This past week has been full of beauty, friendship, rest, and sunshine. All the good things. Here are 10 things I’ve learned during my time here. Continue reading
trust
The Uncomfortable Gift of Stillness
Sabbatical is awkward. Rest and stillness feels foreign. Nearly one week in, and I feel like I’m still trying to settle into this slower pace of life.
Part of this may be due to the fact that I’m no longer at home – I’m traveling, living out of a suitcase, sleeping in a new place. But I think it has much more to do with the state of my mind and heart.
Even while I’m writing about being enough and not finding your worth in your productivity or performance, I’m still fighting the urge to make the most of every minute and operate under a tight schedule. Must get to barre class at 8:30. Must be writing in coffee shop by 10. Must draft first chapter today. So many must’s that I’m trying to muster the strength and energy to complete. The irony is not lost on me.
But I hold onto the hope that God is teaching me through my discomfort and he’s using this internal battle to reveal more of himself to me. In this process, I’m trying to give myself grace as I break in these new shoes of Sabbath, silence, and slowness.
That’s the journey of enough – it’s a continuous cycle of shedding old habits and trying on new ways of thinking and being.
Pictures of Us: How God Is Writing My Story
It’s amazing what can change in a matter of two years.
In March of 2012, I wrote a piece with my writing group about pictures of old boyfriends. I realized that with some of these guys, we only took photos standing next to each other. As I wrote back then: “We made sense together, standing side-by-side. But failing to turn around and look at each other face-to-face, to really look at each other directly in the eyes, we never saw who we were in the deep, dark parts – the blackness of our pupils, the cloudy irises never captured on film.” Continue reading
A Cord of Three Strands
“A cord of three strands is not easily broken” (Ecclesiastes 4:12).
Tonight we are a cord of three strands, sitting, eating, talking, writing – three friends, three women blessed by the words, “Me, too.” Those two wonderful words that say, “You are not alone. You are not the only one who feels crazy, lost and confused much of the time.”
But we three cords are not just wallowing in our burdens, instead we’re intertwining our experiences, strengthening each other by the sharing of truth. Like iron sharpens iron. The three strands of our lives weave together to form a cord that reaches up to Heaven. And we’re leaning on that cord, clinging to it, pulling on it with all our weight. We’re reaching out for understanding, asking for wisdom. Continue reading
ENOUGH 