• Home
  • Start
    Here
  • Friendship
    with God
    • Bible Reading
    • Prayer
    • Worship
    • Sabbath Rhythm
  • Community
    with Others
    • Called to Community
    • Living Gratefully
    • Living Truthfully
    • Living Hospitably
    • Spiritual Gifts
    • Celebration
    • Forgiveness
    • Mentoring
  • Mission
    on the Way
    • God's Mission
    • Personal Calling
    • Vocation & Work
    • Developing a Rule of Life
    • Mission of the Church
    • The Marginalized
  • Random
    Thoughts
  • About
    Alice
    • Important Links
 
  • Home
  • Random
  • We create ourselves ...

We create ourselves ...

Written by Alice Shirey on January 02 2017. Posted in Random Thoughts

Hello 2017!

"We create ourselves by our choices."

(Soren Kierkegaard)

Tags: Developing a Rule of Life

Tweet

Random Thoughts

I will post stuff here that doesn't fit in any of the other categories.  Some things are just too good not to post, and way too good to categorize! In fact, this might be where I post  some of the best stuff ever! And, I'll post it just because ...

Subscribe

To subscribe please enter your email address:

Recent Posts

  • The roots of beauty sickness are deep
  • Subversive abstinence ...
  • Girl power ...
  • Body shaming 101
  • Missing the point ...

Monthly Archives

2021 (13)

February (7)

  • The roots of beauty sickness are deep
  • Subversive abstinence ...
  • Girl power ...
  • Body shaming 101
  • Missing the point ...
  • How to find focus ...
  • Are you a backslider?

January (6)

  • Imagine the power
  • My body is my own
  • Accept whatever comes next
  • Love one enemy
  • We have lost our way
  • The Inner Critic ...

2020 (47)

December (2)

  • Radical self-compassion ...
  • Don't surrender your loneliness ...

November (1)

  • What my enemy steals from me ...

October (5)

  • A poem for today ...
  • Why?
  • Let's try these beautiful responses
  • No more of these dumb statements, please
  • Most of what I love ...

September (4)

  • How important the empty days ...
  • There is your task ...
  • What is anxiety?
  • A relentless effort ...

June (3)

  • Just a few thoughts ...
  • Top 10 Post - #5
  • A prayer for today ...

May (8)

  • It could happen anytime ...
  • Top 10 Post - #4
  • Top 10 Post - #3
  • Top 10 Post - #2
  • My Top 10 old posts ... #1
  • How can they know?
  • Just one next step ...
  • Courage doesn't always roar ...

April (12)

  • There is much we cannot control ...
  • Just that, Lord ...
  • Everything takes longer ...
  • A God of abundance ...
  • The way home ...
  • If you ever feel unworthy ...
  • Why is my heart so sad?
  • Our daily strength ...
  • Keeping Quiet ...
  • What I need ...
  • You spread a table before me ...
  • Is there an angel in the house?

March (11)

  • The valley ...
  • The only disaster ...
  • The Shepherd's way ...
  • Ode to joy ...
  • Courage!
  • Four questions for today ...
  • There is nothing I lack ...
  • Stay, just stay ...
  • The milk of human kindness ...
  • No day belongs to us ...
  • Kindness has gracious eyes ...

January (1)

  • Continue ...

2019 (29)

December (6)

  • I am very proud ...
  • The only proper response ...
  • With laughter in his eyes ...
  • Unclench your fists ...
  • Hunger is the best condiment ...
  • Pause and look ...

November (1)

  • The little charms that adorn the day ...

October (1)

  • God is here ...

June (1)

  • Learn ...

May (9)

  • Prayer and dogs, Part 3 ...
  • Prayer and dogs, Part 2
  • Prayer and dogs, Part 1 ...
  • Prayer and patience ...
  • God is too good ...
  • Live carefree before God ...
  • Yoga and prayer ...
  • Prayer
  • Our hands are full ...

March (2)

  • Beauty makes us feel more alive ...
  • Lent means spring ...

February (3)

  • Grace ...
  • The only thing is that we don't see it ...
  • What's one small risk?

January (6)

  • Some journal prompts for the week ...
  • Each of us is the swing vote ...
  • What outrages you?
  • No longer forward or behind ...
  • Among your duties ...
  • Kneel and kiss the ground ...

2018 (49)

December (2)

  • Tell 'em how you feel ...
  • Spend it all ...

November (2)

  • Wasted imagination ...
  • Regret #2 ...

October (1)

  • Regret #1 ...

September (3)

  • God is doing a new thing ...
  • Accept being shipwrecked ...
  • To lie fallow ...

August (2)

  • A rule for myself ...
  • Let God worry ...

July (2)

  • The beautiful tension ...
  • The unmerciful ...

June (5)

  • A life well lived ...
  • Of The Empire ...
  • A nation's greatness
  • Sometimes we fall ...
  • The art of the shim ...

May (2)

  • Service to others ...
  • Forgive ...

April (6)

  • The year mom swore a little ...
  • Set the whole thing trembling ...
  • Laughter and grace ...
  • The perfect storm ...
  • And in a harsh world ...
  • If you want to be holy ...

March (6)

  • Life, die ...
  • Live carefree ...
  • How to be safe ...
  • Be safe about faith ...
  • Don't take it personally ...
  • What boundaries are ...

February (7)

  • Healthy Boundaries ...
  • A brief interlude ...
  • No guilt over holidays ...
  • If not guilt, what?
  • No guilt ...
  • Listening is too dangerous ...
  • The road to influence ...

January (11)

  • Listen ...
  • A dysfunctional family ...
  • Be honest about $$ ...
  • Talk about your gene pool ...
  • The things that tormented me ...
  • Be honest ...
  • Comparison is death ...
  • Get out of my sh&#!
  • Our unlived lives ...
  • Make the transition ...
  • We're All Grown Up ...

2017 (61)

December (3)

  • Love til it hurts ...
  • The thing we brood upon ...
  • God hasn't lost me ...

November (4)

  • As a woman, I have a few words ...
  • How weakness is made strong ...
  • For all is well ...
  • Praying the Psalms ...

October (5)

  • Prayer ...
  • Just don't tiptoe ...
  • The pots and pans...
  • Perfect, but not quite perfect ...
  • Paying attention to the ordinary ...

September (11)

  • Spiritual malpractice ...
  • People in pain ...
  • Christians are talking ...
  • These walls of separation ...
  • Passive conversational narcissism ...
  • A selfish heart ...
  • A listening idea ...
  • Let's talk about me ...
  • More conversational narcissism ...
  • Conversational Narcissism ...
  • Set a guard over my mouth ...

August (7)

  • Tourist Preaching ...
  • The cost of wisdom and overlooking things ...
  • Protect us from the violent ...
  • Charlottesville ...
  • What can I overlook?
  • Grateful at the pool ...
  • The perfect is the enemy of the real ...

July (10)

  • Does the Lord love it ...
  • Rumi on fasting ...
  • Some questions ...
  • Habit by habit ...
  • Ashamed, ashamed ...
  • You cannot truly listen ...
  • The basement door ...
  • Energy contagion ...
  • The pursuit of perfection ...
  • Let your gaze be straight ...

June (2)

  • Jesus came to my door ...
  • The Extravagant Spirit ...

May (2)

  • Anti-faith forces ...
  • We get to feel like God ...

April (4)

  • Letting Go ...
  • These days are dangerous ...
  • We all worship something ...
  • Tainted by the lie ...

March (3)

  • The first hour of the morning ...
  • Deep calls to deep ...
  • Look at the view ...

February (5)

  • He belongs to the powerless ...
  • The greatest unkindness ...
  • Our children will ...
  • No one wants to do the dishes ...
  • Just enough religion ...

January (5)

  • A letter of reference from the poor ...
  • The original fake news ...
  • We can be reached ...
  • We create ourselves ...
  • Slow Down ...

2016 (76)

December (5)

  • Nonjudgmental presence ...
  • Clothe yourselves with compassion ...
  • Make time for rest ...
  • How can I be helpful?
  • The irrational season ...

November (6)

  • I must start ...
  • Religious motives ...
  • A prayer ...
  • A test ...
  • Truth forever on the scaffold ...
  • Tiny faith ...

October (8)

  • All about trust ...
  • The real meaning of peace ...
  • Throw your life away ...
  • A bundle of paradoxes ...
  • Nope ...
  • Remember the story ...
  • A thousand irksome details ...
  • Hard things ...

September (4)

  • The one who forgets himself ...
  • Distraction ...
  • Life is not an emergency ...
  • Holy on the ordinary streets ...

August (5)

  • What Solitude Teaches ...
  • One life on this earth ...
  • Teach me to live well ...
  • Beware the leader ...
  • Because God Does ...

July (6)

  • Being fully human ...
  • One of the great questions ...
  • What if?
  • I am called to go ...
  • Who is God?
  • We're drowning ...

June (4)

  • Claiming God as an ally ...
  • When despair grows ...
  • Hearing things that really matter ...
  • I left that typo ...

May (8)

  • Sadness does not sink a person ...
  • Knowing your own darkness ...
  • I need darkness ...
  • The ministry of listening ...
  • The opposite of sin ...
  • To live without prayer ...
  • In Non-Essentials, liberty ...
  • always be open ...

April (11)

  • The beautiful, mysterious edges ....
  • Refuse to become myself ...
  • You can get all A's ...
  • A grave disappointment ...
  • At least for today ...
  • What is your ground to till?
  • A good book ...
  • Small change, big mo ...
  • This ordinary day ...
  • God is good ...
  • Wisdom ...

March (4)

  • Calvary is judo ...
  • The cross ...
  • Headlong might save a life ...
  • Be reverent ...

February (10)

  • The longest season of my years ...
  • We are not alone ...
  • What to do in the darkness ...
  • Go with our lives where we most need to go ...
  • My favorite day ...
  • Let my trust be in Your mercy ...
  • With the same soft steps ...
  • What happens to all my prayers ...
  • Into the nonsense ...
  • We are in an eternal story ...

January (5)

  • The appalling silence ...
  • But what about you?
  • A higher poet ...
  • A friend remains in sight ...
  • Stuffed to the gills ...

2015 (139)

December (4)

  • Don't Worry ...
  • Lay aside the unreal ...
  • In spite of the ache ...
  • Let us be resigned ...

November (6)

  • Today I start ...
  • Love in action ...
  • The world breaks everyone ...
  • The most beautiful people ...
  • Through affliction ...
  • The only way to fail ...

October (6)

  • Live carefree before God ...
  • Open-ended waiting ...
  • Habit rules ...
  • If you want to be holy ...
  • A journey of ease ...
  • God is in every person's life ...

September (11)

  • No such thing as the right place ...
  • The greatest single antidote ...
  • The Donald and the Pope ...
  • Truth at your kitchen table ...
  • The buried uglies of my soul ...
  • No effort earns ...
  • The shadow of the Almighty ...
  • If Jesus broke rules ...
  • Another person's good words ...
  • Honor your parents ...
  • Today is the only day ...

August (13)

  • You are my beloved ...
  • To be Christian ...
  • A barbarously early riser ...
  • We should be willing ...
  • To watch the answers unfold ...
  • Call your mother-in-law ...
  • Hiddenness ...
  • A Question ...
  • A nap is a perfect pleasure ...
  • The fulfillment of the law ...
  • Attend wholly to God ...
  • To rise above ...
  • Even in sleep ...

July (16)

  • The one question we will be asked ...
  • It is for freedom ...
  • Being all ear for God ...
  • It's simple ...
  • This is the true joy ...
  • Listen to your life ...
  • Wisdom is ...
  • It is not only prayer ...
  • Put my tears in your bottle ...
  • Feast on your life ...
  • The impeded stream ...
  • You must have the quiet ...
  • When it's over ...
  • Dear loud breather ...
  • It doesn't have to be ...
  • Endlessly good ...

June (15)

  • Based on nothing ...
  • There is no one righteous ...
  • Jesus always stood ...
  • A heart without words ...
  • The spiritual art of saying no...
  • The empty days ...
  • What if the church ...
  • I stood at attention ...
  • And this is the consolation ...
  • God is too good ...
  • Go to sleep ...
  • What is mine to do?
  • The friend who comforts ...
  • The shoulders of a homeless man ....
  • When you are weary ...

May (17)

  • Simplify, simplify!
  • Summon the courage ...
  • You need only to be still ...
  • We create ourselves ...
  • Don't fear the darkness ...
  • Knowing is not the same as doing ...
  • A person loved in weakness ...
  • Say no to almost everything ...
  • When you are tired ...
  • A church which is bruised ...
  • Daylight mercy ...
  • If you seek God alone ...
  • Our fatal love affair ...
  • What do you brood upon?
  • An addiction of the first order ...
  • The antithesis of grace ...
  • God writes the gospel ...

April (14)

  • Free me from care ...
  • The act of letting it go ...
  • God is not a man ...
  • Come to him poor and helpless ...
  • What is the use?
  • Nothing pleases the Lord more ...
  • Unless you say no ...
  • One beggar ...
  • Oh, there you are ...
  • You must have a room ...
  • Mind over mattress ...
  • How much larger ...
  • Lord of the dance!
  • Which sermon?

March (8)

  • He knocked once ...
  • Stretch our hearts ...
  • Is there an angel in the house?
  • Take up space ...
  • The Gospel liberates ...
  • Hatred over pain?
  • The greatest of virtues ...
  • Love your enemies ...

February (12)

  • The most dangerous thing ...
  • I do know how to pay attention ...
  • Who are we to judge?
  • To call myself beloved ...
  • Exactly the opposite ...
  • The Good Book ...
  • As you can ...
  • To love life ...
  • Somehow ...
  • A constant evasion ...
  • Those who humble themselves ...
  • To drive back our dark ...

January (17)

  • The disease of being busy ...
  • The simplest form ...
  • What really separates ...
  • We huff and puff ...
  • Free to love ...
  • Drunk on grace ...
  • Joy ...
  • The Bible ...
  • Too much ...
  • ... but in His grace
  • A life of gratitude ...
  • Leadership ...
  • Grace or un-grace?
  • Because it's my blog ...
  • More like the Pharisees?
  • Why resolutions are bad ...
  • Try living the life ...

2014 (65)

December (17)

  • God is for the poor?
  • How do you live?
  • A little disappointed ...
  • That frenzied feeling ...
  • A procession of angels ...
  • Coming home ...
  • Comfort ...
  • God is with us ...
  • Wake up ...
  • Time shouts ...
  • To Whom does your soul belong?
  • Merry Christmas ...
  • Collective procrastination ...
  • It is a sin to be sad ...
  • A bit of wisdom ...
  • I saw it ...
  • Advent ...

November (10)

  • Giving thanks in the mess ...
  • The details of life ...
  • The one prayer ...
  • When you are scared ...
  • Meanness ...
  • Be kind ...
  • Stepping on toes ...
  • Worship ...
  • Only one thing ...
  • That one place ...

October (14)

  • Laughter ...
  • Live gladly ...
  • Enjoyment ...
  • A bit of travel ...
  • Honest prayer ...
  • Don't be Moses ...
  • Be holy where you are ...
  • Be a tree ...
  • The driver's seat ...
  • Mystery ...
  • We do not save ourselves ...
  • The discipline of being sick ...
  • Not good, honest ...
  • The Only Thing That Counts ...

September (14)

  • What pours out ...
  • What do you believe in?
  • God's Mission ...
  • Silence ...
  • Set the world on fire ...
  • We Don't Have to Fix ...
  • Stillness ...
  • O, the tongue ...
  • Why Judge?
  • Rule of Life
  • Stop Trying ...
  • God is slow
  • There is no one but us ...
  • God seeks ...

August (10)

  • Together ...
  • We need both ...
  • Endless Busyness
  • Prayer
  • Distractions ...
  • What if?
  • Poems
  • The power of subtracting
  • The joy of the Lord
  • We were made for God
  • Home
  • Start
    Here
  • Friendship
    with God
    • Bible Reading
    • Prayer
    • Worship
    • Sabbath Rhythm
  • Community
    with Others
    • Called to Community
    • Living Gratefully
    • Living Truthfully
    • Living Hospitably
    • Spiritual Gifts
    • Celebration
    • Forgiveness
    • Mentoring
  • Mission
    on the Way
    • God's Mission
    • Personal Calling
    • Vocation & Work
    • Developing a Rule of Life
    • Mission of the Church
    • The Marginalized
  • Random
    Thoughts
  • About
    Alice
    • Important Links