Margins

My husband shakes his head at me when we watches me pull a book out of my bag at the beach or in bed.  He isn’t really shaking his head at the book but the highlighter and pen hanging from the back of it.  Or maybe the bag, as big as the book, full of pens, highlighters, and post-it notes (thank you 3M).

“Really…@ the beach you have a pen..and a highlighter.”

“Yes, Yes I do.”

My love for being able to write in the margins is why I adore studies and books with big, wide, pure white margins.  It is also why I have had my eye on the study bible for some time.  I not going to fill it with beautiful art, that is not a gift of mine.  It would be filled with scribbles and learning and growing.

As I read I am thinking and processing books (even fiction).  I love the ability to write something down right in the book, right besides the words that sparked the learning and thinking.  If I go back to look at the scribbles I might be able to read it, I might agree with what I wrote, I might vehemently disagree with what I wrote, I may or may not be able to read it because of the doctor like hand writing I have (This would be the one and only similarity I would have with a DR…).  Whatever is in the white space (or on the post it note I used to create the white space matters even if I can’t read it.  This is where I processed an idea and didn’t just consume it and walk away.  This is where growth happened.  This is where learning happened.  This is where inspiration may have happened.  This is where I went aha, what? no way, You have got to be kidding me, well that is a bunch of bull#@$.

I am beginning to realize that I love my life like I love my books with big huge pure white margins.  Margins that are wider, whiter, and blanker (if that is a word) than the many people around me.  Siting in the margins when everyone around you has a full schedule can be tricky.  It can look lazy, it can look unmotivated, it can look like a lot of things.  It can be a place I can compare myself to others and see how little I am doing.

These margins where I can think, grow, learn, breath, and rest are beautiful.

These margins are where I rest and God creates.  It may even make it easier for me to see what God is creating if I am hanging out in blank margins instead of being on constant sensory overload.

I think this is along the lines of what Luther has been quoted saying “I have so much to do I shall spend the first three hours in prayer.”