When Sue and Kelly Came

We are ever so grateful for family and for the people that family brings into our life.  Last month Aunt Sue came for a visit and she brought Kelly with her.  What a blessing and what a great week we had enjoying them!

The girls ALWAYS love when Aunt Sue comes to visit because she is just another amazing Grandma for them.  We are so grateful for her and look forward to seeing her all of the time.  Kelly is a dear friend and fellow mission minded woman who has done extensive mission work with Sue in the Congo.   She has been "grounded" due to a head concussion and she decided to come out with Aunt Sue and we are so very glad she did.

The girls were absolutely enamored with Kelly because she has long hair and loves to braid and do fun hairstyles.  Kelly was the fast favorite in our house and I won't lie, she and I are kindred spirits.  Her heart and joy are simply tangible and I loved hearing all bout the project's she is working on in the mission field.

Her main project is The Graceful Warrior Project that focuses on empowering women through self defense, education, faith, and community.  Its really cool and right up my alley.  Hoping that maybe one day me and the girls might be able to travel with something like this.....someday.

  

It was a standard school, swim, gymnastics week for us so our times together were limited, but we made the best of the moments we had.  I am so glad that running is something I do again and for a morning spent on the trail. Arizona is breathtaking this time of year!

We also got to go as a group to support Lily at her swim meet.  What a special treat for Lily to have such a big fan group! 

Sue and Kelly made our week extra bright and my girls are still asking about when they get to see them again.  

So glad my girls have such incredible women in their lives!  

Perspective

Alright, so last week I started one of my favorite seasons of the school year, ART Masterpiece.  Basically I volunteer to teach a specific "masterpiece" to classes every other week.  The art is predetermined for me, the research is already done, I just have to study a bit and prepare something to bring to the class.  I have done this now for 3 years and every year I love it. In fact, I am one of the favorites and have teacher's clamoring for me to teach their class.  It is special and so honoring. Art is amazing and spectacular and moving and as a photographer I connect so much with this enrichment.  

So last week was my first week and it so happened that I had to teach a Georges Braque piece entitled "Grapes with Clarinet" to Lily's third grade class.  Now Braque was a contemporary and friend of dear old Picasso and if you can think of Picasso in a word its probably, "huh??" Braque and Picasso were foremost in a movement known as Cubism and playing with perspectives, negative space, and distorted lines.  Both of these artists are the ones that take a little bit of time and an open mind to discover the beauty in their work.  Their art seems convoluted and edgy while being chaotic with purpose (is there such a thing?).  This one was challenging for me because at the core of this particular piece of art is the idea of perspective and the realization that perspective fundamentally changes the story, and perspectives when compiled into one picture seem rather chaotic.

HMMMMMM, how life mimics art.

We are having a lot of differing perspectives in our house lately, and the ensuing battles that are connected.  Its fascinating and while at the pool the other day the girls were fighting over who was in the shower and I couldn't help but take this picture.  Talk about different perspectives.  And then there is my perspective......taking it all in.

Each of my girls sees their world fundamentally differently.  Not only because they are different people, but because they literally "see" their world from different heights.  Much like Bob and I, the world looks differently (he sees a lot more of our cupboards than me).  Its perspective and it matters and the same way that  Georges Braque melded many different perspectives, so we are trying to meld all of our perspectives into one Longmire Family, into one marriage, into one sisterhood.  And its hard, and foul some days.  Lets face it, we do not like to see another perspective, because DANG IT, our view is RIGHT!

But its not right, its different, and our own perspective never gives us the superiority.  What a lesson we could apply in our world today.  I spend a lot of my time praying over my girls and refusing to solve their arguments outside of reminding them that "neither of you are right.......love each other better."  Sometimes they do it, and sometimes they deem their perspective worth going to war over.  We are always learning and in the quiet moments they connect with the idea that perhaps their perspective wasn't worth "dying on that hill" for.  

But, and I'll say it again, its hard, and not fun, and point in fact painful to the ego to be wrong.  Our ego hates it.  In the words of a volleyball buddy, "Can I limp if my ego hurts?"  We don't like to lose.

Life and kingdom living however, is not about winning or losing, but rather about recognizing our differences and embracing our part in the Body.  Its about knowing that our perspective is valuable, and important, and beautiful, but no greater than another.  Its about that respect and love thing and melding all of our perspectives into  a work of art that is truly a Masterpiece.