Bloomsinthegarden: Repurposing Ourselves

Repurposing...

If you have ever watched any of the cooking challenge shows "Repurposing" is a word that is used when given a common ingredient, the chef, rather than just incorporating it into a plate of food in a different way, takes the ingredient and totally changes its molecular structure or its common use into a new one.

For example, instead of using plain zest of lemon in a dish, there was a chef who put pieces of lemon into liquid nitrogen making it into chunks of fast-frozen lemon and then incorporated it into the dish she was making. Lemon; but, not really as we know it.

What if we were able to do that with ourselves?

What if we took the main ingredients of ourselves and made ourselves into something different, refined, changed?

We have a good start on it with Thanksgiving. In most homes, it is the day we gather around the table with relatives and friends and are thankful for doing so with dishes of family food favorites. I asked the innocuous question of the former English boyfriend once, "What did your family eat on Thanksgiving?".

He stared at me and said in his bloody accented imperiousness "That would be an American holiday!" Oh, yes, we broke away from religious tyranny and oppression, didn't we? Came across the pond and started over.

We became Separatists from the Church of England, not trying to change it from the inside out any more. That did not work.

We ditched it all, re-wrote the whole program.

They repurposed their entire lives and banked on it working. We don't have to be that radical, pulling up roots and going to a new continent. Rather, we can take small steps to making changes we have always wanted to make. When we are the initiator, I think changes go much more smoothly.

I am still processing the changes in my life. I have been back in KY this weekend, doing more packing up, sorting and throwing away. Each time I leave, the house is leaner and cleaner. I like it. I like living with less in the dresser and in my head.

I spent time with several groups of friends and thoroughly enjoyed each. I got to take my daughter out to dinner and hear all about her new job and how her studies are doing.

I spent more time on the computer applying for work...three places in the last week required additional on-line test-taking to proceed to the next level. Interesting concept: you could have a PhD in something, but not fit into their niche and therefore not have a job.

The tempory agency version was a little different than the executive level version. About how many times this week would you say that you have taken illegal drugs, just to take away your nervousness? How many times this year have you neglected safety rules to get a job done? Here's my favorite: How many times this year have you punched somebody at work because they annoyed you and they deserved it?

I also started the proceedings to change Realtors. Together, I felt like we came up with options that have not yet been tried; repurposing the house and the sale or use of it.

I have been contacted to do possible temporary work with one of those package delivery companies during the holidays for which I am thankful! Some days are tough; not having regular income can be a regular challenge but I am still looking forward to seeing how all this turns out.

Here is a key point that I thought of while I was driving back to TN: the reason we want to make lists is not to be just writing things down. Being aware and being thankful then takes us to a new level of appropriating what God has available to us.

Not by works (and neither is salvation or any other gift from God), but rather by our believing what Christ did for us, not of ourselves.

When we are thankful, we are less likely to be condemning ourselves for falling short or not having received something yet. Condemnation is separation from God by our own hand. We feel we have fallen short, we quit asking because we feel we are unworthy, are unimportant, or insignificant. By our own words we then fail to receive what is available to us because we start saying the opposite of what is written for us.

Thus, I believe that for me, while I wait, handing out cheer and holiday packages could be a lot of fun and would teach me the routes of the area and make a few new friends, get some exercise. It would also serve to strengthen my path of standing on what is written, and not what I see. Cousin is really good at keeping my back on this one. She is my one-woman cheering section!

The wreath above I have repurposed from a strand of pretty sad looking garland from a second-hand store. That, a glue gun, some of my shells, a velvet ribbon from last year's gifts and a few pine cones from the back yard has repurposed this into a lovely ornamentation for the coming of the holidays at my front door. Look around, see what you can come up with.

Most of all, take time to write down things you are thankful for and yes, maybe a few things you recognize about yourself that you would like to do differently, or simply just add/ start a "Fun Thing To Do" list. After all, change should be fun, too!

The pictures I have included today are a little of this and that, which are all part of the seasonal changes we are going through. A last look at a few pretty things. Temps in Kentucky and Tennessee are dropping; down into the twenties at night. We are digging out coats, gloves and scarves. Some of us are knitting furiously and rummaging in the back of the closet for slippers to keep our feet warm.

I pulled up some knitting with friends around a fireplace the other night. Felt pretty good. It is not summer Sangria on the patio but it was pretty wonderful. She had adopted two new cats that we were watching play and frolic.

Take time to enjoy the little things, look for them, write them down. I was reminded by a good friend two weeks ago when I was really down in the dumps about why a new job and the sale of my house had not come YET, to write down things God has done for me specifically this year. That would be those Grateful and Thankful lists again!

Let's see...I just had eye surgery for cataracts (yes, it can happen in your forties or fifties!) so I won't be going blind. In fact, I can see better out of that eye than the other one.

Be thankful for the technology! Be thankful there are surgeons like mine who prayed with me before he did the procedure. Be thankful the procedure worked!

I have a wonderful cousin who has opened her heart and hearth during this whole process!

The list was quite long and that helped remind me that these things are all in motion. There is a season to things happening, most of the time.

Psalms 103:2 reminds us to "Forget not all His benefits". We don't have to remember them all; likely could not if we tried, simply do not forget some of them, in thanks.

When we do this, then all of us in the group that we are in; living with and or in worship with, then we are shaping ourselves as our real selves really are. Rather than being the clipped up and forced into the topiary of trees, we are open to more free-sytle growth into our own maturity. For more on this, see the "Galaxy Effect" by Reverend Jon Nessle on U-Tube. Totally awesome teaching.

Try the thankfulness; it will change you from the inside out. Go ahead. Start a list. Look at it, think on it and be ye thankful~not to list your short comings, but so that you can grow up in Him and in turn, do more for others where they may have a weak spot.

Until next time...some things of beauty to get you started.