Still

 "On Fridays, a few of us have fallen into the habit of taking five minutes to just write and not worry if it’s just right or not.Five minutes to remember that we are creatures sculpted by The WORD  and made for The WORD and beloved by The WORD.In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² He was with God in the beginning. ³ Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. John 1:1-3.So on Fridays, we take the dare to become Word Artists. To throw editing and proof reading and critically raised eyebrows out the window. We finger paint with our words – in pink and blue and dark purple. In glitter glue and bright green.Just five minutes. No more. No less"
 Today’s prompt: Still

"Be still and know that I am God". (Psalms ??:??) Stop. Do nothing. Say nothing. Be still and know that he is the one, the only. He is, he was, he will be. All life still moves on even though I haven’t moved. It will continue moving. It will be imperfect. It will be disappointing. It will hurt. It will also be glorious and wonderful. Be still. Still…Sometimes, ok.... “MOST” times.... I feel like if I’m not completely involved in EVERYTHING then things will fall apart. No one can do it like me. I am the one that holds it all together. I know God laughs at me all day. I’m probably his evening sitcom as he watches my whole day unfold. If only I could just stop and let things fall apart. It’s probably alright. It will probably be fine. It’s in all those messes, mistakes, and mishaps that we find true humanity… truth revealed in the dungeons of Eden. How far we’ve fallen. How glorious mercy is. If only I could accept. Let go.

  



Jewelry - Where it all ends up...

 So this is a cute little jewelry organizer I got from a dear friend that hangs in my closet:  

But.. this is not enough for all my necklaces... so I got these cool push pins with hooks and hung them up in the closet:

A couple pictures hang up from my favorite style bloggers for quick inspiration when I can't figure out what to wear...

So I get my outfits together and then come home, but... all my jewelry ends up on the vanity counter..

Yep.. that would be a canister set that USUALLY goes in the kitchen.. however, it provided more use in my bathroom for all my ... stuff: eyeshadows, liners, brushes, etc.. I got those cool hands from a jewelry store. I asked if they could order some of the display hands for me and they did! The only charged me what they paid (wholesale) for them.. LOVE THEM!!!  More pictures of where my jewelry ends up:

I've learned to just accept my laziness and see it as a gift of ... art...

Where do you keep your jewelry??

 

Heaven is for Real

The best parts of Heaven is For Real:

"We were completely unprepared for something more serious. The doctor led us in the hallway, where there was already an X-Ray clipped to an illuminator.When I saw what was in the picture, my heart dropped to my stomach."

"By the second afternoon, I saw something that terrified me: the shadow of death.
    I recognized it instantly. As a pastor, you sometimes find yourself on a deathwatch... there are telltale signs: the skin loses its pinkness and fades to a jaundiced yellow. Breathing is labored. The eyes are open but the person is not present. And most telling of all, a sinking and darkening around the eyes. "

"The doctors would bring back test results, test results, test results. But no answers, only useless observations. "

"I realized I was starting to accept that, yes, maybe Colton really had been to heaven."

" 'Did you have wings?' I asked
   Yea, but mine weren't very big."

" 'Well, the reason I was yelling was that because Jesus came to get me. He said I had to go back because he was answering your prayer. That's how come I was yelling for you,' "

"And Jesus answered my prayer? Personally? After I yelled at God, chastising him, questioning his wisdom and his faithfulness?
  Why would God even answer a prayer like that? And how did I deserve his mercy?"

"Colton squinted, peering up at colors pouring across the sky. 'Cool,' he said with a nonchalant smile. 'I prayed for that yesterday.'

"... we had a lot to learn from our son."

" 'You mean I have to fight monsters with a sword?'
   'Yeah, Dad, but it's okay,' he said reassuringly. 'Jesus wins. He throws Satan into hell. I saw it.' "

" 'Dad, that one's right.' "

"Before, I'd heard, but now I know that someday I'm going to see."

Personal Anecdotes:
This was a sweet quick read. Thoroughly enjoyed reading this for readings sake. I was encouraged. I smiled. I laughed. I cried. It was a thought provoking piece or "peace". I have to ask myself myself yet again, "Why do I have such little faith?"
Heaven is for real. God is real. We are loved tremendously as God's children. The evidence is all around us. It's up to me to tear away the veil of my silly human brain that cannot comprehend.

Full

5 Minute Friday:

Linking up with Gypsy Mama again... (a day late)..

"On Fridays around these parts we like to write. Not for comments or traffic or anyone else’s agenda. But for pure love of the written word. For joy at the sound of syllables, sentences and paragraphs all strung together by the voice of the speaker.
We love to just write without worrying if it’s just right or not. For five minutes flat."

Today's Prompt: FULL
And... GO:

A heart full of love, a night full of song... I'm doing everything all wrong.. yea.. that's the only thing that is coming to my brain. I'm a musicals fanatic. That particular lyric is from Les Miserables. I watch that video of the concert every couple months and act out the whole thing. Yes. I know..
Full. Most days I feel empty, lost, ALONE. I don't know why. Depression and sadness and anger have all been recurring themes the last ten years. Every so often though... I get a glimpse of sweet glorious heaven and my heart is full.

Every so often, there are no words to describe the moment.

Every so often, my heart is full.

And these are the moments I live for...

That keep me going..

Who needs albums?

I know I should probably put these in an album... but why store them away and glance at them occasionally when I can be reminded of my amazing friends and family throughout the whole day?

I open up my cabinet door to be greeted with pictures from Christmas, baby announcements, graduations, engagements, or just random pictures I have that I love.

This is my nephew. He has a cabinet door all on his own..

I got this beautiful platter as a housewarming gift and it was just too pretty and needed to be displayed. Every so often I change the quote. This scripture has been up for quite awhile...

I just realized 3/14 is my late mother's birthday.. Wow.

The Bible In 90 Days - Week 1

The Bible in 90 Days. Wow. I had no idea how hard this was going to be.

I need a good 1.5 hour to devote to doing this.

WOW. 

I’m still way behind.

What else is new?

I read slow. I forget, and now I’m just drowning in all that I have yet to accomplish.

This seems to be a recurring theme in my life.

I have 11 bibles in my house. Surely I can commit and read at least one of them from cover to cover.

The insight that I’m gaining so far is tremendous.

I feel truly blessed when I can sit down by myself and read the Word, the stories, the letter from our lord. I feel like I’m reading these stories with new eyes. As if I’m going back to my childhood home: There was a time when this place was my whole world and was large and wide and endless.. now everything looks so ... different...
Alice in Wonderland feel to the whole thing.

He Said, She Said

Welcome to the first edition of He Said, She Said.

In this exercise, Seve & I pick a topic and we both write about it (separately) in an effort to understand each other and perhaps see things in a different light.

In this first exercise, I asked that we both write about “the state of our union”.

You can see clearly how Seve and I are on opposite ends of the spectrum. We speak the same language, yet we are worlds away.

The state of our union…

He Said:

I have been married to my beautiful wife for 7 years.  We have a wonderful home and a beautiful 17 month old son.  Life is sweet.  We have everything we ever wanted. 

My wife and I spend much of our day at work. One of us will pick up our son at daycare and when we get home it is a whirlwind of playing, bathing, feeding, etc.  Our life is not what it used to be.  Before our son came along we could do anything we wanted to do.  Go to Galveston for the weekend, hell ya.  Sleep in late on Saturdays, you bet.  Now we have schedules, so many schedules; they can be quite overwhelming.  Especially for me, I am not the most organized man on the planet.  My wife and I are still trying to find time for us.  We find ourselves taking 1 step forward and 2 steps back.  We have forgotten why we married each other.   I married a beautiful and creative woman.  She married a wonderful man (after I passed her 100,000 questions test; I will dive into this in a future post).  It seems we are running around in the dark, trying to find our way.  We do not have the patience and understanding we once had with each other.  Our tempers are short; we never seem to be on the same page with each other.  AAAHHHHH, it is so frustrating.  I wish my wife knew how much I love her and that she is the only one for me.  I am the luckiest man alive; I have the best woman at my side. 

Marriage is definitely a lot of work.  It is a lot of give and take.  But in the end it is all worth it.

She Said :

We’ve come such a long way. We’ve come to a beautiful place of understanding and hope. Both of us have changed dramatically. With these evolving changes it seems we hardly know each other anymore. It causes a shift in the cosmic evolution in the state of our union. Sometimes I wish he would just see me. Sometimes I feel invisible like I’m not even here. I want validation. I need recognition. I long for the days when I would walk into a room and everything stopped silent. I want to be that devastating beauty again. In all this evolving and changing, I lost something. I lost me. Or maybe did I lose him? Maybe I’m not captivating anymore. Maybe I’m just boring. Maybe this is a time for self-reflection and transition. We have come a long way, but the race is not yet over. This is the part that makes or breaks us. This is the part where we stand strong and fight and show up even if we are being pushed away.

Master Bedroom - While You Were Out

Special thanks to Kim Stephens of Fairy Dust Decorating for all her help.

She made the whole experience so awesome!!

It was just like being on While You Were Out.

Weekly Cleaning Checklist

http://images.marthastewart.com/images/content/web/pdfs/2009Q3/ms_checklist_weeklyclean.pdf

LOVE BUTTON

Loss

  It’s 5 Minute Friday @ The Gypsy Mama’s place.
Where we share our hearts..
…..in five minutes with unedited, unchanged writing.

Prompt: Loss

Loss. The only thing I can think of is the loss of my mother. 4 years ago. I lost someone who is probably the only one who understood me. (broke the rules and just hit the backspace button more times than I care to mention). Hmm. I don’t want to write about this. Why couldn’t something else come to me? Because this is the only real loss I have in my life. It’s harder than I care to admit. It’s bigger than I want it to be. It means more than I’m willing to give it credit for.
And that’s all I have for 5 minutes.

I know Gypsy Mama waived the time constraints, but this is all I can do today.

Thank you Gypsy Mama for helping me see something critical that is most likely the explanation for the depression, panic attacks and overall unhappiness I’ve been experiencing for awhile.