What Do You Need?

A strange phenomenon has been occurring at mealtime lately. No, my husband hasn’t given up his meat and potato diet for kale and quinoa. My food has come alive.

The picture above is a case in point. A banana muffin looking up at me at breakfast seemingly saying, “Don’t even think about it!” Below, is another of my run ins. My spoonful of oatmeal seemed to be smiling at me. See it? Or maybe it’s just me and my need for anthropomorphism (assigning human traits to non-human entities.) in my day.

Yes, I have to admit, I need fun and whimsy to feel fully alive.

What do you need to feel fully alive? When was the last time you felt fully alive? What were you doing?

I have been pondering the concept of self-care a lot lately after listening to a podcast on the topic. Most of us think of self-care as taking time for a manicure, massage, extended shopping spree, or sleeve of Oreos. But those are all just band aids on the sore. To heal the sore, we need to know what it is we really need. And that doesn’t always come as easily as you would think. We spend so much time taking care of the needs of those around us that we often have a hard time defining what our needs are, let alone caring for those needs.

So instead of healing the sores of life, we confuse self-care with escaping life. As Glennon Doyle mentioned in her podcast, our goal should be to live a life we don’t need to escape from.

That is where God’s grace comes in. And only God’s grace.

Ask any mother of young children. Or the wife of an alcoholic husband. Or the daughter of an Alzheimer’s afflicted mom.

Often, we can’t escape our circumstances which can lead to resentments and all kinds of negative emotions. That is when we really have to lean on God and the face of God in the people and places and things that he puts in our lives to meet our needs. We are each so loved by the God who created us and knows us better than anyone.

God knows I need humor and fun in my life to be happy and to feel cared for. I also need quiet, but not for too long. And I need you. The friendship of women like you has been the most powerful manifestation of the face of God in my life, tending to my needs.

Let me know what it is that you need. I’d love to hear from you. And if you have a hard time pinpointing what it is you need, remember God longs to provide our needs. The provisions might not come as you would imagine but they are there.

We just have to look for them.

In our cereal bowls.

Joan