What Lifts You?

I saw this question on the "Revgals" Friday Five yesterday, but didn't get around to playing. 

But it was such a good question, such a necessary question, and I thought about it all day yesterday, and even this morning. 

What lifts me? 

There are things that get me down, sometimes.  Some of the things have to do with life in the world these days, about the many cares and worries and things that are wrong, some of which I can do something about, and some which seem too big to imagine.  Some of the things have to do with the state of the Church these days:  not just MY church, but THE church.  I think the thing that gets me going is that it's hard to figure out which things I have power over, and which things I need to live with.  The Church is never going to be perfect.  Yet God has chosen the church to bear his love to the world. 

Then there are the little things (or big things) in life that sometimes get me down.  The refrigerator breaks, the dog scratches herself and has sores, the dishes need to be done, I have to rip out knitting (again), I have too much stuff.  Things like that.

So, what lifts me?

Here's a list:

1.  The sun.  I saw it, this morning.  It rises later and later these days, but right now it is bright.  Some leaves have fallen, but there are som bright flashes of brilliant red left, and they glitter today.
2.  A good hamburger, made by my husband.  Who needs gourmet?
3.  A small, independent bookstore, nicely appointed, with friendly, well-read clerks.
4.  Really, really, really pretty, old, books, with nice illustrations.
5.  Someone saying "yes".  Whether it is "yes, I'll help with Sunday School," or "Yes, I'll put address labels on envelopes," or "Yes, I'll watch that movie with you."  YES.
6.  The color lime green.
7.  yarn.  And the stuff I make out of yarn.
8.  Wearing something I have made.
9.  Giving something I have made.
10.  Advent:  four Sundays of Hope.  Coming soon.  Hear about in church.  See it in the world.
11.  Telling and Hearing Stories.  And I'm not very discriminate about this.  I like to hear and tell all kinds of stories, funny, sad, sacred, profane, short, long.  I have just begun reading Mighty  Be Our Powers, the story of the how the women of Liberia worked for peace.
10.  2 Corinthians 4 -- the knowledge that we have the treasure of Christ in the fragile clay jars of our lives.

What lifts you?

What lifts you?