Tuesday Tea Time!

Happy August everyone!

I'm honored to be back to guest blog for Juls. The last time I was here it was the dead of fall, my favorite time of year. Now I'm just crossing my fingers that the Virginia heat wave gives us a break sooner rather than later.

My previous post spoke of self care, even amidst busy life seasons. Over the last 6 months I've been growing my professional life but also dedicating time to things I am passionate about on a personal level.

I recently launched This Is Infertility, a way to honor my and my husband's journey through infertility. The stories have flooded in and I'm grateful to have a moment in time to read the voices of others and hear their perspective. While they may be small glimpses into their journey, I'm reminded of the power of dialogue, and storytelling, and hard truths.

"Being heard is so close to being loved that for the average person, they are almost indistinguishable." -David Ausburger

As I go through my days, I try to remember to allow others to be heard. To embrace their truths, their journey, and their hardships. Sometimes that means quietly listening, sometimes it means offering a hug, and even sometimes it means just simply validating their truth with your words.

I find that as I become more intentional in how I listen, others are more willing to open up. And in turn, understanding of the different journeys we experience flourishes.

How can you make sure someone is heard today?

(and therefore loved.)

Oh! And my tea recommendation this week? A classic Earl Grey with a pinch of sugar with a side of a lemon wedge.

Warmly,

Lacey

Tuesday Tea Time!

Hello Tuesday Tea Timers!

Northern MI has finally been kissed with a touch of true Spring weather. It's amazing the buzz of energy this brings to everybody & everything. We're eager to celebrate the warm weather & all that it brings. We've already been enjoying the usual Spring cleaning pieces of switching out our wardrobes, sweeping out the garage, putting the cushions on the patio furniture, & taking longer walks with the furbaby.

Over the past several weeks one of the biggest blessings has been people sharing their stories of life with me. The stories have spanned the ages, years, & topics. They have all been raw with life & spirit, & the sharing created sparkle.

For decades it's been taboo to talk about the loss of a baby (at any stage), mental health complications, & much of life. We seem to make these taboo pieces taboo simply by not sharing our stories around them. The reality is though, even if our stories are that we don't have words to tell our stories, that is our story. There are great stories told in the silence & sighs of life, as well as in the the screams & exclamations.

My story, in just the last year or so, has been greatly impacted by the realities of a loved one living with mental health complications that have rocked our world. And if you've been following tea times recently, you know that last month I delivered our first baby extremely prematurely resulting in her death & the loss of a piece of our hearts. We are a living taboo & our stories are one in a million.

Thank you to all for sharing the deep, below the surface realities of life with me. We learn how to react & care for one another in the taboos of life, when we live through these moments together. Living through these moments with y'all near & far is a blessed time of sharing our hearts with one another.

Tuesday Tea Time! One Word 365!

Art By Britta Gene Art

Happy New Year! It's that time again for a new One Word 365. In 2015 my word was heart, to remind me to live with my heart out for the world. To live with my heart open to vulnerability to build community to live a life of Spirit led hospitality with the Sparkle of day to day happenings.

This year, after some playing around with words & a prayer or two, my word is 'create.' I chose create, or it chose me, so as to focus on creating space, time, & overall Life Spirit Sparkle. Space for God to be the light that has overcome all darkness, time for myself & others, and to live more fully a life led by the Spirit & filled with Sparkle.

The choosing one word instead of a big ol' resolution has become a trend, but a pretty great one in my story. As I've been reading about more & more friends, colleagues, & groups choosing one word, I'm inspired by the ways others are using their one word. Some are using it for a focus in their continuing education, others as a way to think up, in, & out, & others so they don't have to live through another big resolution gone awry & never finished.

I encourage you to live by one word that helps you be a better version of who you want to be & who you are. Choose a word that makes you smile & gives a skip in your step & a light challenge in your day - only light bc some days are challenge enough.

Share your word in the comments!

Tuesday Tea Time!

Hiya Tuesday Tea Timers!

I'm back from all my really big adventures & now just onto another new big adventure or two.

A HUGE thank you to those who filled in while I was gone. If you haven't checked them out, do so! Timothy Siburg blogs weekly - on valuable topics such as stewardship, leadership, & vocation - Britta Gene is an active artist with a heart for poetry (this month's photo - look at todays photo - is her photography work), & Lacey is a doula with a passion for living fully.

I'm so thankful for these friends in my life that live literally from one side of the country to the next. My heart is full by their sharing of their stories & by the amazing things that I got to add to my story while having these friends fill in on Tuesday Tea Time.

I hope you all found it refreshing to have some different voices present!

Coming up on Tuesday Tea Times will be some sharing of my adventures - like the day we walked nearly 13 miles in one day - & I'm sure some new things too.

We saw & experienced some really wonderful things while traveling the world, but mostly it was a time to visit family & hang out & rest. The biggest piece for me was officially being offered a new call & accepting it. So we're in a time of moving yet again.

May you warm drink - because the days have been quite chilly - warm your hands & your soul & keep you breathing deep with me as we go one day at a time.

Tuesday Tea Time!

Tuesday Tea Time!

Z & I have been home for just over a day from a wonderful time at the Extravaganza (aka E) for our second time together.

This year the theme of the event was Story. It was beautifully down to earth & such a gift to be able to experience the many stories shared.

The stories were shared by people such as the presiding Bishop of the ELCA, Elizabeth Eaton & well known author Walt Wangrin. There were also stories from Mikka McCracken & Lost & Found.

And most near & dear to heart the stories where shared amongst long time friends & mentors & new to the scene friends too.

Story, we all have many. There is one story though that connected those of us gathered at the E. The story of God made flesh. And there was no doubt that the Spirit was at work throughout the stories that were shared of great joy, sorrow, struggle, new life, & many hopes for the future.

This theme of Story will continue throughout the year as we prepare for the ELCA Youth Gathering & while Practice Discipleship events happen throughout the country. While these stories are shared keep a listening ear & open heart for how God is using you in the story of life.

One colleague shared, "Knowing your story, makes my story better!" While I found this to be true for every story shared at the E, know that many people feel the same way about your story & there are many people waiting to listen.

Sunday Snippits: good, bad, & awesome!

GOOD: Good is sharing a piece of sunshine - literally or figuratively - with one another. This past week this sunshine was shared with me - & hopefully therefore with others - through the many encounters with others. I heard or read more than once in the past week that seeing another person & living with them is seeing & living with God. This makes perfect sense to me as I have been continually returning to Genesis 1:27 recently. Come, Holy Spirit, come. All in all this past week was a good mix of my many commitments to ministry leadership. There is much excitement in the air for things yet to come!

BAD: The drive of consumerism for more, more, more. With recent cell phone hiccups & a spouse who still owns an old flip phone (gasp!) the workers at the store jump on us like hawks on prey. Seriously people, a phone that makes calls & texts is the basic desire we have. We don't need all your special plans to be able to recycle these phones that much faster when you're companies are already charging an arm & a leg. With as many people that are only using cell phones now & doing away with land lines, I truly think it would only be right if cell phone companies made phones to last more than two years. We don't buy land line phones thinking they'll only last two years so why would we want a cell phone that does that? Good grief!

AWESOME: Julia Child was once quoted for saying, "People who love to eat are always the best people." I'm SO glad to report that according to Julia I am ONE of the best people. Now let's be real, there are hundreds of us who are the best people. This past week though, I hit a wall with appetite & creativity to make new meals. That creativity is stirring making new ideas & new inspiration though already. All I needed was a trip to the produce section at Meijer! Grapefruit Goodness!

WORD: I'm given the opportunity to preach in a couple of weeks, but we have some fun adventures in between so I'm starting to sit with the passages for the week of February 8th. Aside from that, look up at the "GOOD" of today to see a little more!

coming up: Hopefully a continued nice mix of a little work with this call & a little work with that call. It's all about balance! Head up, Heart out, Move to the beat!

Friday Favorites!

This week has gone by in a blink!

Favorites included:
BEAUTIFUL FALL WEATHER

FOOTBALL

BIKE RIDE

WALKS with MG

TEA TIME

FIRE PIT TIME

CHILDHOOD CANCER AWARENESS

& a PUMPKIN BLIZZARD.

What are your Favorites today?!

Tuesday Tea Time!

 It's Tuesday so clearly there's time for tea!

Like a true mid-west Summer, August is proving to be the warmest month & therefore hot tea was a no go today. Even Z knew I didn't want my hot water started. What can I say, I married a smart one!

Unfortunately with visitors coming later in the week it's supposed to thunder storm. SO I'm also hoping & praying that like true mid-west weather, it'll change last minute & be beautiful & sunny.

If I learned anything at camp this summer, the forecast means nothing, but the sky tells everything. And we all know, the sky is the limit!

Just think of the possibilities!

This pretty little dish was an unexpected gift given to me this week. It was handed it to me with the comment, "It's for your tea bags! I saw it at work & thought of you." Well, shoot, warm my heart why dontcha! I didn't know what it would look like, though I knew it was a little dish, I was totally surprised to see the beautiful crackled glass pottery mix. This is one of my favorite looks on pottery simply because of the natural sparkle. Many thanks to AD!

Enjoy your tea & share your sparkle! Remember, the sky is the limit.

Tuesday Tea Time!

Another Tuesday on the go, but never without my tea time!

Everybody celebrates a little differently. No matter the occasion though, celebration is done out of joy.

This month has been full of celebrations. We have had safe travels, reunions with friends from all over the country, met family members for the first time face to face, watched GCN graduate from med school, celebrated birthdays, & a wedding.

My heart & head & stomach are FULL! May this fullness overflow into your lives this week & be shared with your circles of livelihood.

Happy Tuesday Tea Time!

Tuesday Tea Time!

Happy Tuesday Tea Time! The last two days have been great for many cups of warm tea due to this never ending snow.

A week from now Z & I will be on our way to adventures in Paris. Excitement & thrill do not even begin to describe how happy travel & adventure make me. It's a major bonus to be able to take this trip with my best friend.

Nearing another year of life celebration, I am often taken aback by the people that I'm connected to in life. Today I was reminded by my colleague & friend TS that people other than my mother & mother-in-law really do read my blog. This is a good thing & a humbling thing.

I write as part of my daily goal of being creative. I write to inspire joy & love. Last year, totally ready to be done with another degree, I spun my words for my thesis in a poetic & creative writing sort of way. While I love education in all its forms, I do not do the "heady professor" talk well. Instead I exude a lot of energy & excitement around certain topics & overwhelm people. I have a lot to share, just ask me!

Why should it be a surprise that others read my blog? Well, for example, TS & I don't really know each other. We were at seminary at the same time & have mutual friends, but have only ever been in the same social setting maybe two or three times. Maybe I should listen to my own words from last week & not judge myself for the impact that I have on people or the impact they may have on me. Take a risk!

Sometime in my 20s I realized how relationships truly come & go in life. I knew this earlier in life, but had plenty of examples by my mid-20s. Thankfully social media allows me to stay ever more connected than most people think we need to be. However, here we are, sharing tea, & life & hopefully some spirit & sparkle!

Tuesday Tea Time!

Do you ever feel like you have a twitch or an unsettling energy that can't be calmed easily?

It's like somebody snuck some catnip into my tea, except I'm not a cat or much of a cat lover & I made my tea.

I blame it on the changing of the seasons. Spring starts officially in 2 days even if the snow is still a few feet deep & there's more expected to fall.

I thought this twitch would be satisfied for a while with this past weekend's road trip, but it's in my soul to be adventuresome. I love seeing new scenery & meeting new people. I love hearing stories & seeing the Spirit at work in the lives of others & how that means She's working in my life.

I find community & engaging in each others' lives to be of utmost importance for survival. Maybe I'm so over saturated from all the community I experienced from my road trip that I can't help but have a twitch.

This energy or twitch is so prevalent that I am more aware of my senses & others' too. It's like the chiropractic adjustment I had done last Friday released something into the right place & it's working on staying there permanently, but because I'm so used to being out of whack, it's keeping me awake at night.

Ok, so this energy has only given me one night of restless sleep & as usual, I only had one tea bag this morning. Definitely going for the decaffeinated the rest of the day!

What gives you this twitch?

Cheers to twitchy tea time!

Sunday Snippits: Good, Bad, & Ugly

Happy Sunday! Enjoy the Snippits of Life, Spirit, & Sparkle through the Good, Bad, & Ugly. I invite you to use #lifespiritsparkle when sharing via social media throughout the week. Together life is better, Spirit is not to be denied, & sparkle is the way you or others shine in your world.

GOOD: This last week was a bit of the same ol' same ol'. A bit of work, a bit of Olympics, a bit of falling asleep on the couch because the Olympics were on so late. Z had traveled to MN & returned safely, work life continued to whirl us forward with new & changing information to finish out the week. And today we crashed because Z lead a 24 hour famine with the youth & spent the night at the church & I am just a little cruddy. In the midst of this I was able to connect with our friends B&M BR who now live in TX. Together we shared the ups & downs of life since graduating & moving in the last year. Seriously, life is so much better when shared together.

BAD: Crashing under the weight of life. Our friend's dad died. My Uncle was diagnosed with cancer on top of his pre-existing Pick's Disease. And there's been one too many days of feeling like the only thing I have control over is the laundry & dishes.

UGLY: All the war around the world. I can't imagine what it's like for some of the Olympians returning home.

WORD: There is power in Scripture no doubt. This week while working on a newsletter article I quoted Lamentations & not because the article was about lament. It was anything but. It's amazing how hope shines through in the darkness. Check out Lamentations 3:22-24.

coming up: Finishing phoning with YE, Tea Time, checking in with some friends who recently announced big life changes, & getting rid of the crud.

Friday Favorite(s)

Thank God it's Friday Favorite!

Z's ordination service & the laying on of hands

My niece E & I loving on each other

FRIENDS visiting for a work retreat

Share some of your Favorites using #LifeSpiritSparkle