, such as a devotional journal and book of photographs.

My remaining picks are divided according to who the gift is for:

• For your mom, or a best girl friend:

She Walks in Beauty: A Woman's Journey Through Poems

I received this book as a gift myself (after hinting that I wanted it last year!) and think it makes a thoughtful gift. Caroline Kennedy selected each poem and arranges them according to topic. She introduces each section with personal reflections connected to the poems' themes on the topic. Her selections are excellent and range from the Romantic poets to those of modern day.

"Poems distill our deepest emotions into a very few words - words that we can remember, carry with us, and share with others as we talk and weave the cloth of life."

• For the aspiring author, or anyone who appreciates memoirs:

Bird by Bird: Some Instructions of Writing and Life

Author Anne Lamott is simply hilarious. As she describes her writing process and publishing books, she brilliantly weaves in funny personal stories. For any aspiring novelist this is a great read for a famous writer's perspective on the deliberate and frustrating - yet freeing and rewarding - process known as writing.

"You don't have to see where you're going, you don't have to see your destination or everything you will pass along the way. You just have to see two or three feet ahead of you. This is right up there with the best advice about writing, or life, I have ever heard."

• For the social advocate: 

Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide

This national bestseller is a moving account of oppression around the globe. Journalist Nicholas Kristof and his wife, Sheryl WuDunn, discuss how to fight global poverty with touching, sad, and inspirational stories of women worldwide. Among the shocking accounts that Kristof and WuDunn have witnessed are also stories of hope and practical tips on how each one of us can turn oppression into opportunity.

"Helping people is difficult and unpredictable, and our interventions don't always work, but successes are possible, and these victories are incredibly important... We may not succeed in educating all the girls in poor countries, or in preventing all the women from dying in childbirth, or in saving all the girls who are imprisoned in brothels. But we... remember a Hawaiian parable...

A man goes out on the beach and sees that it is covered with starfish that have washed up in the tide. A little boy is walking along, picking them up and throwing them back into the water. 'What are you doing, son?' the man asks. 'You see how many starfish there are? You'll never make a difference.' The boy paused thoughtfully, and picked up another starfish and threw it into the ocean. 'It sure made a difference to that one, he said."

• For your dad:

The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business

Since this book made my top nonfiction pick, I won't summarize it again here. But this book is an interesting read that any business person would enjoy for understanding the choices we make at large and individually.

• For the athlete:

Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen

This is another book from my nonfiction favorites, but it would be a great gift for any athlete, especially runners. The incredible training and races that these superathletes put themselves through is inspiring to read about.

 

Unveiling Beauty

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about a woman's beauty and how beauty is the essence of a woman - but not in the way the media portrays. You've heard it before, that from photoshopped magazines to overly form-fitting clothes, our culture constantly tells women that beauty and appearance are synonyms.

You know that beauty runs deeper than seduction or attraction or a clothing size , but what does this mean for living in beauty on a daily basis?

"Every woman has a beauty to unveil." (Captivating). 


Every bride, no matter her age, body, weight, radiates beauty. Her face isn't creased with worry about measuring up. She isn't trying to prove her worth. She saunters down the aisle fully aware and acceptant of the love waiting at the end. 

But it's not just brides- every woman has a beauty to unveil. That means you and me.  


Think of other women you know who emanate beauty, not just in outward appearance but in their whole being. Most likely they have a humble confidence. By this, I mean that they have "the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit," and they are fully secure in this beauty (1 Peter 3:4). Don't mistake "gentle and quiet" for being timid, mousy, quiet, a doormat, a pushover, etc. 


A woman with a gentle and quiet spirit is at peace, knowing she does not have to strive for perfection because beauty is already a part of who she is. She has fully been embraced by "a heart of faith, a heart that trusts in God, a spirit that has been quieted by his love and filled with his peace" (Captivating). In fact, a beautiful woman is becoming more and more who she is meant to be, whether this is funny, loud, introspective, inquisitive, thoughtful...


This kind of beauty is what invites others in. "A woman of true beauty offers others the grace to be and the room to become" (Captivating). By unveiling your beauty and being all of who you are, you also invite others to experience beauty - in you and in themselves.  

Striving for perfection takes away our beauty. Instead of being transparent and being embraced by others, it pushes them away. I encourage you to read this blog post about being confident in your beauty (not in a prideful, haughty way) but in a way that allows you to be embraced.

    And on that cheek, and o'er that brow,

        So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,

    The smiles that win, the tints that glow,

        But tell of days in goodness spent,

    A mind at peace with all below,

        A heart whose love is innocent!

-George Gordon, Lord Byron, "She Walks in Beauty"

Scissors, Haircuts, and Marriage

Today, Mom treated me to a haircut for my birthday. I was in desperate need of a cut and style, so six inches off and layers later, I now have a fresh, new, professional style for my fresh, new, professional life in Atlanta.

What does all of this have to do with marriage, as the title suggests?

Sitting next to me was an older couple, very much in love with each other. One was 80 and the other 82, yet they acted like newlyweds as they flirted and joked with each other. They admired each other's new haircuts and complimented one another throughout our conversation. When the lady found out I was recently married, she proudly told me that she'd been married over sixty years, saying, "It's worth it. You'll wake up some days wanting to run away but it's worth the hard work. 60 years later and we're loving every minute."

When they walked out of the salon hand-in-hand, my hairdresser said more to herself than to me, "That's how I want to be when I'm 80."

I thought, what a beautiful birthday gift they've just given me... a snapshot of 60 years of love.

For love all love of other sights controls,

And makes one little room an everywhere.
-John Donne, "The Good Morrow"

Why BeEmbraced? Part I

Today is a beautiful, winter day - sunny, blue skies, and just chilly enough to feel like Christmastime. It's usually easy to allow days like this to embrace me.

But what about those days, which are inevitably approaching, of gray, rainy, and dreary skies? My natural reaction is to want to pull the covers over my head and go back to sleep... or as my husband knows, put my eye mask back on and roll over.

Instead, my challenge to others and myself is to be grateful for each day, allowing the goodness and grace to wrap around you. BeEmbraced. Not that I'm ignoring or neglecting the justice and mercy still needed in our broken world. But my hope is that my posts inspire you to be embraced:

To see a world in a grain of sand
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand
And eternity in an hour.
          -William Blake, "To see a world in a grain of sand"