I Wish You Peace

I had a great Thanksgiving Day, and I hope all of you did as well.  I started my day with coffee and a pumpkin scone while listening to/watching one of my most favorite writer/pastor’s giving a terrific message online.  John Ortberg is a great communicator, and he talked about the peace that only God can bring about in our world.  He talked about the old prophets and how they talked about God’s dream.  And the word for that dream is ‘Shalom.’   He said there is a way things are meant to be.–‘Shalom’ is where things are just the way God wants them to be–emotionally, physically, spiritually, economically. That is the peace that I wish for all of you this Thanksgiving evening.  The peace that only God can bring.

Then I got ready to leave the house, which involved having 3 sets of clothes with me!  I had a plan, and it ended up working out just right!  I headed to the gym, and did a weights workout for about 30 minutes.  Then changed into nice dress clothes and headed over to my church to help serve the thanksgiving dinner.  That was really fun.  The only unplanned thing that happened was that I got really hungry serving all that food.  I had brought a snack to eat after working out at the gym, but I wasn’t hungry then, so I hadn’t eaten it.  So I ate a little more and a little faster than I had planned, but actually not that much.  Our church traditionally prepares way too much food, and this day was no exception, so I got a nice container of turkey to bring home for ‘left-overs!’  YAY!!!  I brought one piece of pie home to eat later too.

Then I headed BACK to the gym for a swim, which felt great.  No one was in the sauna, so I got to spend a little time in there–that is always a treat!  Back home, and I wanted to relax with a cup of coffee and watch a movie.  I had given away most of my videos, so it was a little slim pickin’.  But I chose an old favorite ‘You’ve Got Mail.’  Ha!  It was so interesting to me this time because that movie is about people developing a relationship completely via the computer–something I have been thinking about a lot lately.  I am working on a project that is traditionally done face-to-face, and involves people developing close relationships, and am thinking about doing it online.  And of course, part of my thinking is about how we bloggers have formed a real community that cares about one another.  I’ll let you know about this when I get a firmer plan in my mind.

I even had enough energy to take a nice walk with the doggies  (took an intermission in the middle of the movie!)

Tonight I had my new favorite way to eat turkey. “Sandwich in a bowl.”  I came up with that phrase (I’m sure someone else coined it before me) and all of a sudden I thought, I could eat all kinds of sandwiches that way.  Basically, take the innards out of the bread and dump it in a bowl.  Depending on how much you eat of this, it can be really low calorie.

I’ll leave you with a picture of Sophie enjoying her version of peace in this world:

(Can you even tell what that is?  Sophie likes to tunnel inside my robe when she’s sitting on my lap in the morning–only her butt sticks out.  Usually there is also a keyboard balanced across my knee at the same time!)  I’m pretty happy about my food intake today.  I tried not to count calories.  I tried to really enjoy what I ate, and to not get anxious about eating a little more than normal.  I am off to work for 3 days in a row now, and I think I am pretty set with lots of good veggies ready to go, and of course, all that nice left-over turkey!

Blessings to all of you!