"A word in the mind is like a pebble in the shoe."

"May you work on yourself,
Building up and refining the ways of your mind...

May you treasure the gifts of the mind
Through reading and creative thinking
So you continue as a servant of the frontier
Where the new will draw its enrichment from the old,
And you never become a functionary." 
                              - For a Leader,  John O'Donohue


Doug grabbed a book at the library which he thought I might like - and I do like it!

Does This Church Make me Look Fat? by Rhoda Janzen. http://rhodajanzen.com 

I'm not sure yet how the book title actually relates to the content but I am enjoying the story and insights.  For example - learning to hold oneself more loosely and others more carefully.

"The stories we surround ourselves with can either move us forward or hold us back.  A word in the mind is like a pebble in the shoe: both can bring our journey to a full stop....we ended up learning a lesson about language.  We both got stuck on words.  I should never have asked if my friends from the dinner party believed in a literal fish. [the discussion included Jonah and the whale]  Whoo boy.  We can hold so tightly to language that our grip on it actually weakens communication,  We insist on our interpretation, but at what cost!  How lovely it would be if we could hold our words loosely, like sand cupped underwater, carried away by the swift moving current of meaning itself.

Like Leroy, we white out the past [teenager -  painted over phrases on his bedroom walls relating to how much he loved the girl who had just ditched him:)] We erase not our history, but its power to harm us.  This is what it takes to move forward: an outpouring of grace, coat after coat, day after day, a willingness to keep going back to the room that speaks of our defeat.  Faith is the hope that our work will have meaning, that someday our troubled rooms will be transformed."

"In surrendering to the divine we yield to divine transformation. A causes B.  This surrender is the only intentional gesture we can make to invite real and permanent character change.  It may not perfect us; but thank God, it sure makes us better than we were..."