SisterFriends Together » Just a Thought

Bringing You 15 Years of More of the Same

anita — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 22:28:33 +0000

I realized this morning that I’ve been doing this for 15 years and by this I mean blogging before blogging was the word. I started with a home page that became a website that became a blog. New terminology, old message.

God loves you.

You’d think by now I’d have come up with something new to write about; something with a little more sparkle and glam. Edgy. Catchy. Fresh. Not only to keep you coming back for more but I have an ego and occasionally that ego wants to impress and dazzle.

Oh Anita, you are sooooo clever.
Oh girlfriend, how you weave those words.
That last post was brilliant. Really. I stand in awe.

Hearing such praise from the woman in the mirror is nice but not all that satisfying since she tends to say what I want to hear.

And it doesn’t help my ego one little bit that there are so many incredible bloggers out there writing really amazing posts nearly everyday. I don’t know how they do it but however they do it, I admire them like crazy for doing it. And I’m green with envy. Just a pale shade of green. Not grass green. More like the green on an unripened lemon. Like the way too cutesy pastel green on my iPhone 4 bumper that makes it look like a baby’s chewy toy rather than a serious high tech mobile communication device for adults only.

But getting back to other bloggers who blog frequently and proficiently, I’ve seriously considered stealing their ideas, the only problem being that some of them actually read my blog in the seconds they have to spare between writing one post and uploading another one and being guilty accused of plagiarism isn’t something I find particularly endearing.

So instead I guess I’ll just keep pounding out the same old message.

God loves you.

And when my next post ends up sounding a lot like my last post I’ll try to take some satisfaction in knowing that some things are really worth repeating. After all, can any toddler ever get their fill of being read to from “Goodnight Moon?” Now there’s a plot that keeps you coming back for more. But then, so does God’s love.

What got me to thinking about all this today is reading an online announcement this morning that Whosoever, the online magazine for GLBTQ Christians is also celebrating their 15th anniversary. Whosoever has consistently provided a wealth of spiritual encouragement and support for GLBTQ people all these years and so I send heartfelt kudos to Candace Chewell-Hodge and all those who have contributed their writing to keeping it a thriving and life-affirming ministry. They were and continue to be on the frontlines of shaping the vibrant online community of GLBTQ Christians we all are fortunate enough to participate in.

I only have one little question. My original start up date (housed in the now defunct online gay neighborhood of Geocities West Hollywood) was the summer of 1995. Whosoever Magazine has a start up of the summer of 1996.

2010 minus 1996 equals 15 years….

Am I missing out on some kind of newfangled math or have I inadvertently time-traveled into the future?

Regardless, no matter how we each arrived at 15 years, it’s nice to know that along the way Candace and I were both blessed with a hyphen of our own, and oh, do I love my hyphen.

Chuckles in Heaven

anita — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 01:44:51 +0000

We make plans, and God laughs.

My intention to spend today blogging in the glow of my laptop with a Bible on one side and a cup of coffee on the other was superseded by happenings that were never in my plan book.

God must have been guffawing himself silly.

So here’s hoping for Friday, but shhhhhh….don’t tell you know who.

Soundbytes of Wisdom

anita — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 02:45:36 +0000

I’d rather be hated for who I am, than loved for who I am not. – Kurt Cobain

Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.” – Dr. Seuss

I live and breath for an audience of One. – Sarah Groves (from “This Journey Is My Own”)

I won’t pretend. I’m not hip, slick or even remotely cool and I offer as proof that even on threat of torture I couldn’t name one song written or performed by Kurt Cobain, and I only know he was the lead singer of Nirvana due singularly to my best source and yours for looking smarter than we really are, Wikipedia. The only thing I know sans Wikipedia is that he was a talented young man who died too young, too soon, and too tragically.

I know a whole lot more about Dr. Seuss, being a devoted fan of his pivotal literary works including “One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish”, “Green Eggs and Ham,” and his tour de force, “The Cat and the Hat” with the follow up, “The Cat in the Hat Comes Back,” which serves as a primo supremo exception to the rule that the original is always better than the sequel. Au contraire mon amie! “The Cat in the Hat Comes Back” held me spellbound from start to finish. That crazy crazy cat. I’m no book critic but I still have high standards in literature which include a super-neat storybook with good pictures and a catchy rhyme.

And Sara Groves, well, she’s one of my best friends. She just doesn’t know it. Not yet anyway. I’ve been listening to her music for a couple years now since she wooed me with lyrics that spoke to the dark night of the soul I was walking through at the time. She’s had me ever since. She and Kari Jobe that is. They share equal play time on my iPod.

So, it’s not like I need to say this but I’m rambling here, typing with abandon without saying much of anything for a couple reasons; the first being that I’m having a bit of a hard time getting back into the rhythm of blogging. My creative muscles have atrophied from lack of use so consider this post my first set of crunches after a long absence from the gym. It’s painful to watch but it’s got to happen if I’m ever going to get moving again.

The other reason is that Dr. Seuss, Kurt Cobain, and Sara Groves pretty much said it all and don’t need me to round it out. We spend so much of our lives living to please others that we end up losing ourselves and when the day comes that we finally find ourselves again, our true selves, we fear being who we really are will be met with rejection and scorn by others. And yes, that might be true but in the end, as the Sara Groves song goes, this journey is our own and and because it is we’re to live it the way that’s most true for us knowing that in the end there’s the opinion of only One that will count for anything…the One who created you to be fully, completely, radically, and simply who. you. are.