Friday Five: Life is a Verb (with bonus guest blogger!)

Jan, over at RevGalBlogPals, offers the following:
"The author of Life is a Verb, Patti Digh, worked her book around these topics:
* Say yes.
* Be generous.
* Speak up.
* Love more.
* Trust yourself.
* Slow down.
As I read and pondered about living more intentionally, I also have wondered what this Friday Five should be. This book has been the jumping off point..."

This week's Friday Five jibes beautifully with our curriculum here at the School for Wild Girls. It has been a week of great generosity and love, of slowing down and speaking up. One of our young visitors, KyedPiper, took me up on the offer of a bonus "assignment," so today we present a tandem blog: her answers followed by mine.


1. What awakens you to the present moment?
KyedPiper: Not one specific thing awakens me, really, It just sort of happens. I get a physical reaction to a moment. My surroundings seem to go silent, and I feel an amazing calm.

Mainecelt: the intake of breath and the thrum of music stirring in the air, the voices of those around me, birdsong and wild weather, the peace and weight of darkness and the rumbling of distant travelers.

2. What are 5 things you see out your window right now?
KyedPiper: I see a herd of sad, sopping wet cows; an old house that is, in my mind, TOTALLY haunted; a happy garden with purple lupines; a barn full of chickens itchin' to get out; and a farm truck with bread for said herd of sad cows.

Mainecelt: My eyes see a romping litter of muddy, wiggle-tailed piglets and a drenched duo of chickens perched inexplicably in a maple tree during a downpour. There's a plastic fence post on the ground, bent like a broken compass needle, pointing nowhere in particular. It lies near a garden bed of upright garlic soldiers, readying themselves for a culinary campaign.

3. Which verbs describe your experience of God?
KyedPiper: Heal, empower, and that verb that means awesome.

Mainecelt: dance, laugh, embrace, restore, confound.

4. From the book, p.197: Who were you when you were 13? Where did that kid go?
KyedPiper: I was a terrified 7th grader on Busker Island, Washington. I was struggling to define myself in a world that felt like quicksand under my feet. That scared 7th grader is still in me somewhere, but I like to think that I've become the stronger person I needed back then.

Mainecelt: I was a budding Beguine who hungered for wisdom, feared disapproval, and regularly fell in love with trees, stones, people, and the rest of Creation. I'm still essentially the same, although my fears of others' judgement has abated in proportion to my sense of rootedness.

5. From the book, p.88: If your work were the answer to a question, what would the question be?

KyedPiper: What are you on, and can I have some!?!!? (answer: not sure, but YES!!)

Mainecelt: How might we re-weave the broken threads of culture and Creation?


(Thanks, KyedPiper, for playing along! It's been a great week on the farm!)