For a bit over a week now, I have been beginning my days with Restore (somehow first thing before my children wake even!) and ending them with Heather King's Shirt of Flame. Can't you just hear my deep exhale? Peace These encouraging bookends to my days have really helped to fuel my soul and inspire me to try harder and give it my all. I felt unprepared going into Lent this year and these two (that I am nicknaming the dynamic duo) have really helped me focus on what's important. Elizabeth's prompts and prayers in the Restore workshop give me the purpose and direction I need when I first wake up (which for me is a time of day when I typically feel vulnerable and lost).
Heather's words and emotions on her walk with Saint Therese seem to reach my very core. She has me seeing a small way I am similar to Therese - her hypersensitivity and habit of melodramatically over-emoting:
I was really unbearable due to my overly great sensitivity. So if it happened that I involuntarily gave a slight amount of trouble to a person I loved, instead of taking the high road and not crying, I increased my fault, instead of reducing it, by crying like a baby. And when I started to become comforted by the thing itself, I cried because I had cried...All this reasoning was useless, and I couldn't manage to correct this wicked fault. [Story of a Soul Saint Therese of Lisieux p. 102]
Please don't get me wrong, I am not comparing myself to Saint Therese. I am not a saint nor shall I ever be one but seeing this small connection to her helps me to realize that I am not alone and that as tiny as I am I can still do great things with my life. I look forward to sharing this with K when she is older for I already know she will treasure it just as I am right now.
p.s. - You see that spectacular shark pencil pouch? My brilliant friend made it for Little L for his birthday. Of course he is in love with it and now uses his colored pencils daily just so he can see his pouch!
