This is what I saw while running yesterday at Pacific Beach. Three times running in a week -- woo-hoo! I know, some people live like this, not considering it a supreme victory to run three times in a week -- or three times since last February, another way of looking at it. :) 
I stayed to watch the sunset. Very lovely.
I picked up a Henri Nouwen book yesterday at my stepsister's: The Return of the Prodigal Son. Here's an excerpt: "I am the prodigal son every time I search for unconditional love where it cannot be found. Why do I keep ignoring the place of true love and persist in looking for it elsewhere? Why do I keep leaving home where I am called a child of God, the Beloved of my Father? I am constantly surprised at how I keep taking the gifts God has given me -- my health, my intellectual and emotional gifts -- and keep using them to impress people, receive affirmation and praise, and compete for rewards, instead of developing them for the glory of God."
Below is a description of some of the work that Nouwen is called to. I think this is also an apt description of my new job, but also a description of what all of us, who have heard the Father's voice, are called to: "I have to kneel before the Father, put my ear against his chest and listen, without interruption, to the heartbeat of God. Then, and only then, can I say carefully and very gently what I hear. I know now that I have to speak from eternity into time, from the lasting joy into the passing realities of our short existence in this world, from the house of love into the houses of fear...."
I too quickly focus on my to-do list. I'm naturally do-er, not a be-er. I love to accomplish things. The past few days have been really lovely, because not only have I accomplished things (coordinating speaking engagements in Ohio, making final arrangements for an apartment in Buenos Aires, etc.) but because I been trying not to focus on my list(s). I have sensed a deep need to pray more as part of my new job. I have also been really blessed with the relationship with my stepsister this past week, and our discussions about life, God, feminism, George Clooney, etc. She has also been introducing me to interesting people here who have a heart for what God is doing around the world. Nouwen is so right: we have to listen to God, commit to hearing and seeing truth, and then we can go and do, while somehow still being (ala Brother Lawrence).
