One Year Blogaversary

"MiMi's Making Memories" is ONE YEAR OLD today! 

On May 29, 2008, what began as an attempt to establish a Google account so that I could leave a comment on my daughter's blog, turned into "MiMi's Making Memories". As Faith designed my blog for me, I had no idea what I was doing, what I would ever have to write about and more importantly, who would possibly be interested in reading it! I just thought it would be a good way for me to "journal" about those I love most -- my precious family.

I had NO idea the impact that blogging would soon have on my life. I began blogging and in the process I "met" and fell in love with some of the most wonderful women  - and literally from all over the country! (And even a few from other parts of the world!)  Over the past year, I have been blessed with the opportunity to meet some of you "in person", and what a treat that was!

My prayer for my blog on that Thursday in May still remains the same:

"I have no idea whether I have anything to say that would be of any value to anyone else, but I would hope that having  been married for 30 years and raising 3 children would definitely have taught me some valuable lessons in life.  I know that the Lord sometimes allows us to go through things in life so that we can be a help to someone else going through similar things.  I pray that the life lessons He has taught me, and IS teaching me, will be an encouragement to others."

I am so blessed to call so many of you my friends.  You really are so important to me!  I look forward to reading your blogs, as well as, reading your precious comments that you leave on my posts.  Many days, the Lord has used so many of your sweet words to encourage me in such a mighty way!

Thank you for taking the time to read my blog and for all of your thoughtful comments.  Thank you, also, for "enduring" all the pictures of my kids, grandchildren and "grand-dogs"!  Thank you for just being "YOU"!

I look forward to another year of blogging and hopefully meeting many more of you "in person"! 

May God richly bless each and EVERY one of you! I love you, my sweet friends!

Our "Noisy" Lives

Many times when my husband and I are riding in the car, I find myself saying, "Can we just turn the radio off?  I would just like to hear some peace and quiet!" 

I started thinking about how bombarded we are with the TV, the internet, email, text messages, etc., from the time we wake up in the morning until the time we drift off to sleep at night. 

Each day when I arrive at work, music is piped in through speakers throughout the entire office. Many mornings before I ever get to work, I have had phone calls or text messages from family members or co-workers.  If  I go out for lunch, there is music playing in the restaurant as well as a giant screen TV in the corner of the restaurant. I walk in the door at home after a long day at work and the TV is on a 24 hour News station. And this is not even mentioning the text messages, phone calls and emails received and sent throughout the day!  

If we go into a place that requires that we turn off our cellphones, as soon as we come out we immediately turn them back on.  It is almost like the cellphones contain oxygen that we have been deprived of! Many of us are now capable of walking (or driving) while texting our friends, returning emails, and making phone calls.

I can't help but wonder...

• Is there a spiritual danger in all of this?  

• Does God just become one more thing that we try to multi-task?

• If we have all of this "noise" bombarding us, are we even able to hear the still small voice of God?

• Do we have the same level of commitment to spending time with God as we do to our favorite TV show?
  

Would we be willing to cut out one 30 minute TV program or 30 minutes spent on the internet so that we could turn off the "noise" and spend time alone with God?

I believe God is calling us to come apart from all the "noise" in our lives. It  may be by an internet fast, a TV fast,  or maybe by a silent retreat. We could do it by taking a walk (leaving our IPods at home) or by journaling.  Even riding in the car can be a great time to pray and think and, also, memorize scripture. 

Every step we take to quieten the "noise" in our lives may bring us that much closer to the Lord.

"A Time Capsule"

On my way to work yesterday morning, I heard the hosts on the radio station I was listening to talking about a man named Jamie Livingstone that had taken a Polaroid picture of something in his life, EVERY day from 1979 through 1997.  Can you imagine?   

First of all...some of you probably do not even have a clue what a Polaroid picture is! I am DEFINITELY dating myself here!  It was a picture taken with a kind of instamatic camera with "self-developing" film.  The picture shot out of the camera after you took it and you had to shake it around, blow on it, etc. and watch the picture "develop" before your very eyes!  As you can see...it was a very compact camera, too! LOL!

I actually had this identical camera!  It was STATE-OF-THE ART !! It was so exciting to be able to view your pictures "instantly"!  (I know this is so hard for most of you to imagine in this day of HD digital cameras where we see everything instantly.)  I remember that the film for these cameras was fairly expensive and there were only 8-10 pictures in each "box" of film.

Well...this man took a picture everyday from March 31, 1979 until the day of his death, October 25, 1997!  I was thinking about that while I was savoring my Starbucks Tall, Soy, Extra Hot, No Foam Chai Latte---that's a ton of pictures!  That's alot of boxes of film, too!

After I got to work, I did a quick Google search (while I could still remember) and sure enough, I found information on this man.  Turns out that he had terminal cancer and he "chronicled" his life, up to AND including the day he died, with a Polaroid picture every day of himself, family and friends!  Some of the pictures are missing, but there are still reportedly 6,697 pictures remaining in the collection.  WOW!

Some of the pictures that "summed up" this man's days were a little strange for me, but it got me to thinking. What a neat idea this was to take a picture EACH day that sort of "encapsulates" your day.  I started flipping through hundreds of pictures in my IPhoto of significant days in MY life and the life of those that I love. And then it dawned on me that, for a lot of us, our blogs are doing the same thing.  For many, their journal does the same thing.  Something that "summarizes" what was happening in our lives on any given day! (I love that  His Doorkeeper said that she has been journalling since her freshman year in college and she can look back and see exactly where she was and what she was doing on any given day!)

The picture that "encapsulates" my day was nothing real exciting today. Just work, as usual!

I wonder...what would a picture of YOUR day look like? I would love for you to share them.  I would love to see them!