Watermarked

I’ve started a new blog…amyhaywood.com/wordpress–so update your bookmarks and RSS feeds.

Bare with me, it’s not styled / designed yet. –we’re sporting WordPress Classic!

Somehow I stumbled onto the Onion Store this evening. Thought I would share…

I was just looking at theedigers.com and ran across this YouTube video. Well done and thought provoking.

I haven’t really figured out the purpose of LinkedIn. I mean I understand the concept of posting your resume, establishing self branding, etc. But, I have yet to really find the social aspect of this other than announcing to people, “I collect friends.” Isn’t that really what a majority of “Web 2.0″ stuff is? Facebook. MySpace. Twitter. It’s always been about where your friends are. Who you know. Networking. And in a lot of ways, I don’t feel like this is any different than the pog phase, the Beanie Baby phase, the Pokemon phase… Now we’re in the friend phase. I collect friends.

So this is the third straight day in a row that I’m blogging…which is quite an accomplishment. I thought about finding another Relevant Magazine quote (like yesterday)–*COUGH* a cop out. I even modified a post about my Firefox extensions that has been sending in my Drafts folder for who knows how long, but realized that I wanted to do a lot more with that post before I published it and wouldn’t have the time to make it all I want it to be tonight. I think part of the reason I struggle so much to blog is because everytime I pull up my blog I am reminded of everything I want it to be and everything that it’s not. It has so much potential, but I can’t quite wrap my head around any one, single direction. Maybe I’ll have time this weekend…seriously.

Today at work went well. It is my third day with a new job. So far I’m enjoying things. Its still a matter of learning names, processes, and proceedures. I saw a former co-worker tonight at church. I didn’t get a chance to speak with him, but it was weird because it feels like I’ve just been on vacation or taking some time off (I left my old job on a Friday and started a new one on Monday!). For that one moment in time, it felt like I had never left. So obviously, there’s still some processing left to be done. I have a photoshoot tomorrow morning so that my picture can be added to the website.

We had a thunderstorm come through this afternoon. Which, even though more dangerous, made me grateful for the window that I sit in front of. I have never had a window. We did have some lightning hit really close. In fact, so close that 5 minutes after everyone had started to calm down, someone from downstairs came running upstairs to say that it had actually arched across the basement and grounded at the water pipe in our house! It was amazing to me how fast it came. And if I wanted to be deep, I would say, “like a lot of things in life.”

I read an article in the current Relevant Magazine entitled “How’s That Working for You?” by Jim Palmer. It has really provoked my thoughts and challenged me over the last few days…

It is more than just the presence of God within giving me life, but the realization that His presence within me is my life. God doesn not give me peace; He is my peace. God does not give me joy; He is my joy. God does not give me freedom; He is my freedom.

I am IT. I am love. I am peace. I am joy. I am satisfaction. I am freedom. It’s not something I give; it’s who I am. I AM what you’re looking for.”

This quote brings new life to “God is enough. He is all I need.”

It’s always weird starting a new job. New people. New spaces. New processes and new procedures. New opportunities.

My roommate came home, last night, and brought me flowers. “Happy new job.” The funny thing was, we realized we didn’t have a vase in our apartment! So, they are sitting (if flowers can sit) in a milk jug!

Last week I went to Panera Bread with Amy-Jo. We were sitting there discussing Exit71.org when a 4-year-old boy peers around the corner and jumps into the booth next to Amy-Jo. I think he is my favorite 4-year-old boy.

“You both are now my friends, because everyone I meet is my friend.”

“Oh, well that’s great.” Then trying to make conversation, I asked him what he had for dinner.

“A Muffy!” he said with enthusiasm.

“A muffin?”

“No a muffy.”

“It’s a muffin top,” Amy-Jo explained to me.

“What kind of a muffy was it?” I asked.

“Chocolate chip.”

“I love chocolate chip. It’s my favorite.”

He began to jump up and down, with the excitement that only a 4-year-old boy could. “I LOVE CHOCOLATE CHIP!”

The conversation continued on from Amy-Jo’s tea and not liking how it smelled to the fact that I was having Ravioli for dinner and he always spilled it on his clothes when he ate it for lunch at school.

Somewhere along the way his aunt(?) had come around the corner, looking for Jacob. She asked Jacob if he was invited to sit down or if he just joined us.

“They scooted over.”

“Scooting over is not always an invitation, though. Did you introduce yourself?”

“My name is Jacob, what is yours?”

“My name is Amy.”

“And my name is Amy-Jo.”

“it’s nice to meet you, Amy and Amy-Jo” he replied, pointing at each of us as he said our names. “How old are you?”

“Jacob, we’ve talked about this, it’s not polite to ask grown-ups how old they are,” the aunt reprimanded him.

“I’m 30.”

“How old are you?” he asked, looking at me and glancing back at his aunt.”

“I’m 23.”

“Whoa! That’s so old!”

I laughed. “I know, it’s 2 hands, 2 feet, and 3 fingers.”

He proceeded to count for us, showing us that he could count to 23.

As his aunt apologized for Jacob’s behavior, she explained, “He has no problems socially.”

And as I said these next words, I realized how much I meant them and how much I had the ability to speak into Jacob’s life. “It’s a gift.”

As I’ve thought back to my encounter with Jacob, the 4-year-old, the boy that I’ll probably never see again, I’ve realized how much, I have to learn from him. I want to be that confident in myself that I can talk to people openly and honestly. More times than not, I keep quiet. I go my way, and they go theirs. I miss so many opportunities.

I’ve also realized that I never want to be be ashamed to tell people how old I am. If anything, I hope that my age, a mere number, would represent wisdom. I pray that that number would be a celebration of the years that God has blessed me with life. May it never be a count towards death or a representation of years wasted.

Another question, I’ve asked myself: why can’t I get excited over the simple things in life, like chocolate chips? Where along the way, did I loose a passion for those things? Did it go with innocence? or loosing naivety? or “simply” a lack of joy?

Even after Jacob had left, the girls at the table next to us, starting laughing at how cute he was. Even later, when they were joined by their friends, I heard them say, “That’s Amy and Amy-Jo.” and went on to describe Jacob’s boldness. Our encounter with Jacob, spawned conversations with complete strangers. Why can’t the things I say encourage community?

Jacob returned one last time before leaving Panera, “It was nice to meet you, Amy and Amy-Jo,” he said, again, pointing to us as he said our names.

“It was nice to meet you, too, Jacob.”…more than you know.