Izabella

I think I should test again...

Marcus Buckingham's new book Find Your Strongest Life just arrived in the mail. But I found the Strong LIfe Test on my friend Kristine's blog, so I did the sensible thing and took the test before I opened the book. I think i need to take the test again... Was I drunk? You take the test yourself (in the next post) and see what it says about you.  Then tell me if this sounds like me:

 

Your
Lead Role
Creator

You begin by asking:
'What do I understand?'

You aren’t immune to the feelings and perspectives of others, but your starting point is your own insight, your own understanding.

Your best quality:
Your ability to find patterns invisible to others

Always:
Find time to be by yourself

Be careful you:
Don’t think so long, you never do anything

Your smartest career move:
Any job where you’re paid to produce new content.

Your
Supporting Role
Teacher

You begin by asking:
'What can she learn from this?'

Your focus is instinctively toward the other person. Not her feelings, necessarily, but her understanding, her performance, her skills.

Your best quality:
Your faith in the others’ potential

Always:
Tailor your style to each student

Be careful you:
Don’t come to believe that everyone is capable of everything

Your smartest career move:
Any job where you’re paid to facilitate the success of others.

 

 

The Strong Life Test for Women

The Butterfly Circus

I'm fairly certain that this delicious man cannot make a bad film. When Jesus is with you, who can be against you? Enjoy this short film...

Love

Running Dialog this week

From the Complete Jewish Bible: (my current fav translation)

"Stop your weeping, and dry your eyes, for your work will be rewarded", says Adonai.

"Isn't Efrayim my very dear son, a child who delights me so? I speak about him all the time!  I can't help but recall him to mind, In sum, I deeply yearn for him; I will surely show him favor," says Adonai (Jer 31: 16, 19-20)

I lift my inner being to you, Adonai; I trust you, my God. ... Make me know your ways, Adonai, teach me your paths.  Guide me in your truth, and teach me; for you are the God who saves me, my hope is in you all day long.  Remember your compassion and grace, Adonai; for these are ages old.  Don't remember my youthful sins or transgressions; but remember me according to your grace for the sake of your goodness, Adonai.  ... Who is theperson who fear Adonai?  He will teach him the way to choose.  He will remain prosperous, and his descendants will inherit the land.  Adonai relates intimately with those who fear him, he makes them know his covenant.  (Ps 25:1-2, 4-7, 12-14)

Oh God, you are my God; I will seek you eagerly.  My heart thirsts for you, my body longs for you in a land parched and exhausted, where no water can be found.  I used to contemplate you in the sanctuary; seeing your power and glory; for you grace is better than life.  My lips will worship you.  Yes, I will bless you as long as I live; in your name I will lift up my hands.  I am as satisfied as with rich food; my mouth praises you with joy on my lips when I remember you on my bed and meditate on you in the night watches.  For you have been my help; in the shadow of your wings I rejoice; my heart clings to you; your right hand supports me.  (Ps 63: 1-8)

God, you have done great things; who is there like you?  You have made me see much trouble and hardship, but you will revive me again and bring me up from the depths of the earth.  You will increase my honor; turn and comfort me.  As for me, I will praise you with a lyre for your faithfulness, my God.  I will sing praises to you with a lute.  Holy One of Israel, my lips will shout for joy; I will sing your praise, because you have redeemed me.  All day long my tongue will speak of your righteousness.  (Ps 71: 19b-24)

Fill us at daybreak with your love, so that we can sing for joy as long as we live.  Let our joy last as long as the time you made us suffer, for as many years as we experienced trouble.  ...May the favor of Adonai our God be on us, prosper for us all the work that we do - yes, prosper the work that we do. ( Ps 90: 14-17)

Let them give thanks to Adonai for his grace, for his wonders bestowed on humanity!  Let them extol him in the assembly of the people and praise him in the leaders' council.  ... But he also turns desert into pools of water, dry land into flowing springs;  there he gives the hungry a home, and they build a city to live in, there they sow fields and plant vineyards, which yield an abundant harvest.  He blesses them, their numbers grow, and he doesn't let their livestock decrease.   (Ps 107: 31-32, 35-38)

When a woman is giving birth, she is in pain; because her time has come.  But when the baby is born, she forgets her suffering out of joy that a child has come into the world. ... I tell you that whatever you ask from the Father, he will give you in my name.  Till now you haven't asked for anything in my name.  Keep asking, and you will receive, so that your joy may be complete.  (John 16: 21, 23-24)

Ladies and Gentlemen...

I give you...the incredibly talented staff I work with!  Enjoy...

VSM Interview with Pastor Steve from Victory on Vimeo.

I love these peeps.  And kudos to the amazing Juliet who created this masterpiece!!

Friedrich, Wordsworth, and Beethoven

Three reasons to love the History of Modern Europe...

Who knew that I love Friedrich's work? Think some obscure painter from 1774-1840 has no relevance in your daily life? Ever feel like this ...and not have words to express it?

 

Or this...

  Do you like Tim Burton movies? Take any Burton character and plop him happily into a Friedrich painting...he'll be right at home! 

 

(Yes, that one was painted a little before Burton was born. But isn't that where Edward Scissorhands lives?)

Colleagues said of Casper David that he had "discovered the tragedy of landscape".  I get that.  And I find myself in love with his work.  After his wedding and the birth of his children, his work took a more colorful turn...

 

I love what that says about the power of love!

Of Wordsworth, let me tell you that he ushered in the Romantic Movement in England in collaboration with one of my favorite poets, Samuel Taylor Coleridge. (I'll share why some other time) Notice a recurring theme with Friedrich?  Here are some gems:

I Wandered Lonely As a Cloud:

I  wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils,
Beside the lake, beneath the trees
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the Milky Way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced, but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee: -
A poet could not but be gay
In such a jocund company:
I gazed -and gazed -but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought.

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills
And dances with the daffodils.

My Heart Leaps Up When I Behold:

My heart leaps up when I behold
A rainbow in the sky:
So was it when my life began,
So is it now I am a man,
So be it when I shall grow old
Or let me die!
The Child is father of the Man:
And I could wish my days to be
Bound each to each by natural piety

Of Beethoven:  Let me just leave you with this... He wrote this while battling deafness. "In spite of his alarm at his increasing deafness, the music paints a serene image." (wiki)

Just press play and go about your day.  If you're still surfing online, open a new browser window so this plays on.  Or close your eyes and loose yourself for a few minutes.  You won't be sorry.

All of the above is brought to you from a presentation I've been working on for my class. What was the importance of the arts during and following the French Revolution?... How poetry, imagery, and music affected the time and the people. Specifically, these three gentlemen.  I hope you enjoyed it as much as I have!

God made me laugh today

This last week has been incredibly challenging for me.  My mission board (I speak this in the confidence that they will, in fact, be my mission board, as it is not yet official) has frustrated me to no end this week.  Italy, is all its wonder and welcoming, has seemed very far away.  The Italian team, and David in particular, went out of their way to welcome me, to make me feel like I'd been there all my life, and as if I were family. D even went so far as to drive me two and a half hours to the airport, at five AM, at his own expense (which is currently $7.88 per gallon).  That's the sort of thing you do for dear friends...not someone you just met.  The US office has been... less accommodating.  I must get to Atlanta to meet with them in the next three weeks...or not go to Italy in January.  Without details (because they are unimportant), let me say that tears were shed over events that unfolded.  I have very little cash flow at the moment, and it is quite an expense to fly to ATL for a day. Stepping out on faith that God will provide, I searched for a ticket. (the fact that I found one that gets me there and back in the middle of the week, without missing a single class, is a huge miracle!) I then used nearly the end of my cash flow to purchase said ticket. "Okay, God, you know where next months' rent will come from..."   He certainly does!   I got home from class today to find a check in the mail....  I can't even tell you where it's from, because you wouldn't believe it!  Completely unexpected, and nearly unexplainable!  I laughed out loud when I opened it!  I don't have to worry about the rent next month. And I can go to Atlanta to meet with my mission board in peace instead of struggle, so that I can begin raising support to go to Italy in January.

 Why do I ever try to figure out my own way? Why do I ever doubt?

I know (and knew in the moments as they happened - but that doesn't stop the frustration) that part of my struggle this week was because I have an enemy who does not want me in Italy. This is a fight. And this week was a fight. But my God is the Victor! And He continues to provide for me in ways that amaze me!  Thank you, Jesus, for the belly laugh today!  I'm sorry I struggled to find my own way this week. Help me to relax in You. To relax into You like a warm bath...really letting go.

I think I'll go take a warm bath now to remind myself what that metaphor really means...

Worth the time to read...

I found this today & thought it worthy to pass along...

The Whole Foods Alternative to ObamaCare

Eight things we can do to improve health care without adding to the deficit.

By JOHN MACKEY

"The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out
of other people's money."

—Margaret Thatcher

With a projected $1.8 trillion deficit for 2009, several trillions more in deficits projected over the next decade, and with both Medicare and Social Security entitlement spending about to ratchet up several notches over the next 15 years as Baby Boomers become eligible for both, we are rapidly running out of other people's money. These deficits are simply not sustainable. They are either going to result in unprecedented new taxes and inflation, or they will bankrupt us.

While we clearly need health-care reform, the last thing our country needs is a massive new health-care entitlement that will create hundreds of billions of dollars of new unfunded deficits and move us much closer to a government takeover of our health-care system. Instead, we should be trying to achieve reforms by moving in the opposite direction—toward less government control and more individual empowerment. Here are eight reforms that would greatly lower the cost of health care for everyone:

Take the time and read the rest here.

Welcome to History of Modern Europe

Technically, this poem is not of the "modern" era. It was written in the eleventh century. But it captivated me, and I wanted to share it with you. Written by Ibn Darraj al-Quastali (958-1030) who "revealed his most initmate feelings when he wrote about leaving wife and child behind to find employment at the court of a taifa ruler." *

When she apprached to bid me farewell,

her sighs and moans breaking down my endurance,

reminding me of the times of love and joy,

while in the crib a little one gurgles,

unable to talk, but the sounds he makes

firmly lodge in the heart's whims...

I disobeyed the promptings of my heart to stay with him,

led on by a habit of constant travel day and night,

and the wing of parting took off with me, while the fear

of parting flew high with many wings.

 

*The Making of the West - Hunt