On the corner of bitter and sweet

Loved the first book of my first Book Club, “Hotel on the corner of bitter and sweet.”

It is a beautiful love story set with the backdrop of the Japanese internment. I saw my experience in many bits and pieces of the immigrant story even when you are a 2nd or 3rd generation (as I am) and how this informs your understanding of honor, loyalty, love and loss. It was poignant and touched me in a deep way.

Stillness and surrender

We are focusing on a season of prayer at church asking that there is an outpouring and indwelling of the Holy Spirit in our lives and in our church. It is a good focus. It is also an invitation. I have discovered the invitation is to slow down and connect with God. I realized you can’t devote greater fellowship time with God if you are traveling at break-neck speed. An interesting phrase as I think of it! It seems — or maybe I am just picking up on it more — that everyone is busy and everyone laments at how crazy busy their lives are. Isn’t it true that most of the busy-ness we impose on ourselves? Most of the time, it is because we don’t give ourselves enough space of don’t exercise discipline in focusing on WHAT IS important in our lives to know what to say “yes” to and what to say “no” to. You are not alone. We all live in this place.

Sometimes, life has a way of putting on the breaks. Our own illness or the illness of others. A sudden crisis in our lives or the lives of others we care about. This is not how you want to create focus and surrender in your life.

I am trying to be mindful of creating space and opportunities for stillness and surrender in my life. “Surrender” was my focus word this year but I tend to get wound up and forget about this focus more times than I would like to admit.

Last night I was practicing stillness and surrender in this yoga class by the ocean. The echo of such intentional moments of focus lingers. It encourages me to connect more with my purpose, with God, the Creator of my purpose, with thinking about the next step that will take me toward living my purpose, with thinking about the things i need to CUT OUT that distract me from my purpose.

It’s a good exercise. Think about where you can find some stillness to connect with God and your purpose. It’s a good thing.