That Thing I Do Now - Volume 63

Hey there!  Happy Weekend, my friends! We actually had days of rain and overcast days. For this desert dweller, rain is a welcomed treat... but only for a day or two, and then we need our sunshine again! (Yes, we are quite spoiled!)

I am praying for a long, long Fall - filled with all the bounty of all good things. (and then a short, short winter - because - cold!) But I digress... with the rain, came more reading... so settle in all cozy like and enjoy this spread to feast on!


Happy Reading! Featured today are posts by Sarah Markley, Shauna Neiquist, Emily Freeman, Micah Murray, Andrea Levendusky, Christie Purifoy, Jessica Hoover, and - of course - a video!  Enjoy!

(Ya'll know to click on the authors' names to read their whole posts, yes?)

* This one by Sarah Markley over at Incourage.me On Stars & Seeking the Light...
"When I find myself in a place where I’m not walking close, at least in my adult years, I’ve stopped beating myself up about it and simply made the changes I need to make to be back in step with Him. I don’t worry about guilt; I just do it differently.

And it’s the pollution, most often. It’s the pollution of daily life’s stresses and worries. It is the everything that happens in the in between of life that can pollute my heart and mind. Even good things like work and media and living can pollute my vision sometimes. It’s oh-so-hard to see the brilliance in life.

But that’s when we need to get away from the pollution. We move away from the light that clouds our vision so we can see the stars that shine. Getting away from the city glow helps everything.

That city glow sure doesn’t feel like pollution, does it? It seems antithetical, to move away from the light to see the Light. But sometimes we need to. Sometimes moving away from what feels like light is a good thing. We didn’t know what we are missing."


* This one by Shauna Niequist with Put Yourself on the Pride Board...
"I can tell you in great detail what I haven’t done, where I’m still failing, how I’ve screwed up and fallen short again this week. It’s how my mind works, it’s the knee-jerk, it’s the well-worn, familiar path of not good enough, not good enough, not good enough.

But I’m learning to stop and celebrate an inch of progress, even if there are miles to go, to cheer myself on for staying in the ring, even though I can’t seem to land a punch.

We might make more progress if we celebrate each millimeter, instead of shouting at ourselves for not covering more ground. If you’ve covered any ground at all: Pride Board. If you simply didn’t give up: Pride Board. If you tried and failed but are trying again today: Pride Board."


* This beautiful honest post by Emily Freeman (where she once again writes the words my heart couldn't string together - but yes, this!) with When it Feels Like Creation is Over...

"God is creating something new within me.

After I said it, a new piece unfolded itself . . . even though everything feels dreadfully the same.

I’ve found an alternative to optimism and pessimism and it has nothing to do with filling half-empty glasses or ripping the silver off the clouds.

In the beginning, God created and here in the middle He hasn’t stopped. He keeps taking this same soul earth, turning it over and over again, making something from what feels like nothing.

The pessimists say life is hard and won’t get better. The optimists say life is good or will be soon.

But the believers say our hope is in Jesus whether life is hard or life is good, releasing the right to predict the future, holding on to God who comes to be with us now." 

* This poem by Micah Murray - I'm Tired of Owning ...
"i’m tired of owning
things

boxes taped up and torn
open again and taped
up again but never really unpacked

i’m tired of clothing and toys and furniture and
all the trappings of should and supposed to and someday

i’m tired of all the things we bought because
they’re the sorts of things adults should own
to do the sorts of things adults should do

(once, we were humans)

give me instead
bare feet on pavement
breath in my lungs
hope in my eyes

give me instead a wine bottle emptied with friends
give me

words
scratched onto paper
or spoken from honest lips..."


* This post by Andrea Levendusky over at A Deeper Story with I See You...
"This stranger swung herself on crutches into Home Depot. I just know now. It’s going to happen. 

“Oh NO!” Madeleine shouts as the woman hobbles through the door. Her left lower leg is missing, and Mads is staring in horror. “What happened to your leg?!”

KILL ME NOW. 

“I had to have it cut off,” the woman says, clearly not bothered by the child’s curiosity. Clearly not seeing me dying inside. 

“But WHY?” Madeleine asks.

“Sweetie,” I smile toward the couple and apologize. The woman shakes her head as if to say it’s ok, and she tells her how she had to have removed, but that she’s getting fitted for a new leg.

Madeleine’s eyes pop. “That is so cool. I hope you don’t hurt anymore. I hope you get a really cool leg.” The woman gets tears in her eyes. Her husband looks at me and mouths a “thank you”.

This is not me at all, I want to say.

I tell her she’s good at seeing people. Me? I’m rushing through life. With family, friends, strangers, cashiers, children, even my own daughter, I’m missing a lot. I’m really self-absorbed. I judge people. I take in a five second image of them and conclude things, then assume that I’m right.

Then my child speaks, and I don’t know how long this will last, but I know for now, it’s a gift."


* This post by Christie Purifoy with Some Beginnings Are Like This...
"Beginnings rarely make a clean break with endings. The two are usually muddled together.

It can all be a bit discouraging without eyes to see. I am praying for eyes to see.

Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? (Isaiah 43:18-19)

Do not dwell on the past.

What relief there is in those words. How light is their burden."



* This piece by my sweet friend Jessica Hoover over at Hand Me Down Grace To All Who Mother Motherless...
"There are a hundred ways to lose a mother. 

Cancer, car accidents, cocaine habits...
Depression, disability, distance...

My mother died when I was twelve. A man crossed the solid yellow lines and crashed her van onto the side of the road. Her loss is as much a part of me as the double helixes of DNA that make me a curly headed and fair skinned.

I'm writing to you because I want you to know that you are welcome in this place and you are far from alone in the journey. I hear it from so many of you and I can see the tears that have trailed your cheeks stained. You carry a heavy weight because your mama couldn't bare fully the weight of motherhood.  

If I could see your soul it would likely look hollowed out, malnourished in all the motherless places. Years of living motherless can leave you hungry to know the curve of a mothers love, the way it can wrap itself around the bare places of your heart."


* This one right HERE where I talk about When God Gives Direction (and you still hesitate - and maybe even argue just a tad)...
"So after my Summer of Silence, I have felt Him stirring me, and I can feel the rush of a release that is soon coming. Part of me feels ready. I have, at times, felt restrained and side-lined this summer, so to feel the rumblings of finally beginning the New is exciting. However, another part of me is wishing I would have enjoyed the silence more... wishing I would have leaned in to resting and now that it feels like that season is wrapping up, -to be honest, I sort of want a nap.

Like, I don't want it to end.

I know, right?  For this routine girl, Fall has always meant back to all the bossy and while I thrive on a schedule, as an empty nester now - Fall is bringing with him a different sort of change. It's slower, kinder, and deeper.  "

And lastly... the video... because, that is how we do -and because, for real - you are Enough! (#preapproved)

Happy Weekend, ya'll!