Quality, Scope, Heft, and Zest

   Today is a day to move forward.  So often I feel as though I sit or lie down and make no progress toward anything worthwhile.  I hate that.  Chemo Round Five has had fewer side effects overall except for the lingering nausea and its accompanying urps and burps.  It has been a week since that round entered me and I sense that the nausea is gradually abating a bit.  But today I have decided I am going to stay busy with little things.  I have a few calls to make.  I have to get gas in the van.  I need to get tickets for a basketball game.  I get to see an old friend today.  These are all normal things that normal people do during the course of their normal lives.  While I understand my life is not normal right now, I want it to be so and therefore I will make the attempts I need to make things happen.  I hesitate to make a "to do" list because it might get overwhelming, but I will mentally check things off and make today a worthwhile day.
   I found a quote by a woman named Barbara Brown Taylor that I would like to claim as my own for today.  She once said, "What God cares about, with all the power of God's holy being, is the quality of my life...not just the continuation of my breath and the health of my cells--but the quality of my life, the scope of my life, the heft and zest of my life...fear of death always turns into fear of life, into a dingy, cautious way of living that is not really living at all.  To follow Jesus means going beyond the limits of our own comfort and safety.  It means receiving our lives as gifts instead of guarding them as possessions."  I have not met this woman nor do I have any further citation on where the quote comes from, but I get the feeling that I could identify her by watching how she lives.  My life is not something to guard closely, but to be used to bless others, to dare and achieve, to exercise the "heft and zest" of it all.  I think I would like to have a cup of tea with this woman.  She would challenge me.
   Thanks for reading.  Gotta get things done.  The gift of life needs to be exercised and enjoyed.