Monday, March 14, 2011

new playgrounds~

(Note to self:  I know that some of what I share today sounds simplistic and perhaps too sweet, but I feel like  I need that reminder.  I need to break the difficulties of life down and focus on the *little* and the *good*.  It is in the simple moments of breathing in all that is good ~  where the real connections are made... yes and amen!)


I am serious.  

This is the first thing that greets me as I walk down the hallway in the morning and I love it.  I am taking it seriously.  It is a good thing to be hit with every day, "When will you ever have more time than you do right now?"  

I don't share this to make you (or me) fret, running around to make up for all the time lost last weekend.  No, I am just so captivated by the interesting pathways of life and how we fall into the most interesting places when we choose to seriously live our lives~

How did I get here?  How did you end up here?    

I see it in my morning rituals, my photography work, in my parenting, new friendships, hard/fun/play-filled projects, even trips to the local market.  In those small paths in those *random moments* of living ~ new things are birthed.  Creating new playgrounds of growth and heightened awareness.  I love it.  I don't always see it, I don't typically appreciate it, but right now in this season of change and new growth I am seeing it all around me.


Divine synchronicity.  Can you see it, too?  In the way one footfall lands just like it did yesterday ~ and then the very next step is so different and life changing?  Sometimes you can feel it coming~ a bit of forewarning that the tides are changing and you can "be brave" to face what is next.  Other times it catches us unaware, confused, frightened and timid.  It can be so emotionally messy~


*   *   *   *


If I hadn't taken the dirt road out to find a sheep, would I have ever met the blessed barnyard?  It was the first week of April and all the ewes were home for lambing.  Was it just luck?  

I super don't think so.  


Having a whole litter of puppies born with my boys at just the right age to be *captivated*. Their hearts overwhelmed with goodness towards the little growling balls of fur - it was so perfectly timed.  It also pushed me into puppy-love overload~ mercy!



Collecting the images of God's glory led me into a daily schedule of capturing life with my lens.  Then with a push from another divine moment with an online class, that lead me to share them in a shop I adore, a precious gift to me.  

All of this leading me to friends I love, leading me to a life that has daily miracles and creative abundance, bringing me here to this place today...  

Unbelievable answers to a prayer filled heart!  I needed this~ I needed you, my online friends~  


And watching it happen again this year.  New paths being lit in the brilliant sunshine.  These little tendrils of periwinkle peeking out of the cracks next to my kitchen door.

It just shouts of God's healing~ newness.

Now we just need to be brave.  I need to be brave.  
"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage."  
                                                                                 -Anais Nin  




To have curious-courage like miss Kitty.  She watches me as I make a mess of my days.  She loves it when I get on the floor with all of my notes, camera lenses, sketches, and paints.  Always the curious one she digs right into whatever I am doing, reminding me that the real moments are the one happening right now. 

She also teaches me to see life as playtime all the time ~ this is our playground, right now. 


*   *   *   *

On another heartfelt note:  As we hurt and pray for the world, for other's hearts and lives torn apart in so many tragedies, let us pray a *new day* over this pain.  Please Lord God bring us one miracle filled day after another...we need You.  Please God be in this terrible place and bring goodness and peace~

Help us, in this place, to see your feet first on these paths of life~ and follow your lead,
in this blessed barnyard of life,
jj
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