Teamwork

There is a picture in my head that I will never forget.
It was a sunny day in Florida and we were at a church picnic.  Someone was organizing games for the children and oneof them was "tug-o-war."  I wandered down to see what the kids were up to and enjoy their antics.  I'll never forget the lesson I learned next.  Some of the children decided to challenge some of the dads to a game of "tug-o-war."  The dads were against it at first, afraid they'd hurt the kids, but finally gave in... and lost.  The dads recruited reinforcements... and lost again.  More dads came.  More kids joined the kids side.  Again and again, those little kids pulled the dads slipping and sliding across the finish line.  I stood on the sidelines with some of the moms and watched in awe, we cheered at first, but as we continued to watch silence descended among us.  There was something amazing about this.  The dads had all the muscle, all the strength, but the kids had the TEAMWORK.  They had a person on the sidelines keeping the beat. "PULL!  PULL!"  Every single little foot moved in rhythym, every hand pulled in time.  Every time they out-pulled ten or twelve dads.



Teamwork goes beyond individual strengths.
Andrew Carnegie said that "[Teamwork] is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results."


In my life I have been blessed to be involved in many different situations that have taught me the value of teamwork.  Families are the first place to start.  Every family should function as a team and every member is vital to making that happen.  I was having a story-swapping session with a co-worker recently and she said: "You and your sisters (referring to the two sisters I share a house with) don't fight, do you?  You don't seem like you do.   That's amazing."  I felt like I had to clarify.  "We DO disagree," I responded, "And we do talk about our disagreements and sometimes there are hurt feelings, but we don't FIGHT."  I thought about that for a minute.  Why don't we fight?  I can think of one reason, my mom didn't ALLOW us to fight when we were little.  We're not in the habit of fighting when we have problems.  When we had a disagreement as children my mom's constant response was "Work it out."  Just work it out.  Make it work.  You'll probably have to give a little.  You may have to give a lot.  But, work it out.  Because whatever you work out between all of you is going to be stronger and better than whatever you were going to do by yourself with no support. 


I worked at a fast food restaurant.  It is absolutely impossible to run a restaurant through a busy lunch hour by yourself.  Similarly, you can have a big crew, but if everyone is trying to do everything themselves or nothing themselves it will be equally impossible. 

My current job is somewhat different.  I'm a florist, and a lot of the projects I work on are individual efforts.  I design bouquets by myself, but my boss is a HUGE advocate of teamwork.  At the end of a busy day she never forgets to say "Great job guys! See what we can accomplish with teamwork?"  It's the kind of team where we bring everything we have to the table, we depend on each other's strengths and cover each other's weaknesses.  We make it a point to encourage each other and learn from each other.  I'm a better floral designer because I work with other good floral designers.  We ask each other's advice and opinions.  Because we know we're stronger that way.  The shop is stronger and does better that way.  And if the shop does better WE do better.  Ultimately, we're looking out for each other, and each other's lives and families. 


And that's what teamwork is all about.  It's really true that
Together Everyone Achieves More

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Memories of 9/11/01

September 11th, 2001.

Yes, I remember where I was when I heard. I know what I was wearing.

I remember how it felt to realize the enormity of what was happening.

The tragedy.

The hopelessness.

I felt so helpless.

My first emotion was denial.

Then horror.

At that moment, as I watched the footage on TV

As I took in people screaming, crying,

The death

The despair

I knew that if I could have prevented this massacre

I would have

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Never Forget

9/11/2001

Forget?

Never.

The moment I saw the pictures on the television is forever etched in my memory.  And with that memory is the memory of the immediate fear that gripped my soul.  Which was followed by a complete peace that can only come from God.  The world was gripped with terror, but I was not afraid.  Words like war, bombs, hijacking, had little effect on me, whatever was to come couldn't faze me, my God is real.

"And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding,

shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus."

~ Philippians 4:7

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Have Mercy on Me

Dear Girls,

It's hard to write something encouraging when you're not being encouraged yourself.  Today I'm sharing with you something that has encouraged me when I was low.  Sometimes it helps to admit that we're afraid or that we're lost.  Sometimes when I'm discouraged the first thought that gives me any hope is the knowing that I AM discouraged.  God is bigger than my discouragement.  He's bigger than my life.  He has good plans for me.  And He has good plans for you.  There are days when I don't see Him moving.  There are days when I'll swear He's forgotten all about me.  But, all along that's only my own little mind that can't see Him.  It doesn't mean He isn't there.  Peter Marshall once said "How can my tiny mind prove God?"  

When I first heard this song I was in my car driving home from work.  It's a good thing I know that route like the back of my hand.  Tears were streaming down my face.  This song describes my life.  And the truth of it hurt my heart.  I've listened to this song many times since then.  But, I'll be honest.  There are times when it comes on my CD player and I push the 'skip' button.  Because I just can't handle it right then.  

I hope it encourages you too.  And I hope anyone reading this today knows that God cares about them more than they even care about themselves.  You may be worrying about your future, but God's not.  He's got it covered.  And if you're struggling with even believing that, than just know that I've been there too.  Many times.  There's nothing wrong with admitting that we have struggles, that we have doubts.  Sometimes I just feel like I have to be honest with God.  I tell Him exactly what I'm thinking.  I don't hold anything back.  I tell Him I'm afraid of everything.  I tell Him I wonder if He's still there.  I challenge Him to prove to me that He is.  

The amazing thing is: He always does.  Not always right away.  Sometimes I have to struggle more.  Sometimes I have to wait.  But, He ALWAYS DOES.  

I'm tired of being afraid

I'm wondering how I got this way

I'm trying to remember what life was like before

Panic moved in without even knocking on the door

Have mercy on me

I'm not who I used to be

Have mercy on me

Jesus please

I've been praying and asking you to take it all away

You never do exactly what I say

You see me from the outside

A lover looking in

But, all I see is danger moving underneath my skin

I know it's not because I don't love you enough

It's not because I'm weak, it's how you choose to speak to me

- J.J. Heller

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Longing for Home

There's more that rises in the morning
Than the sun
And more that shines in the night
Than just the moon
It's more than just this fire here
That keeps me warm
In a shelter that is larger
Than this room

And there's a loyalty that's deeper
Than mere sentiments
And a music higher than the songs
That I can sing
The stuff of Earth competes
For the allegiance
I owe only to the Giver
Of all good things

So if I stand let me stand on the promise
That you will pull me through
And if I can't let me fall on the grace
That first brought me to You
And if I sing let me sing for the joy
That has born in me these songs
And if I weep let it be as a man
Who is longing for his home…
- Rich Mullins
Sometimes, life surprises me with its beauty. Days go by and I don’t notice the sky as much. I used to see the leaves on that tree across from my office and admire them every day, the green against vivid blue. How long has it been since I stopped looking up?

One day, I look up.

And I am surprised, once again, by that sudden and intense ache in my chest. I’m not so much surprised by the beauty, but rather by the ache. It’s a sudden rush of joy, yet homesickness, too, combined into a most bittersweet of flavors.

Beauty does that to me, when I truly notice it. I’ve written about it before. I find myself smitten and homesick, nostalgic for things I’m not sure I’ve ever seen or known. “Do I dream of heaven?” I ask.

I think I do.

Recently, while reading Things Unseen by Mark Buchanan, I found myself once again pondering my homesickness and wondering if these pangs are longings for a place I cannot see or experience yet. A heavenly Jerusalem.

“When God wants to carry a point with his children,” Emerson said, “He plants his argument into the instincts.” Our deepest instinct is heaven. Heaven is the ache in our bones, the splinter in our heart. Like the whisper of faraway waves we hear crashing in the whorls of a conch shell, the music of heaven echoes, faint, elusive, haunting, beneath and within our daily routines.

There you are, standing at a window, watching oak leaves flutter down from dark boughs, and without warning your whole body fills with a longing for something you can’t name, something you’ve lost but never had, that you’re nostalgic for yet don’t remember. You sense a joy so huge it breaks you, a sorrow so deep it cleanses.

Or in line at a store one day, you turn and look at a child who doesn’t notice you. The skin on her face curves down flushed and smooth along her cheekbones and creases into delicate folds at her eyes. There is a wild hope in those eyes, and her beauty pierces you in a way you don’t understand.

Or you listen to Ralph Vaughan Williams’s The Lark Ascending and somehow it is both laughter and mourning, spring and winter, homecoming and exile. It makes you feel supple and playful and young and yet old, with brittle bones and trembling hands. And you wonder, How can this be?

This is how: You want to go home. The instinct for heaven is just that: homesickness, ancient as night, urgent as daybreak. All your longings—for the place you grew up, for the taste of raspberry tarts that your mother once pulled hot from the oven, for that bend in the river where your father took fishing as a child, where the water was dark and swirling and the caddis flies hovered in the deep shade—all these longings are a homesickness, a wanting in full what all these things only hint at, only prick you with. These are the things seen that conjure in our emotions the Things Unseen. “He has set eternity in the hearts of men,” the writer of Ecclesiastes said, “yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end” (3:11).

I think I’m finally beginning to understand it.

Yes, I dream of heaven. I’m homesick, homesick for a place I’ve never known. My loyalties aren’t to this earth, but to a kingdom to come. I love this world, this shadow kingdom, but it’s a love that makes me ache, which is just as it should be.

And there's a loyalty that's deeper
Than mere sentiments
And a music higher than the songs
That I can sing
The stuff of Earth competes
For the allegiance
I owe only to the Giver
Of all good things
I want to always notice the beauty and always ache with the hope of what is to come someday, someday, one day when all things are new and all is well with the world, the whole, whole world.

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A Quote From Winston Churchill

I've always loved to laugh and be happy.   Then I found this quote and it all makes sense :)

In my belief, you cannot deal with the most serious things in the world unless you also understand the most amusing.

~ Winston Churchill

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Dr. Jak's Fall Fashion Tips

What's in for fall?

Glad you asked!

Because Fall is one of my FAVORITE seasons!  I LOVE fall!! I love the smell of it and the colors and the FASHION!

Fall is a super season for dressing great because there's so much more room for creativity.  Mainly because you can wear MORE clothes and you can mix and match so many more pieces of your wardrobe.

For instance:

• Try your darker toned summer shirts with a cardigan over top.  
• Wear your capris with knee-high boots
• Pull out your heavier sweaters and wear them with a shorter skirt or capris
• And WAY exciting!  You can wear TIGHTS!  

Here's some tips on what's in for fall 2009

Knee High Boots.  If you do not already own a pair of knee high boots I highly suggest you make the investment.  You will wear them ALL THE TIME.  Make sure you get a pair you're comfortable in.  I wear mine almost exclusively in the winter.  Granted I live North :)  and almost can't step out of my front door without stepping into at least 6 inches of snow.  Which means that in a regular pair of flats my socks would be soaked in a matter of 22 seconds.  So.  I wear boots.  And you should too.  :)  Plus, they look cool.  :)

Belts. Big belts.  Of course these are designed to accentuate the oh-so-perfect waists of the oh-so-perfect.  But, look at how cool that big belt looks tied over that chunky sweater!  It almost inspires me to start doing crunches.  :) 

The Layered Look I couldn't find any really good pictures of this but I'm sure you all know what the layered look is.  Basically, layers.  :)  Mix and match textures to really get the look you want.  And if you're feeling REALLY adventurous, try mixing up patterns!







Chunky, Statement Jewelry in Autumn Hues.  Big is in.  If your necklace reaches your waist, that's good.  :) 

Fall is your chance to wear those yummy metallic colors.  Gold, Copper, Burgundy...  Have FUN with it!

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