44 years today.
And counting.
Not always easy.
But I’m so we glad we held on.
I wouldn’t trade what we have now for anything.
The love of my life is at my side,
and we are looking forward to the future,
whatever it holds.
And Counting
Tag Archive | Be Still My Heart
One Thing I Missed
As many people do, at the beginning of the year, I’ve been considering the year just finished, and digging deep to find how the year I’m entering can be better; more productive, more quiet, more adventurous, more of whatever it is supposed to be.
Like a hastily taken photograph, there has been a lot of noise in this picture.
I have been able to narrow that noise down to three top priorities.
I posted about them here and here.
In short, they are; 1. Use my writing to help others to heal from their trauma. 2. Take my photography to a higher level to show God’s magnificence and 3. To help people in a more person to person sort of way.
All of these simply mean that I need to stop making excuses, and carve out more time to work on each of these things.
All this past month or so, a different kind of thought has been surfacing around me.
It manifests in different ways and places, but it means the same thing.
I simply MUST take more time to be quiet.
Remain still.
I don’t mean just idle, we all know how to do that.
What I mean is taking that time to quiet the noise inside, so that I can think more clearly.
If you know me, you know that I am a big proponent of “Quietude”, even to the point of making little YouTube spots to help in the process.
Truth time; For the past six months or so, I haven’t been making those spots, or even using them for what they are created for.
It happens.
Life takes a turn sometimes and gets crazy.
When the crazy comes to an end, it takes some time to get back to where we (read I) need to be so we can gain some strength back – mentally, physically or spiritually.
Enter oversleeping, overeating, over social media-ing, binge watching TV.
This isn’t all bad; the trick is to know when that time is here to stop it, and then do something about it!
One of the ways that it is being made clear to me that it’s time is through a little daily devotion that I read.
Over the last little while, it keeps talking about time, and how it’s been difficult, busy, frustrating and somewhat stagnant.
It also has been encouraging in regards to priorities, entering a new phase of life, knowing I’m not the only one, and resisting the urge (or the habit) of staying hidden away.
These devotions have talked about the significant (I like that word!) changes that have taken place during this time; and now it is time to accomplish what these changes are bringing to pass.
Coming out of this place of retreat, can seem overwhelming.
The habits that help us to be calm, take time to bring to the surface again;
The New and Improved Model!
It seems slow, even one step ahead is always preferred.
But it all makes me want to run forward.
Then today two things came in front of me almost simultaneously;
- I heard a friend speak (on Facebook Live) that I hadn’t heard in a while. He was talking about “Zoning out”. His word for “Quietude”. And how he must do this every day, to quiet the noise, to turn off the world we live in, so he can think; the silence speaks volumes. The “Mind of Christ” becomes clearer to him at these times.
- Today’s devotion was this; January 14, 2020: Take a breath and settle down, says the Lord. I know your sense of urgency and impatience to get a move on, but right now I need you to be tolerant and long-suffering. Otherwise, you will remove yourself from the flow of divine destiny. Keep yourself in My Spirit and take life as it comes with the grace I will provide. Romans 16:24 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.
Oh my goodness.
Gently and kindly I’ve been being pushed in this direction – and then today……
It didn’t seem very gentle.
It seemed very firm and deliberate.
Listen up.
Take the time.
I used to teach people that even if you start with five minutes, it could help.
Then you can move the time out as your grow in strength.
But God can work with ANY time that we give Him.
How did this get left off of my priority list?
Well its back on there folks.
Beginning today!
“Quietude” first!
The results will be amazing!
I’ve experienced them before, those “Quietude” moments.
And look forward to enjoying them again!
Thanks for staying with me.
Until next time!
Friday Favorites – Mr. Rogers
As a early Christmas present, my original Grandson took me to see A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood.
What a delightful surprise!
I told him I would likely cry through the whole movie.
He told me that was OK, and every time I did, he reached out and held my hand.
As a young man in his first year of college, I am so proud that he isn’t afraid to let his love be shown in that way.
He tells me that he remembers watching Mr. Rogers Neighborhood with me when he was very small.
I can only hope that some of those thoughts and ideas carried into his heart to this day. I believe they did.
He is all at once an excited, ambitious young man, but with a heart as tender as can be.
After seeing the movie, my love for the man, Mr. Fred Rogers, has been rekindled.
I have read more on him, watched more documentaries, and seen him on YouTube maybe more than I ever have.
I’ve had to ask myself the reason why, and the answer I think, has been cooking in my heart for quite some time.
This is turning into a post much different than when it began, but maybe while I continue to process, you can find something helpful for yourself as well.
Several years ago, I noted in myself a critical spirit.
Sometimes it was one that could be noted by anyone within earshot, but mostly, it was simply thinking and speaking the way the world thinks and speaks, perhaps not even perceived by them, since they did it as well.
Always having been the object of scorn growing up, I felt a serious need to fit in.
So any time I could comment – just comment – on someone else, I would do it, and I guess I thought it helped me to fit in.
What I know now, is that it was building up inside of me a critical spirit.
One that would not only harden my heart, take a whole lot of inner work to realize, and change.
Anyway, in literally EVERY piece of media I consumed about Fred Rogers, he was calling our and speaking to the weakest among us.
He was calling out to the social injustice he saw.
But most of all, he was telling all the “Less thans”, that they were “More than” they ever believed.
They were not defective, or broken, or unimportant, but that somewhere in them was a special strength and purpose given to them by their creator.
He so reminds me of my very favorite Bible verses –
Psalms 139:13-16 For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me in my mother’s womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works, my soul knows it very well.
My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written every one of them, the days that you formed for me, when as yet there was none of them. –
God knew about my every day, He knew who I was, and who I was to be; and to me, it seemed like maybe Mr. Rogers did too.
How can I not aspire to be more like that; seeing others the way God sees them.
After all – that is why I’m here!
It’s an inside job, difficult, but worth the work.
A softer, less critical spirit is easier for others to live with, and for myself as well.
Until next time – consider your own insides – Do what it takes.
I’ll see you next time around.
Significant Encounters 
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