The Sylvr Pen

I’ve really gotten fixated, in the last few posts, on this mini theme of “One” as a key concept in successful living—with success being anything you define real success to be.

Which brings me to something that’s been rattling around in my head for the last two days: Some things Jesus said about the concept of “One”—Jesus as He walked the earth with His disciples, as God said throughout the ages in various pieces of scripture scattered in Old and New Testaments.

Christ told His disciples to avoid worrying about material needs and future concerns by living life “One day at a time” (Mt 6:24-34).

He pointed out the value of unloading all the cluttered abundance (Mt 6:19-21; Mk 10:17-25 in exchange for the One surpassing treasure, the “pearl of great price”  (Mt 13:44-46),

and invited them to leave their nets (Mt 4:17-22; Mk 1:14-20) and tax tables (Mt 9:9) and houses and lands and tangled worldly pursuits and relationships (Mt 19:16-29; Mk 10:28-31) to come follow Him…

on “the way that is narrow and traveled by few,” the way that leads to “life” (Mt 7:13-14).

He held up the vision of “a single eye”  as  a focus to be sought after (Mt 6:22-23),

and praised Mary’s focus on the one“needful thing” as a wiser, more noble choice than Martha’s worried distraction about “many things” (Luke 10:38-42).

These are just the examples that come to me off the top of my head. There may be many more. (Can you think of any?)

So this might be a good point at which to draw aside just to read and reflect on some of those passages, and get our vision focused on His recommended course to travel on our “Meandering Forward.”

Happy reflecting!

*****

For a set of links to all the other posts in this “Meandering Forward” series, go to this page, which will be updated daily as new posts appear in the blog content.

So, you have a work project to do, or a creative endeavor to try, or a spiritual habit to work on establishing, or a learning venture to launch out on. And you “Start with One,” like last Saturday’s post talked about, and you get going just fine. You build up momentum,  and hum along for some time. But after a while you run out of steam, say, somewhere between the middle and the end—or, somewhere after the second week! Does this ever happen to you? It happens to me.

For example, last week:

I’d been on a January de-clutter and up-cycle campaign to tidy and clear out and simplify life. I’d taken it into the sewing room by hauling out parts of my fabric scrap stash that had been accumulating for a couple decades—or more: leftover bits mostly from quilt and comforter making for family and friends. 

I’d decided the best way to make use of them would be to create some scrap patchwork quilt tops for the local women’s sewing group to line and back and turn into comforters for the needy mission field and local women’s shelter. 

Rather than try to deal with the whole assorted hodge-podge, I’d restrained myself and started with one bunch of similar sized pieces: all the 2-inch wide fabric strips. There were prints and there were plain white solids. I’d decided to use this combo to make a “Nine Patch” quilt top.

I’d sewed a batch of them together into groups of three, solid whites and prints alternating.

Some with the white strips sandwiched between the prints, some with the prints in the middle.

I’d gotten so far as to slice these triple strips into 2-inch wide segments, and to sew them together, thus:

But after this point, the project began to lag.

I tend to get bogged down in such projects—get bored, I suppose, and the whole thing can go indefinitely on “hold.” 

However, this one didn’t! This time I got at it again and got all these blocks finished in three otherwise busy days, without involving much time or backache.

Know how?

By committing to finish a nine-patch “block.” Just one! That’s all! 

I got out my dear departed mother’s ancient Pfaff machine again and plunked it atop my sturdy card table. On my counter-height tabIe I set up my cutting mat, ruler and rotary cutter (a height much easier on the back for rotary cutting).

I cut another trio strip into two-inch segments. And then I put it together with just one of the pairs already connected—and completed just one nine patch “block.”

There! I did that!

Done? Finished? Time to quit?

Well, who could stop at that point?

Nothing succeeds like success, so they (rightly) say, and the success of one block cheered me on to do “just one more”—then another—and another!

So “just one” works not just for getting started, but also for finishing what’s dropped by the wayside.

Do you have a started project or other endeavor that’s languishing in  a closet or drawer or bookshelf? Maybe you’d like to get it out now, and just knit one row? Or write one sentence? Or read and ponder one verse of one Psalm?

Remind me of this when I get bogged down in sewing these nine-patch blocks together with plain white squares cut to the same size, to complete the quilt top for good and all? Or when I start to languish in my present commitment to publish 28 posts in February?

Happy starting–and continuing!

*****

For a set of links to all the other posts in this “Meandering Forward” series, go to this page, which will be updated daily as new posts appear in the blog content.

When I accepted this February blogging challenge, it was mainly to jumpstart my stalled blogsite. I decided a bit late, too: as in, January 29th!

 So I had no theme in mind, like the last series’ “Found Wisdom” or the previous collage-a-day. I figured I’d write various posts as I normally do, meaning each post might not relate much to the others.

That approach presented this problem: What title could I give the “series,” so I could list it on the community linkup page? And in which offered category? I needed to call it something!

How to name such a trackless approach?

The words “ramble,” “wander,” and “meander” came to mind.

I liked sound and “feel” of “meander.” So I looked it up in Webster:

meander  1: to follow a winding or intricate course 2: to wander aimlessly or casually without urgent destination : RAMBLE : syn see WANDER

I definitedly prefer that first definition to the second! I hope my February offerings won’t be aimless, without useful destination. I’ve been trusting God to steer me along in some kind of learning curve pathway, and bring me by trail’s end to some greater wisdom or understanding than I had before I started…

So in the spirit of definition #1, I’m calling this series…

 “28 Days of Meandering Forward”

I know that seems an oxymoron. How “forward” can you meander? Meander implies veering to right and left, sometimes perhaps without even moving forward one yard! A meander might even make loops that sometimes face the opposite direction of “forward”!

But “definition 1” implies my convoluted trail, though lackadasical-looking, still may lead right where it ought, right where God wants me to arrive.

Key word in it is “follow.” “Definition 2” doesn’t seem to follow anything, but just let feet land wherever, as the traveler gazes at sky and birdies.

I can meander with good purpose if I follow, if my heart follows, the right thing.

I wouldn’t be the first person to do it…

Abraham went out from Ur of the Chaldees with no idea where he was headed! But he knew Who he was following, and that made all the difference. He stalled for some time, here and there (we’re not told why), and sometimes seemed way off track, but his focus always reverted back to Him with Whom he’d become an intimate friend and follower.

Joseph had a dream he likely wanted to follow; but he didn’t even get to decide his own twists and turns; treacherous brothers, horrible slave dealers,  then oppressive overlords, decided for him. They seemed to determine his path. Yet after long years of confusion and Joseph sometimes moving nowhere but around in prison confines, he ended up right where God had intended him all along, at the sudden fulfillment of that now long-previous dream!

Moses just plain ran for his life, and because of his own wrongdoing! Then he “wasted” forty years just wandering (meandering?) on the hills and valleys of exile, following nothing more than green pasture patches so the sheep could eat. Later, even after God grabbed his attention and sent him on a seemingly mapped-out course, he and his now-human flock literally wandered around the wilderness for forty more before they finally got to the Promised Land.

But he did get them there, didn’t he?

David spent tons of time flitting from one hiding place to another before his destination of Kingship suddenly presented itself before him. Even afterward, off he went on the run again, fleeing now from his own son! (And never mind how off course he got at one point, trumbling down that precipice into disastrous sin with Bathsheba and treachery against Uriah!)

It’s nice and pious sounding to say “I’m going to follow God, or my destiny,” but how do I know I’m not deceiving myself and really just going where fear or greediness, revenge or even foolhardy silliness is driving me?  

The only good solution I know is to 1) put the whole matter firmly in His capable hands, determining to trust Him with it, 2) pray, “Please guide my feet in the path of Your peace; bend my heart to Your will,” 3) keep in mind what He has clearly said, in His word, and 4) just pick up one booted or slippered or sneaker-shod foot and put it down ahead of the other.

Baby steps, baby steps. Starting with “One,” continuing with another “one,” then more “one after one,” till God gets me where He wants me to be—which has got to be the best destination possible.

***

Q for you: Do you have a journey you need to take? Does it have a clear destination? How will you determine your course?

*****

For a set of links to all the other posts in this “Meandering Forward” series, go to this page, which will be updated daily as new posts appear in the blog content.

Just for today, just this:

A simple collage, and few words. 

Because today is my Sabbath, precious gift of time, time to spend on pursuits like the one pictured here.

soothe  3 : to bring comfort, solace, reassurance to; to bring peace, composure, quietude*.

sabbath  2 : a time of rest*

May you too enjoy the soothing gift of rest and peace and quietude today.

***

*Definitions from Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 11th ed.

*****

For a set of links to all the other posts in this “Meandering Forward” series, go to this page, which will be updated daily as new posts appear in the blog content.

The Write 28 Day Challenge I’m taking part in  gives word prompts for each day we participants want to use one. But today I’m using an old November Five Minute Friday prompt I interpreted as this collage instead of a free write: “One”!

Yesterday’s post (in essence) answered the question, “How do you begin a journey? Or a project? Or a high and holy endeavor? In what sort of condition? What kind of shape should get yourself in to start?”

The answer that wove between the lines of that post: The shape or state you are in right now! In your pajamas and robe, in your splattered paint clothes or your muddy barn boots; with your crutches stuck under your arms or that bandage still wrapped ’round your head; with your broken heart writhing or your overstrained brain throbbing. As you are. That’s how to start.

Today’s post addresses the query, What should you do–first, or primarily; or at all?

Answer:

Start with… One.

You’ve probably heard the saying “The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” (Lao Tsu). That’s a no-brainer, really. If you don’t take that first step, wobbly and uncertain, timid and tentative though it may be, of course you won’t get anywhere.

But I’m thinking of more than that right now. I’m reflecting on how effective it can be to focus on almost any one step instead of a hundred, or even ten—to get any endeavor going, moving forward, chug, chug, chug, maybe building up energy and speed, maybe eventually even sprouting wings and flying to heights you never imagined.

The thing is, you may be starting with a burgeoning to-do list–or near zero energy, or both! Ill health or physical limitations, external hindrances and roadblocks, uncertainty and lack of confidence, discouragement  and even downright depression can make it hard even to put that one foot one inch forward.

But that small step is do-able. So you do just that. Maybe that whole big pile of dishes in the sink really is overwhelming. But you can wash. one. dish. Or you can rinse. one. dish. and stick it in the dishwasher. Then you can walk away from the sink if you want.

Maybe that Mt Everest of papers making your desk hard to close is daunting. But you can file, (or toss) one. paper. And then walk away from the desk.

Only I don’t think you’re likely to walk away, from sink or desk. Not after just. one. That was so ridiculously easy, you’re likely to see one more plate, or one more paper as easy to handle, too.

Besides, success breeds success. It really does. When you keep your goals low on the shelf and easy to reach, then attain them, it gives you confidence to go on and stretch a bit more.

Yet one of the most ground-breaking things I’ve learned to do in this area of “one thing” has been to ask God, in a time of quiet coming aside from the busy and tense, “What one thing would You have me do today?” Especially when I have a long list of to-do’s and have been rushing thither and yon to get them all done, I am often surprised at the answer He leads me to. 

I won’t tell you my answers, the ones He nudged before individual me. I’ll just invite you to do the same thing, after quieting your soul, drawing near to Him, stilling yourself and tuning in the ears of your own heart.

Now with the summing up of this post, I’ve done my “one thing” for today. I’ve taken that one step. I wonder what He would have me do next, or not bother doing. 

How about you? What one thing do you think He would have you do today?

*****

For a set of links to all the other posts in this “Meandering Forward” series, go to this page, which will be updated daily as new posts appear in the blog content.