Friday 5, 6 days late

6 days late...that's about right for my schedule these days! Last week's Friday Five, the last one of 2007 was:

...share five memorable moments of 2007. These can be happy or sad, profound or silly, good or bad but things that you will remember.

Bonus points for telling us of a "God sighting"-- a moment when the light came through the darkness, a word was spoken, a song sung, laughter rang out, a sermon spoke to you in a new way--whatever you choose, but a moment in 2007 when you sensed Emmanuel, God with us. Or more particularly, you.

So here are my Five, working backwards from today...

5) The chocolate cake war! The best birthday in my young daughter's life and one of the best in my career as a Mom.

4) Meeting a couple of new and inspirational friends online, including a very talented young architect and photographer in Indonesia who is destined for great things. Without the Internet, I would never have met these people who live so far across the world from me.

3) Facing my fears and going on a roller coaster in fulfilment of a promise to my young daughter. She touched a snake and faced her fears, so she insisted I face mine. I could not argue, so two loops and two corkscrews later, I got off the rollar coaster a bit shakier, but proud! Learning from the children!

2) Coming to terms with the fact that certain people I would love to have in my life simply cannot be there if I want to preserve my peace of mind and quietness of spirit. And feeling the wisdom of that difficult decision as my stress level dropped and my need to ask "why" fell away.

1) Going back to Pennsylvania for a visit, and realizing that I did have a home
there in that small community. Other issues in my life kept me from seeing that while I lived there, but the warmth of my welcome back taught me some new and wonderful lessons about seeing and not seeing things right in front of me.

And for the bonus:

A meditation session that was not going well, and then instantly turned around and became the very best and most profound spiritually in-touch meditation I ever experienced. The key to the transformation was replacing my counting of breaths with the phrase "Allahu akbar" God is the greatest. The result was transforming.