She just sits, and is. She teaches me so much.

As a writer, one of the worst feelings is being clogged. I've had handfuls of posts stewing on the back burner of my mind for quite some time, and yet each time I sit down to write them, nothing comes out.

I'm not totally clear on what that's about for me right now, but sometimes I turn to my Flickr photostream for inspiration when I'm trying to write, and tonight the first thing I saw when I opened my stream was this photo I took of Diva yesterday.

This little girl teaches me so much, and yesterday she reminded me what it's like to just be present in the moment and present in our own skin. Can you see that reflected in the photo above? To me, it's bleeding all over that photo and out of the edges of the frame.

So here I am, being present to what is.

What Is, In My Life Right Now

I am getting more joy out of cooking these days than I ever knew was possible. I have this new routine in my week that I've really come to love, which I'll write about in greater detail on a separate post. But for now I'll just say that planning meals and then making them each night has become a regular, integrated part of my life, and I'm totally floored to have discovered this.
On a related note, last week I did two things I had never done before. I roasted my own red bell peppers in my very own oven, and I peeled and cored a bag of apples by hand with a paring knife. Amazing!
Also related: Right now, a second batch of apple cobbler is baking in my oven because Kirk and I were so taken by the deliciousness of the first batch I made over the weekend that we just had to have more. This could get dangerous.
I can't believe we just crossed the threshold into week 5 of the pilot version of the Look at Jesus course I'm teaching right now. I've spent the last couple days marveling at having completed the first four weeks in such a flash. We're now finished with our full readthrough of the gospels and are moving into a greater level of personal reflection for the last two weeks of the course.
Related: I dearly love the students enrolled in the Look at Jesus course, and I'm continuing to really love the experience of teaching.
Also related: This teaching experience has kept my wheels turning on the courses I'll be teaching in 2012. Can't wait!
I'm about to enter into a season of life that will bring with it a great deal more room for being still, reading, thinking, praying, and writing. Since I've been in supercharge mode for the majority of the last four years, I'm walking into this new season with no small amount of gratitude and glad anticipation.