Friday, August 10, 2012

{Five Minute Friday}: Connect

(Today I’m participating in Five Minute Friday with Lisa-Jo Baker. It’s a flash mob of writers writing for five minutes without stopping to edit, over-think, or re-do. If you’d like to join in, just head over to 
Gypsy Mama.  This Friday’s prompt is connect.)

I've decided that I can no longer stand the grit on the floor so I get out the vacuum, determined to eradicate all that rubs my feet the wrong way as I try to go about my business.  I haul the loud machine all over the kitchen, sucking up the crumbs from a hundred breakfasts of toast and the dirt from a week of dog.  I am a woman on a mission.  I keep pushing the boundaries of how far I can drag the blasted machine before I have to stop and find a different outlet.  But my singular focus--a clean floor--clouds my awareness and, suddenly, everything goes quiet.  I've stretched the cord too far and suddenly, my power source is gone.

How many times have I done this?  And how many times, in that moment, have I turned on my vacuum? How many times have I cursed the blasted machine, blaming it for why I can no longer vacuum?

But the real problem is not the vacuum.

It's the disconnection.

Only by reconnecting the cord can the machine work.

When I am plodding through my everyday life, am I the kind of woman who looks for ways to make connections, rather than breaking them?  Or am I the the kind of woman who curses the very thing from which I've become disconnected?

I forget, a lot of the time, that my connection with those whom I spend most of my time is
the most important thing.

"Remain in me, and I will remain in you.  No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine.  Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.  I am the vine; you are the branches.  If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me 
you can do nothing.

If this is the reality in my relationship with God, if the result of not seeking out connection with God is that I can really do nothing, doesn't it follow that the same would apply in my relationship with those who mean the most to me?

When will I see that to seek out the connection is to begin the hard work of binding to another, just as a knot joins two strands together?

Five Minute Friday

6 comments:

  1. Wow! This post was everything I needed to read :)
    Your writing is wonderful!
    New follower :)

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  2. Visiting for the first time from Five Minute Friday...

    Love your interpretation of "Connect".

    Thankful how you closed your post: "If this is the reality in my relationship with God, if the result of not seeking out connection with God is that I can really do nothing, doesn't it follow that the same would apply in my relationship with those who mean the most to me?"

    Powerful!

    New Networked Blogs follower. Excited to read more of what HE gives you to share...

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  3. Lovely Holly. Connections are the essence of life, I am coming to believe. xx

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  4. Did I read somewhere this was your first time for 5 Minute Friday? If it is, then welcome! It's a beautiful, gracious community. You will like it here :)

    Your post resonates with me. I wrote mine with a similar theme... You can read it here. http://www.alifesurrendered.com/2012/08/connect-five-minute-friday/

    It is very nice to meet you :) New blog follower!

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  5. It is so strange, that in reading your blog, I am reminded of something I was thinking about. Sometimes it feels like we're on the same wavelength. Love your writing and the way you think. Love you cuz. Lori

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