Laurie Beth Jones Blog

I could tell you about things that are happening, and have happened recently. It could read like bullet points in a quarterly report: business is up 30% from last year…we have added another six countries to our trainer representation list…we got 767 responses from my recent appearance on Trinity Broadcasting Network.

It could read like a travelogue….went to Alaska and came back with 1, 689 photos including grizzly bears nuzzling each other and eagles soaring over glaciers.

I could tell you that my Mom is wearing “ski boots” of sorts because she has a little sore on her foot that is having difficulty healing, and that her 3 year old great grandson Jackson walked up to her and said “Cool shoes, ‘Amo.” Last week he walked up to Mom’s dining table full of ladies and announced “My name is Jack and I’ve got no pants!”
I could tell you that my sister and my niece and I sat at a patio table in Coronado and laughed until we snorted and paid the waitress a really big tip because we kept the table so long.

The sun was shining—raining down, actually, with a halo-ing affect on the afternoon. And it is the sun really that I want to talk about right now.

Two days ago I went to a local pool and laid out my summer romance novel, big hat, beach towel, iced tea, sunscreen, and decided to just really “zone” out. I put my straw hat over my whole face to block the sun’s rays, half closed my eyes in dozing relaxation, and then I saw it—tiny circles that were actually radiating light and ‘breathing’ light all at the same time. They were inside my hat–emerging through the pattern of woven straw. I thought “This is almost psychedelic—I am having a party in my hat!” I looked again and the little mini-sundrops of light were indeed breathing in and out and radiating liquid gold all at the same time.

I read recently that scientists have discovered what they feel to be the edge of “a” universe. What did they find from Hubble photographs? Bubbles. Bubbles of light. They actually look like cells multiplying under a microscope. And they are full of light.

At church on Sunday our circle formed around the inside of the church. It is a tradition in the early service—after communion we all form a circle, hold hands and wait for each person to receive the bread and wine. When the circle is complete the pastor says a few words and then everyone claps and gets to go home.

But this Sunday the pastor noticed a homeless man sitting way in the back—behind a pillar and in a corner, as if he were ashamed. The music had already stopped but Pastor broke away and marched all the way down the aisle and stepped through the circle to minister communion to this seemingly broken man. That was very moving by itself. Yet what happened when the Pastor stepped beyond the circle was what got me. There we were—all holding hands, and there was no music, no center of attention, no clear next step. We all stood there looking across the pews at one another, saying nothing. There was a moment of suspended silence, and then you could sense it.

We looked at us and were engulfed in awe.
It was little drops of light, coming through the weave…breathing and radiating sunshine all at the same time.

Each of us a bubbling circle of light…hovering at the edge of the universe…emerging through the straw of God’s hat…all on an August day.

Recently I attended a summit of world changing CEOs at the Convene CEO Summit 2011. One of the speakers was Tom Phillips, CEO of Diversified Conveyors, Inc. He is also owner of Ikiraro Investments, which he started after several trips to Rwanda. Tom said he sees himself as a problem solver, and one of the problems he noticed in his trips abroad was the great need for protein in the diet of the children in Rwanda. Protein is essential for proper brain development in children ages 0 to 5 years old. Yet protein is in short supply for the children. Beef is too expensive, and if there is a chicken around the custom is that the man and only the man in the house gets to eat it—all of it—leaving nothing for the women and children.
So Tom put his engineering background to work and with others conceived of a profitable, sustainable model that combines a non-profit/for profit approach to getting protein to children.
It is called www.oneegg.org. I suggest you check it out. For $60 a year, or $5 per month you can supply eggs as protein to one child for an entire year.
I plan to order half a dozen. Will you join me?

Reinvent Your Life Workshop. January 14, 2011
By Laurie Beth Jones
Next workshop: March 18, 200 in Dallas Texas

Sixteen people gathered in an intimate theatre in San Diego this past Friday. Among them we had a pastor from Pittsburgh, a photographer from Pasadena, a stylist from Paris, and a police officer whose life was turned upside down by a bullet wound to her spine. We had the head of Asian banking investment firm in Canada, a psychotherapist from British Columbia, an IT genius, and the former marketing director for World Vision International. We also were graced by a woman who runs a third generation nursery, a musician from LA, a graduate from the Naval Academy, a comedienne in the making, an entrepreneur who donates windows and doors to Extreme Makeover homes, and a mother who donates her spare time to giving manicures to women at homeless shelters. Shelly Buckner and I were the designated shepherdesses for the day.

We drew on big art boards with giant magic markers. We put puzzle pieces together one by one. We drew our biggest fears and saw them turned into tiny rubber chickens. We stretched our minds and hearts, opening them to new words and dreams from the Holy Spirit. We wrote out new visions for our lives on handmade watercolor parchment, embossed with my new logo of LBJ, which stands for Live Breathe Joy. We cried a little, laughed a lot, and took time to reflect together what it means to rise and risk and roar, like Fire. To renew, reflect, restore like Water. To remain, return and regenerate like Earth. And to revive, rejoice, and release like the Wind.

Lives were transformed. Old scripts were discarded and new directions were received. It was a wonderful day full of connecting, engaging and extending mission and vision together.
Join the next RYL Workshop on March 18 in Dallas, Texas. We will see you there.
Changing the World One Mission at a Time

1.1.11 The New Year

New Year’s Blog
1.1.11

The very title “New Year’s Blog” sounds like some kind of frothy drink that would be served in a stein in Sweden. Or Lichenstein. But no—it is a parade of words reflecting my thoughts on this sunny, clear blue San Diego morning.

According to the media there is a universal optimism permeating the globe around this new year. The stock market is up 11% (ironic use of 1’s again.) Jobless claims dropped for the first time in two years. Home prices are rising again somewhat in San Diego—3%. All leading economic indicators seem to reflect that things are on the rise, after a long two year slump.

Have you ever wondered what makes the stock market go up or down? I love reading analyst’s take on things. They often attribute huge shifts to causes like “Walmart missed its stock earnings projection by two cents a share, exceeding dividend returns by net 3 percent, which sent stocks tumbling in Argentina as energy analysts anticipated electrical shortages on aisle 3.”
When I read stock analyst’s reports, I don’t put much stock in them because a. they all failed to predict the huge and sudden Recession, with nary a one predicting the waterfall up ahead in the river. I also don’t trust them because (see item a. above.)
One of the funniest quotes I heard recently was from Chris Rock who said “Oprah is so rich that China owes her money.”
Leave it to a comedian to grasp foreign economics.

The truth is, nobody really understands as much as we think we do.
There is simply not enough information in the world for us to connect all the dots, no matter how many mobile devices we develop or use.

We are all plugged in, and yet somehow tuned out…of the person sitting beside us in the restaurant, or, as I witnessed at the Arizona Biltmore, the father tossing a football with his son while holding the phone up to his head with one hand. When the eight year old misthrew, causing the father to choose between putting down the phone or catching the ball, he let the ball drop in order to continue his call. And then chastised his son for not having better aim.

Last night I watched the ball drop in Times Square. I counted down the last ten seconds with the crowd as I have for many years. There was a spirit of excitement, and unity, and good will as policemen took photos of families for them, and young couples kissed for the camera.

Dear Lord, where shall we go with You in this New Year? How can we stay tuned in to you, with all hands available to catch your promises, your call, your desire for connection with us.
Help us be humble, as the young shepherd David, who admitted that many things were too great and marvelous for him to understand. And yet, as a shepherd boy, he took out a pen and wrote letters to You, pouring out his heart.
No wonder You loved him so. Help me, also, find that rock to sit upon….that pen and paper…that silence in the valley, to pour my heart out to You this year.

I don’t need to know what the future holds, because I know you are holding me. Who is holding you?