"INDEPENDENCE"...MIDDLE CLASS BLASPEHEMY! WE ARE ALL DEPENDENT ON ONE ANOTHER, EVERY SOUL OF US ON EARTH.(GEORGE BERNARD SHAW)

(Phillipians 2) 1Is there any encouragement from belonging to Christ? Any comfort from his love? Any fellowship together in the Spirit? Are your hearts tender and sympathetic? 2Then make me truly happy by agreeing wholeheartedly with each other, loving one another, and working together with one heart and purpose. 3Don't be selfish; don't live to make a good impression on others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourself. 4Don't think only about your own affairs, but be interested in others, too, and what they are doing.

The Brandi/y's and I made cookies tonight. Can I just say that I miss my Granma Osborne? Because right about now she'd be chastising me for using any recipe besides the Tollhouse recipe. Betty Crocker sucks. Granma would have pursed her lips, rolled her eyes and said, "OOOOOHHH Angie. You KNOW you can't be doing that. Tollhouse is the best recipe. I told you so!" And it's true. They were sick cookies and a perfect waste of every ingredient we used. ME, the good cookie maker, made bad cookies tonight. They were really awful. Granma would have been disappointed - there's no way we could take these to the nurses.

Today, was a day of INTERdependence if ever there was one. I spent 11 hours today with three REALLY great friends (Joe, Brandi, and Brandy ((unfortunately, not all together at the same time)), practicing what it means to find encouragement in Christ. No pretense, no airs, none of that. Just a genuine interest in what's happening and what has been and what will be in one another's lives. At least, I was interested?! They seemed interested?! If not, they're good liars. :-) And laughing. LOTS of laughing. LOTS, and LOTS, and LOTS of laughing. Especially with the girls. With Joe, there was more snickering. Lots of snickering, huh, Joe? Today's afternoon with Joe was brought to you by the letter D. ;-)

Those verses above are just for reading. I read them this evening and they made me think of today. I hope that you all have some people in your lives who make you feel like they're interested in you; but like they're actually sharing THEIR lives with you, as well. It's important to share yourself with other people...your REAL self ;-)...if you get what I mean... Sometimes when I'm with these friends or Robert, or even my family that's forever far away, I'm reminded of how important it is to know and be known. These verses kind of hint at the same thing: Don't be selfish, don't live to make a good impression. It's like he's saying, "don't be all about you and trying to act like you're one thing when you're not. Let people know the real you, because that's who God made you to be, and that's going to be okay."

Don't think only of your own affairs, but be interested in others. It's like God is saying, "And be truly interested and caring in who other people are, and what they're about, because they're as important as you are. As important as I think YOU are, I think they are too. Could you help them see that for me?" It's hard to do all of that unless we hang around each other and really get to know one another, huh? It take some intentionality on our parts to make that happen, though. Otherwise, we just go through life spending TIME with our people, but never getting past the skim. Next time you're with them, think about it for a moment - if you're thinking only of yourself, and if you're being genuinely interested in their needs and interests, and see where the conversation takes you. HAVE FUN though...laugh while you're together, too...a lot! Please laugh. Maybe even so much that you fall off the cough and almost spit your drink out your nose. Laugh that much while you're thinking about it. It'll be better that way, I promise... :-)