about dancing in the bathroom

If you've ever read Elizabeth Gilbert's book "Eat Pray Love" you know that she talks about crying on the bathroom floor.  It's therapeutic - definitely is. Those moment when you are just through with all of it and need a good sob -- feels so right sometimes.  I've definitely been there.

But I'm not here to talk to you about crying in the bathroom.

I'm here to talk to you about dancing.

Because friends, I realized something -- I have this little secret trick (not so secret anymore I guess) that really helps in life. And it struck me today that all good things are worth sharing, so here it goes:

I think that you should dance in the bathroom.

Stressed about a work project? Go dance in the bathroom.  About to go on a blind date?  Go dance in the bathroom.  Feeling like an inadequate member of the human race? Go dance in the bathroom.

Why? Because it's silly.  Because it'll make you grin.  Because life is too short not to be weird.  Because you just learned the Wop and you're going to practice it during the work day and no one is going to take that away from you, dammit.

But really it's because sometimes life catches you off guard and it gets choppy and rough and the best response is to let tomorrow worry about itself.  The best response is to give yourself some grace and to have some fun.

So seriously, the next time you need a breather -- go dance in the bathroom.

It'll feel great and I promise, it can be our little secret.  Everyone else thinks you're in there doing one (or maybe two) things; they'll have no idea that you're really flinging your arms in the air as you dance the Macarena.

I will not tell a soul.

about preparing him room

Stories shape our lives.  I say this not just as an English-major-person or a book-person but as a human being.

You know that feeling -- when you read a great story or hear one or have someone tell you one over coffee: the moment when you place yourself inside of something that wasn't yours before but then it becomes you.  You relate to the premise, you understand the trials, you see yourself in the characters, you weep from the sorrow, you learn from the lesson.  Stories knit us together in a beautiful way that is just plain true and undeniable.

I love remembering that as Advent season rolls around.  Because it is during this awesome season that we are invited to read the story of Christ, the story of how God became man and came to live with us. And each year that we read it we are knit deeper and deeper into it, and it becomes new to us.  Stories can stay the same, but their significance to us changes.  I kind of think of it like magic.

My sweet friend Sarah recommended John Piper's Advent readings called "Good News of Great Joy" and in it Piper encourages Advent season to be a time of self-examination; he quotes the song that says "let every heart prepare him room..." and that hit me today like it was brand new.

Prepare him room.  

Sometimes I see myself in stories and I wonder who I would be.  And today I saw myself in a role I'd never imagined before --  so often, as Jesus announces his presence in my life, as he asks to take up space within me, I simply tell him that I am too full.

There is no room in the inn.

During this season we wait and long and celebrate the presence of Christ; we hope for him and the earth groans for new birth.  But do we make the space necessary for his presence, for his radical entrance that will shake up and transform our lives? 

Preparing room is hard.  It involves heavy lifting.  It involves giving up the things you want to keep.  It involves knowing what's in there -- in the dark corners and hidden places -- what's happening in your heart that you let just live there because you'd rather not deal with it.  It is easier not to make the room.  But it is glorious if you do.

My prayer this Advent season is that I would truly let Christ's presence announce itself within me and that I would allow him to have all the space he needs to make me brand new. I have a hope that his presence can birth grace, patience, love, joy...all those things I want to be but am not very often. I have a hope that in the dusty work of clearing out rooms full of lies and pride and selfishness I am preparing for future glory, for a special guest to claim this house his own and to make something beautiful of it.

about winter, which had to come sometime...

Hey, Winter.

Well, you're basically here, aren't you? I knew you'd show up. I'm not trying to be rude, but I have to admit - I've been dreading you a bit.  Fall is so beautiful and colorful and there are pumpkin spiced things and crunchy leaves and it's still warm enough to hang out around a bonfire and eat s'mores late into the night.

But now you're showing up and things are getting cold and gray and I get afraid when it's icy because I fall a lot.

I'll try to be optimistic, though.

I'm betting too that this Winter Bucket List will make me joyful instead of sad-ful -- this winter I want to:

go ice skating.  Watch Elf, Miracle on 34th Street, It's a Wonderful Life, The Santa Clause, The Holiday and Love Actually one million times each (dang, holiday movies rule!). Say yes to life and yes to staying in more (see previous point).  Rock this random hat I bought at Target until it's cool because my head will be cold.  Take a touristy pic in front of the tree at Rockefeller Center.  Live by the motto that "'tis the season to make cookies".  Create a long-overdue choreographed dance to this holiday classic. Go skiing WITHOUT having to be rescued by the patrol team.  Wear ugly/awesome Christmas sweaters in a room with my friends who are also wearing ugly/awesome Christmas sweaters. Get some seasonal nail color goin' on.  Write my friends some holiday love letters.  Take over the sledding hill behind the WARF and act like I'm in high school (see pic above).  Find Sufjan and convince him to do a sing-along with me. Say "Happy Christmas!" instead of "Merry Christmas!" because that is what Harry Potter does and so that is what is cool. ZOO LIGHTS! Enjoy snuggle time in my snuggie by the fire without shame. Lay on my back with my head under the Christmas tree (if you haven't done it - try. total magic). Be really grateful that Jesus was born. Celebrate my one year workiversary. Lay out my stockings with care.  Watch my BFF get murrrried! Spend New Years with my besties in DC.