It's Just the Continuation of a String Thing...

Dear America!

I've got the world on a string, sittin' on a rainbow

Got the string around my finger

What a world, what a life, I'm in love!

I've got a song that I sing

I can make the rain go, anytime I move my finger

Lucky me, can't you see, I'm in love

Life is a beautiful thing, as long as I hold the string

I'd be a silly so and so, if I should ever let go

I've got the world on a string, sittin' on a rainbow

Got the string around my finger

What a world, what a life...

[sing it like Frank...]

it's been quite the absence, hasn't it?

nearly a month long... 

and all the while, this little miss gthing has been having quite the out of blog experience, indeed.

Oh the joy to have my girl home for a wee bit!

Oh the happiness to celebrate Christmas with family and good friends!

It is worth every second of disconnect of the things that are ironically called social media and the like; it is much like having our own mini-epiphanies, one after the other, re-awakening and re-connecting to the things that truly matter...our loves, our families, our neighbors, our communities and coming together with a common spirit, stringing us together like one thought, one mind, one body for a moment, if not a season. 

This day, January 6th, marks a splendid day in the church calendar -- the twelfth night after Christmas is the day celebrating the arrival of the three kings:  Epiphany, The Wise Men -- Melchior, Caspar and Balthazar -- followed the star of Bethlehem, that led them to a manger where the baby Jesus was born.  Bringing gifts of gold (representing the Lord's royal standing), frankincense (for Jesus being fully DIVINE x) and myrrh (recognizing His mortality as the son of God).

Considering the church calendar itself, acts as a living, breathing life force of the life and death of Jesus, how remarkable and splendid is it that we continue to come together -- all over the world, mind you -- to celebrate the cornerstones of the life of a baby boy named Jesus to this day! It is as if all of us who consider ourselves Believers, come alive, holding tight to the proverbial red thread -- a Christmas ribbon perhaps -- that links our hearts, strings us together, and wraps us all up tight to the everlasting presence of the Christ child.  The Trinity of the Lord is upon us and real, for evermore.

And while nothing really stays the same in this world, this break from my baby blog has allowed me to look ahead, re-evaluating just where this Thing called G should wander in this new year...

For surely as the morning sun, this girl named Gretchen is not the same person as she was yesterday; and besides, with the arrival of a brand, spanking new administration to harp on, the strings of change make it imperative to make adjustments.

Oh, have no fear dear ones, for little g will continue to have the world by the string, a string of G Things! (love you, mama, so much).......

Of course, politics will still reign, and the American culture will still surround -- but my hope is to bring, from above and below, something deeper, something that will continue to tie us to one another in the every day better than ever, if only just better than the day before.  Surpassing 800 blogs in 2016 marks a milestone that I never saw coming, but every good diary needs a tweaking from time to time, and that tweak time is now, if not, once more.

It's more a matter of meeting my own selfish desires to grow more, even if that looks more like making good friends with my own humanity with greater humility, and a softer grace.  Again, it's Epiphany season -- so let the reality of my own stumbling around in this world meet up with a certain Spirit and may we find shelter, strength, courage, incite, in the days ahead, together.   And may that same spirit lead us to new things, and open our minds to new possibilities.

It was Sunday, January 1st, when one of my favorite preachers highlighted a verse from Revelations (and my apologies for not remembering who....this girl didn't take notes on the day)...but needless to say, it kinda stuck with me:

"So, because you are lukewarm 

-- neither hot or cold -- 

I am about to spit you 

out of my mouth." 

Revelations 3:16

Isn't that something?

The thing is, it's that lukewarm part that really sunk to the depths of my feeble soul and shuck me to the core; for being lukewarm on anything is no place to live!   My hope is to find clear and present clarity in everything, whether it's something said or unsaid, seen or unseen, in order to feel it, know it, live it, fully...and EVEN if such clarity goes against my party, or a certain president-elect, or another conservative (it's just a given it will go directly against the Left...teehee).

My earnest approach to this thing called G, while experiencing this thing called life, while living in the greatest country in the world -- the US OF A -- is to be hot or cold, on or off, with or without, up or down, and never somewhere in between, lost in ambiguity, or sheltered by falling in line with someone else's thought without passion back behind it.

With making a clear connection to my Source at the start of everyday, this girl will come to you bearing my soul, bringing my best and keeping it real, while steadily staying on a certain path; a path that has guided mankind for thousands of years and rings in another year with changes all around us while welcoming another Epiphany same as it ever was.   Oh the joy!

And with that in mind: 

If there is ever a time to look alive, this is it.

If there was ever a time not to believe everything you read, this is it.

If there was ever a time to re-awaken to the foundations that made this country pretty wonderful, this is it.

If there was ever a time to string together our days and night and come together, this is it.

And --  if there was ever a time when a lukewarm spirit is not be enough, this is it.

If there was ever a time to follow a star.....this is it.

It's either go big or go home, but you can't stay here.

Here's to Epiphany from here to eternity....

Welcome to 2017!

Stringing together one day at a time, it's a string of G Things expressly divined for you, complete with a brand new worldview at the end of it.  Your welcome. But don't thank me, thank the big guy, if you will; for this American girl knows I am nothing without the Almighty G who lives and reigns and has his Spirit inside each and every one of us.

Make it a Good Day, G