I love words.

My family loves words.

Sprinkle them with salt and pepper, eat them up, words.

When my niece told us as a little girl her favorite number was infinity, and then asked whats yours, we were simply dumbfounded.  Maybe we had a switched at birth crisis on our collective hands.  Who has a favorite number?  Make them all go away.  Smiling here.

Last weekend the soul-sister red-  lipped momma friends and I stopped in for a respite.  It was needed, this meal, this table time.  It was all about the fellowship.

We were so taken by what we stumbled upon — “Vapiano.”  This wonderful restaurant offered a place for relaxed time to catch up and just be.  Be friends.  Be mothers.  Be in fellowship.  The restaurant’s website explains.

Vapiano – an Italian proverb chi va piano va sano e va lontano.  This translates as:  people with a relaxed attitude live a long and healthy life.

So we savored our time and asked the waiter to explain what the name meant.  He explained the concept of relaxing and going slowly and how that leads to living a good life.

We savored.  We lingered.  And we learned that there is no literal translation in English for this name or this idea.  I called my sister, fluent in Italian and in three languages and she paused and thought and paused some more.  She got there eventually, to this notion of going slowly. There is no literal translation.

And lover of His word, I now want to know what He says about being relaxed.  So you guessed it I did a word search.  And I love love love the verses.  Okay, that’s another problem with English, right there.  The Greek has 5 words for love.  Whats a girl to do but just say love love love, there is only one word in English.  Anyway.

Psalm 116: 7,8  I said to myself, ” Relax and rest.
God has showered you with blessings.
Soul, you’ve been rescued from death;
Eye, you’ve been rescued from tears;
And you. Foot, were kept f rom stumbling.”

And Psalm 9:9,10 God’s a safe-house for the battered,
a sanctuary during bad times.
The moment you arrive, you relax;
you’re never sorry you knocked.

So we can relax and rest and be still in the confidence that He holds us all the while.

And I for one want to tell my eyes that they have been rescued from tears.  In confidence.  To stand on that word of His.

Words passed over pasta and pannini and wine and water and bread and we lingered. Our environment offered a relaxed mood.  The quiet, the still, the simple.  The mood was set at Vapiano for conversation and good simple food.  And it was very good.

So with all that is good in life, as mommas don’t we say I want more of that for my home, my family, my kiddos, my life.

Don’t we say what pieces and parts of that is translatable into my world.

God’s word and God’s presence provide a sanctuary.  And as the psalmist writes, “the moment you arrive, you relax.”

This morning I received an email.  I have an ongoing email conversation about a child and his French.  We discuss what’s going well, what needs work.  She offers kindness and grace.  And she ends her email Bon Courage.

Bon Courage as you relax and rest and go into your family time, your weekend, your life.

And I will talking to my Soul, my Eyes, and my feet about how they have been rescued and kept from stumbling as I stumble on into this sometimes messy always wonderful life of Grace.

Relaxing and resting in His arms. And in the arms of The Patient One too; he’s been gone a very long while.

You are never sorry you knocked.  And thanks for stopping in here too.  You bring me Joy.

Wynnegraceappears