As this website and blog turn one year old this month I have been looking back and reflecting. One year isn’t a very long span of time, which suits me well since my memory is getting a little ragged. But I vividly recall sitting in front of this same laptop and asking myself, “What the heck is a blog and why did I say I’d write one? “

It seemed a little vain. Why would anyone be that interested in Robin Farnsworth’s random thoughts? This led me to regard the deeper side of all of us humans. We are inundated with banal information. We text, twitter, hop, skip and jump through each day in a world that seems ever-more complex and rushed despite promises of the good life, which we translate to an easier life which advanced technology is supposed to deliver. Yet we all long for meaning, connection and HEY, there must be more to life than this!

I loved my brother, Bob’s guest blog last month, Small Wonder, because it pulled back the curtain and revealed exactly what I’m trying to say. A stop-you-in-your-tracks moment, something compelling us off the worn path, sometimes into beauty, sometimes tragedy or both…a flash of color and wonder only God can uncover. We are breathless, filled with all that life is meant for, then it’s gone again. BUT…we are forever changed.

As I scan the titles of my blog entries I remember some of these times; my friend Terri’s death, the Power of Forgiveness event, a graduation, a wedding. Then all the characters that play a vital part of my life, including my aging dog, Rosie. There have been lesser players, grumpy old men, Korean Ajimas, and memories resurrected of ball room dancing, my dad throwing jelly beans around my room and dressing like a gorilla.

I’m still, a year later, not convinced any of this is that important, at least in a news-worthy sense. But the feedback I have gotten from family and friends tells me most people do like to slow down and pull over because we’ve noticed something we never saw before. We delight in the hidden treasure, in the things unseen and the suddenly of God’s voice.

In ancient Biblical times, God would meet with folks in the most obscure, arbitrary ways…a burning bush, a dream, the local well. And often men would build memorials in these places by piling up a bunch of rocks and naming it. Jacob did this and called the memorial “Bethel”, meaning God is in this place. God met him there, in a dream, when he was all alone and on the run. He would never forget that night. Neither would God.

Maybe life is like that; building memorials, places where we know we were transformed, in big ways and in some very subtle ways. I think that’s some of what this blog is about. And sometimes it’s just for fun. That God has pulled me up to a place in life where I can see clearly, and laugh out loud and love boldly again is my miracle. And He gets all the credit, for sure. Spencersmom is my way of applauding Him. And maybe the blog is a series of small memorials…God met me here, and here, and over here again!

This blog has blessed me immensely. I have no clue how many people read it, nor do I want to know. Some of the feedback I have received make it already a thousand times worth every little tale I tell. And it has united me with total strangers from around the world, which makes me say thanks for the World Wide Web. Happy Birthday, spencersmom, and thanks to all of you who read the random thoughts of Robin Farnsworth. I can’t hope that it will change your life, but maybe it can be a moment out of the crazy rush of the day that can help you pull over and say, God is in this place.