My Favorite Reads This Year!

I had the wonderful adventure of going to Aruba this past July with some great friends. It was the perfect place for me to grab a couple of great books to relax and soak up some sun. Here were my two favorites, The Art of Stillness by Pico Iyer and Kristin Kimball's The Dirty Life.

Check out The Art of Stillness By Pico Iyer- I originally heard an interview with the author on NPR and became intrigued. Iyer's adventures are poignant. He mixes personal experience with real life facts about taking time to unplug and the places we can go when we do. I'm getting ready to read this again at the start of 2017!

The Dirty Life by Kristin Kimball has her own site, too!

Kimball found a new love and shares her hilarious journey of starting her very own CSA in upstate NY with the man she couldn't resist. It reaffirmed for me how satisfying it is to get dirty working hard. I also came to appreciate the relationship of farming even more and just how much goes into bringing the food we love right to our own tables. In one part she explains how we don't reap what we sow. 

"We reap what we sow, hill, cultivate, fertilize and harvest."

However, I cannot leave out my third fave which was what our community worked to put together................

To see what others have read this year, check out www.katemotaung.com

Top Posts of 2016 for FMF!

It's hard to believe the year is rapidly approaching an end. This is the first year I have reviewed what were my readers' favorites; a lot of action words. Here's what I discovered they loved.

1. Now- Five Minute Friday December 16

2.Test- October

3. Collect September

4.Five September

5.Team August

6.Build July

7.Rest June

8.Pass April

9. Limit February

10. Present January




Thanks so much for reading and your feedback! It has been such a blessing to be part of Five Minute Friday. I not only love writing, but also reading the many great posts from others each week. It reminds me of a chant I've taught my students:

Cooperate, cooperate!

Let's all cooperate!

Work together! Help each other!

Make a great team!

This is what the Five Minute Friday community means to me. We do it beautifully! Thanks, Kate and all my fellow writers and readers at FMF! I am looking forward to another great year with all of you.

Now-Five Minute Friday

Now I am home.

Now I am comfortable.

Now I am relaxed and full.


This morning I was not.

What if I miss it?

What if I lose it?

What if I forget?

What if there is no one to help?

What if? What if? What if?

It swirled. It stacked and echoed in my head.

Then I read today's prompt: now

Now is what I needed to hear and read.

Now is the time to ..........


Not

Overload myself

With details of what if

Now, live in it!

Move in it!

Function with what I have right in front of me.

Baby steps.

Now I can breathe and focus.

STOP

Matthew 6:24: "So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." (NASB)

To see what others are doing it their now, check out www.katemotaung.com

Five Minute Friday- Joy is........

I've hemmed and hawed about what to write for this week's prompt. Hats off to our dear friend, Andrew who really got down to the nitty gritty. I had to reread what he wrote a few times as joy is not something that comes easy for me. Like most, I have not mastered it and yet my life is far better than many in our world today. To be honest, I don't know how many of us have truly found the secret to joy as our culture is so obsessed with the frivolous entertainment of silly videos on FB or youtube. They make us laugh, but they don't sustain us through those tough times in life that we all have to face sooner or later. They don't answer the deeper questions of why and how. I tried to summarize a few thoughts of details in different situations that can bring us joy.

My pastor explained to me that the Greek word joy means "calm delight, but is directed towards a person. It means we can rule over our struggles with joy because of Christ! The Hebrew mindset is that joy is tied to a relationship with God. The main word is Simcha and is a shared joy. The Jewish mindset is one of community." I am thankful to be part of this online community Five Minute Friday each week!

So all of this has been ruminating and led to this in five:

Joy is knowing we can stop wasting

Everything has value

Apple cores, ends of celery stalks, eggs shells 

Paper towels and worms can all go together

Organic materials

Heat from the sun, cooking up something great

Our disappointments, times burned and punctured

Adding something vital

Understanding compassion and sacredness of life

Moments when the sun pops up each morning

Knowing there is an end to every storm

Sooner or later we will laugh again

Finding the smallest details to be thankful for

Waking up from a serious complication

Finding out six months later the doctor on call,

was the best you could get because God took care of it

You couldn't pick that one, but He did

STOP

To see how others define joy and find it check out www.katemotaung.com

Crave- Five Minute Friday on Saturday morning

Here we are once again. I read the prompt last night, but decided to let it simmer while I slept. Craving connection is something all of us have built into us. The problem becomes when we don't crave it anymore. As frustrating as it can be to not have what you long for and live in the tension of that, at least you know you're alive and not just existing. When we don't feel pain anymore, we're as good as dead. Here is what I cam up with for today.

You pine for something 

You lust and long

Nothing else satisfies

Not even Snickers

The friendly cat who purrs

He keeps brushing up, around,

against your legs

He needs it, too

The ninety-six year old who has

seen more to life than most of us

She rocks, she gazes, she aches

When a visit is over she wants to 

hold on to it and you

The single who comes home to darkness

Night after night, she wants it, too

A touch of a hand, the warmth of a hug

Conversation and smiles to share

Crave we do

STOP

To see what others crave check out www.katemotaung.com