choosing

there's this quote from the shack that i want to share...it touches me in a kind of soggy, hazy place...lots of things that can and probably will trip me up there...but not an altogether bad place either.

"I already told you that forgiveness does not create a relationship. Unless people speak the truth about what they have done and change their mind and behavior, a relationship of trust is not possible. When you forgive someone you certainly release them from judgment, but without true change, no real relationship can be established."

ok, i needed to put that there so i could find it more easily...it took me forever to figure out which dog-eared page had the quote about trust i was looking for.

now, i am always being told we can choose happiness. and while i've rested some in that soggy place this morning (and quite a bit lately), i am going to make a choice today to let my heart be light. it came to me when i looked at my kids watching this winnie the pooh movie we rented. seems it doesn't matter how old you are, watching winnie the pooh makes your face look about four years old. it made me remember when my second born fell in love with the song from the heffalump movie a little over a year ago, when he was nine years old. he loved that song so much that he holed up in his closet with the portable dvd player so he could play the song over and over and write the words down, they were that important to him...meant that much.

and here's one last quote i wanted to include, that goes along with the choosing happiness for me today...

You can kiss your family and friends good-bye and put miles between you, but at the same time you carry them with you in your heart, your mind, your stomach, because you do not just live in a world but a world lives in you.
--Frederick Buechner, Telling the Truth

i love that quote. something they also say in the shack, that i'm sure has been said before...

if anything matters, everything matters.

see that light starting to shine? feel it?
peace