My mother—thank you God for giving her to me.
No Pain, No Gain
{Photo Credit: Small Things}
I’ve noticed something about myself—a bit of a pattern in the rhythm of my life: Every couple of years I want to burn everything down and start over. I get restless first and crazy shortly thereafter.
I decide I can’t work this job for one more day—or I’ll go crazy. I can’t live in this house for one more day—or I’ll go crazy. I need a baby right now. I have to do this or stop doing that because I NEED a change and can’t go on like this anymore.
Ready to pack my bags and run away {Photo Credit: HaoJan}
I’m at that crazy restless place again. It’s been too many years of the same and I am aching for something different and new.
Usually I get what I want…eventually. I plot and plan, scrimp and save, pester and fuss until the old breaks down and the new is built up around me. And I’m happy—for a while. Life is fresh and new and I’m not bored and restless anymore. I reinvent myself. Find something shiny and new…something different from the monotony of the same.
But right now I am stuck. We have our plans and we know change is around the bend. But that’s the problem…around the bend not right here in my bored little arms. I have to wait. I have to be patient. I have to keep working the job I want to quit. I have to keep living in the house I want to leave. I have to stand still when every fiber of my wild, restless being wants to run away.
There is change just around the bend {Photo Credit: SunnyDia}
There is much learning in the waiting. If I run from what I have, I can never get to what I want. I have to wait patiently through THIS to ever get to THAT.
I’ve been thinking about this restlessness and what it might teach me. I realize whenever I get uncomfortable in life, I do everything I can to make myself comfortable again. But I’m starting to wonder if discomfort is actually a very good thing.
After all, if I’m never uncomfortable then what would ever motivate me to move or change? Comfort is nice but it can be very destructive too if it keeps me from ever moving forward. I don’t like feeling wild and restless but this wildness wakes me up and gets me moving.
Not that the whole purpose of life is seeking comfort only. I’m simply saying that discomfort teaches me things comfort never can. Discomfort prods me onward and gives me a catalyst for change.
So I’m trying to value and learn from the wildness inside of me that is always wanting to run away, run on to the next thing. The next thing is probably fine and well—but the waiting and the discomfort—that is fine and well too.
Be patient, be still {Photo Credit: MoonShadows}
Laugh Together, Cry Together
{Photo Credit: Oh Pioneer!}
We are asked to rejoice with those who rejoice and to weep with those who weep; easier said than done.
It’s difficult to relate to people who are going through vastly different circumstances than we are. It’s hard to know exactly what to say or do when everything in my life is good and someone I care about is just trying to keep their head above the deep waters. It’s difficult to be happy for other people when our own hearts are breaking.
How can I connect and relate when my life is so different? Does someone struggling even want to talk to someone who’s breezing by? I know from times of struggle just how annoying and patronizing it can be to have someone who’s doing just fine stop by and say, “Don’t worry, everything will be okay. I know what you’re going through.”
Maybe you do, maybe you don’t. Either way, looking at your pretty little life doesn’t make me want to tell you about my problems.
{Photo Credit: EmSem}
And yet that is exactly what we’re asked to do: We’re asked to enter into each other’s lives—bright and beautiful, dark and ugly—all of it without regard to what’s going down in our own lives at the time.
We’re asked to rejoice with those who rejoice—even when our heart are bleak and weary.
We’re asked to weep with those weep—even when we have great joy we want to share.
We’re asked to go beyond ourselves and find our way into the beautiful mess of each other’s lives. We’re asked to be there for each other when everything is right and when everything is wrong. We’re asked to empathize and understand the joy and sorrow all around us in the lives of those we love.
I’m trying to learn how to do this, how to set my own life and circumstances aside and enter into the array of beauty and sorrow that paints each of our stories.
{Photo Credit: A Well Traveled Woman}
Why Do You Read the Blogs You Do?
What is it about a particular blog that draws you in and makes you want to read more? I’ve been thinking a lot about this lately: Why do I read some blogs and skip over others?
For me it comes down to whether or not I’m interested in and inspired by the person behind the blog.
My favorite blog is by a girl named Aura and I can’t get enough of her writing and photography—but why? She’s just a person telling stories and sharing snap shots of her life so why do I care what this stranger does with her days?
I care because I’m fascinated and inspired by her. I’m inspired by all the beauty she creates in her life and fascinated by the way she lives. Watching her life through the stories and pictures shared on her blog inspire me to go out and do more with myself—and I like that.
{Photo Credit: Aura Stuemky}
Another one of my favorite bloggers/artists is Katie Daisy. Katie is my favorite artist because what she creates fascinates and inspires me—just like Aura’s words and photos do. I love the way Katie combines colors and textures into whimsical little paintings and her work makes me want to transform everything around me into something dripping with color and beauty.
{Photo Credit: Katie Daisy}
I also read blogs that resonate with me and the way I live.
Blogs about nature and the outdoors, photography and art, faith and family—these are just a few of the things that speak deeply to me and draw me into the writing of others with similar interest.
Both Aura and Katie are Midwest girls who grew up in the prairies of Oklahoma and Illinois. The words they write and the art they create resound deeply with my love for the prairies. I feel connected to these artists in a way because we each share a deep love of this one common thing—the flatlands, the woods, the birds and trees…the places and things that speak to us about where we are from and who we have become.
{Photo Credit: Katie Daisy}
Both of these artists inspire me to create more beauty in my life. They inspire me to live better, write better, and create from a place deep inside my soul that is genuine and true.
There are very few bloggers who reach me in this way but whenever I come across someone who does, I can’t get enough of their words and stories. I want to dive into their world and understand everything that makes them who they are. I want to go away from their words and pictures and create something just as beautiful and inspiring with my own words and stories.
What draws you into a blog? What determines who your favorite writers and artists are?
April Showers Bring May Flowers
“And don’t think the garden loses its ecstasy in winter.
It’s quiet, but the roots are down there riotous.”
{Rumi}
Something Out Of Nothing
Sometimes I think I’m wasting time blogging and taking pictures. Sometimes I wonder if I’m wasting other people’s time expecting them to read what I write and share in the stories I tell. Sometimes I think about walking away from it all and doing something “useful” with myself. And then I think about God. I think about how he likes to write and paint and doing so is never a waste of his time.
Something out of nothing—that is what God does.
He creates and delights in creation. And he has filled our hearts with the desire to create too.
Something out of nothing—that is what art is.
Words and colors shaped into stories and meaning.
Nothing God does is a waste and God likes to create.
So I create too.
And it is not a waste.
Life Lately.
Two of my dearest friends came to visit for the week.
We talked and laughed and explored the streets together and were reminded why we have loved each other so much from the start
Who couldn’t love a friend with penguin socks?
We ransacked the dessert section in my favorite Italian coffee shop
And explored all the beautiful streets and corners of some of my favorite towns. I could take a picture of every perfect little piece of New England architecture
And perfect little bird houses too
The other day after exploring my favorite bookstore I came home with lots of old maps, a book printed on a letterpress with raised words you can feel when you run your fingers over the page, a stunning book of American poetry with a bunch of my favorite authors all wrapped up between the same two covers, and a little bitty book of Shakespeare too :]
The trees are blushing crimson in the warm light of spring
And the sunshine is warming everything up
And these two are warming my heart up :]
