Yes.
Yes.

I feel compelled to start my Friday Fragments this week with answers to the two outstanding questions that got raised in my previous two Friday reflections… so, yes, Mary and I were able to complete the Elephant Rock Bike Ride (and I was courageous enough to go slow when I needed to), and yes, I made the airplane flight that I raced to last week.  Many of you asked, and so now you have the rest of the story!

All of this reflective time... this focus on the pace of life, and the commitment to move through life in a way that more appropriately allows me to savor each moment has led me to a significant milestone.  This milestone is today, June 12, when I will declare my first BBFD.

Yes, today is my first ever BlackBerry Free Day (BBFD).  Fun to declare, perhaps, but a commitment to Mary that reveals my desire to provide an oasis for my soul, my mind, my fingers… that will produce a launch pad to:

• observe, and
• listen, and
• reflect, and
• read (not email or text messages!), and
• laugh out loud, and
• pray, and
• not glance at my phone for a flashing red light (the BB code for – look at me now, something has just happened to me!!!!), and
• ride a bike, and
• go for a walk while I hold Mary’s hand, and
• plant something, and
• play on the family room floor with Malia, and
• ponder the richness of a patient God that loves me intensely, and
• stop the treadmill of my mind that naturally gravitates toward what still needs to be done, who still needs to be called, what still needs to be written… and just breath deeply of the fresh uncluttered oxygen of life and love… that is what Jesus had in mind when He said:

“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” ~ John 10:10

Perhaps you’d like to join me.  It’s simple… somewhere on your calendar place the bold letters BBFD, make it an all-day event.  I can hardly wait.

Abundant living… birthed from a quiet soul.  BBFD!