Mindy's Blog


 

Inspiration for Blank Pages 

By Mindy Caliguire - Friday, January 29, 2010

At Soul Care it's no secret: We believe in the life habit of journaling. Like anything else you do to take care of your self, this requires planning and effort. But sometimes, the words don't come, the thoughts are lost, and the page seems . . . well, blank. Below, we've posted a few ideas (from Write For Your Soul: The Whys and Hows of Journaling) for inspiration:
  • Look back ("Yesterday I...")
  • Record your dreams (Particularly recurring, troubling, or exciting dreams.)
  • It you're bold, try to analyze them. (You may want to find a book on the topic.)
  • Fun moments (You're birdie on the 18th hole!)
  • Pray on paper ("Dear God...")
  • What you're learning lately (insights, wisdom, mistakes)
  • Work through decisions (write out pros and cons)
  • Quotes or stories you want to remember (something you read or that a friend told you)
  • Observations about how life works ("Malls instill a need for more. When I go there, I feel dissatisfied with what I have.")
  • Precious moments (What your 3-year-old said to his baby brother)
  • Scenes you want to keep with you (the incredible sunset over Lake Pleasant)
  • Ideas or goals for the future ("Go whitewater rafting this summer.")
  • Your values
  • Mission statements (personal or family)
  • Notes from sermons or lectures
Have a great (and maybe reflective journaling) weekend . . .
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Waste Not. Want Not. 

By Mindy Caliguire - Sunday, January 24, 2010

Waste Not. Want Not . . . ageless wisdom on economic thrift from our friend Ben Franklin. Business leader Jim Collins advises something similar in his newest book, How the Mighty Fall, in which he exposes the five stages of decline organizations go through—from “success” to oblivion or obscurity. It’s not a pretty picture, but I find his warnings and guidance to be profound. Challenging.

Collins writes of leaders who used decline as a catalyst. I love the quote he uses from Dick Clark, “the quiet, longtime head of Merck manufacturing who become CEO after Gilmartin, put it, ‘A crisis is a terrible thing to waste’” (Page 116).

A crisis is a terrible thing to waste.

When life is really hard, it’s tempting just to use a journal as a place to “dump” all our woes and worries. And at times, that’s certainly helpful! But in heeding wisdom, be sure not to waste the opportunity that presents itself in a crisis. For many years, I believe I did just that, rather than seeing my journal as a place to record, yes, but then evaluate and even imagine where God was in the midst of that.

I distinctly remember a time . . . not that long ago . . . when I finished a proper pity-party for myself and sensed the Spirit nudging me. “The greatest potential loss in all this is not what you just wrote about . . . it would be if you don’t learn from this.” I began using my journal not only to record the hardship and frustrations, but also to consider different paths, new resolves; even earnest prayers for next things.

Of all the things we might waste (time, money, energy, talent, opportunity) please be sure not to waste failure and disappointment. They are invaluable to our growth and learning. Also, to our humility.

Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. (James 1:2-4)

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2010: Writing Life, No Edits 

By Mindy Caliguire - Thursday, January 14, 2010

A new year, much like a blank journal. Page after page, day after day, is open—wide open—waiting for the future to write itself into our lives.

Like the fresh, clean pages of a new journal, this year brings the promise of things sure to come. Tears I will cry, dreams I will dream, prayers I will pray. Ideas I will, well, ideate (?!).

I am facing new beginnings as I join forces with the Willow Creek Association in some exciting new ways. There are new beginnings for Soul Care, as a team steps forward to help shoulder this vision. “Behold, I am doing a new thing… do you not perceive it?” Isa 43:19. I am surrounded by new things. And I love that.

Yet that rhetorical question from God to us haunts me at times. Right now, at the beginning of this year, I’m hyper-attuned to the noticing… noticing the tragedy in Haiti, noticing the amazing students I’m with this week at Spring Arbor’s MSFL residency, noticing ways God seems to be orchestrating the most minute details in ways that bring life and hope and healing. How exciting it is to notice the activity of God!

But other times, I miss it. I do not perceive it. What a tragedy, to miss what’s right there, right before my eyes??!

One of the things that helps me most to notice… to not “miss” the ever-present activity of God… is to spend time reflecting and writing about what’s happening in my life in those blank pages of a journal.

In January, with the able help of our new team, we’ll focus this blog on how a journal helps us notice.

A journal is a great place to record one “jour”, one day. Let’s take 2010 one day at a time. Noticing. Celebrating. Grieving. Living. Watching, waiting, anticipating… God. The one who makes streams in the wasteland.

See, I am doing a new thing!
Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the desert
and streams in the wasteland.

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