Reset the system
and ruthless pruning
a reset
I hadn’t been sick in nearly 8 months. That’s 243 days. For my poor immune system that typically kaputs every other month, that’s a world record! Gold medalist! I prepared my speech: I want to thank Jesus, my doctor (hi shiyan <3), and the dozens of supplement pills I pop a day (I’m pretty sure I single-handedly keep iHerb in business). But sometimes the system just needs to reset. On Saturday, I woke up at 3am feeling like I was swallowing shards of glass. This flu has run me over like a bus, beep beep backed up, and ran me over again. The upside is that I sound like a chain-smoking Edna Mode. It gave me great joy to leave unsuspecting friends voice messages in between naps today. Hopeful for another good run of health. Until then:
pruning
Gardening is a deceptive sport. It looks gentle, even geriatric—tender hands patting soil that nourish fresh dewy nubbins. And sometimes, that is what is needed. But my favorite part of gardening is arguably the most important. The ruthless pruning. Sharp, sterile shears cutting back node by node, until all seems bare and barren with just a stump of stem left. ‘Twas the recent fate of my arrowhead vine that had nearly lost all the variegation in its mature leaves. I didn’t mind it being all green. But I wanted to see if it would possibly regain it’s ethereal green-streaked white leaves. So I chopped it completely. Seven weeks later, I’m in awe at what is unfolding:
a seed
Six weeks ago, I ate an avocado. I plunked the seed into a tiny jar of water and it grew a tail. Behold.
singing
is something I cannot do at the moment with this chain-smoker cough. But I loved this CCEF article on the benefits of singing out loud that feels like it came straight from several irl conversations I’ve had recently with some of you.
Instead of ruminating over a minor hotel booking issue, I decided that since there was nothing more to be done about it that evening, I should instead sing to the Lord. Within minutes, I found my negative frame of mind had passed. I felt calm and had things in perspective cognitively and emotionally. That may not sound remarkable, but it would typically have taken me a few hours, or even a night’s sleep, to move on—usually by distraction or forgetting. But through singing the Word, my problem was completely reframed with biblical wisdom, and I felt closer to the Lord. No doubt the physiological process of singing also helped.
chores
I like doing chores. However, mopping has fallen slightly out of favor for me in recent years. I noticed that smol nephew seems to get a kick out of it, so am hatching a plan for the next time I babysit. Current project name: Strategic Outsourcing Initiative.
a sermon
I’m still on Tim Keller’s Galatians series, and loved this beautiful definition of love. He breaks down joy, peace, patience, kindness, etc too.
The opposite of love is not hate. Perfect love casts out what? Fear. The opposite of love is fear. The opposite of love is self-protection. Since fear is self-protecting, then love is self-opening. Love is making yourself vulnerable. Love is serving somebody else. Putting yourself out. Love is opening yourself to someone for the intrinsic value of who they are, not for what they do for you. The counterfeit of love is selfish affection, where you are using people to get a good feeling for yourself.
A friend came up to me last week and said very seriously, reb, I have a bone to pick with you. I girded my loins. She continued, last week’s newsletter didn’t have smol or smoller nephew. it made me sad. I exhaled. We both grinned widely.
Grateful to all of you who enjoy the silly little things in life as I do 🫶
love,
reb
Get well soon, Reb! 🙏