June Musings

Seek Beauty Everyday.
Savor.

Hold Hope’s Hand.
Hard.

Every Day Grateful.
Deeply.

Listen and Learn.
Pause.

Carry kindness closely.
Scatter.

Whisper prayers steadfastly.
Receiving.

Smile. Laugh. Dream.
Repeat.


Some of the days, I remember to live out my ideals, live out the difference-makers, live out the power and peace of positivity.

Other days, WELL, not so much.

EVERY GOOD DAY, despite the happy or hard in it, truly opens as the gift it is.

What is in your day today? What are you anticipating? How could I pray for you? What are the ideals you hold dear? What are you rejoicing in?

Let’s dig in to musings for June!

1. ANTICIPATE

June unceasingly carries the anticipation of harvest with her.
We’ve been cutting amongst breakdowns, thunderstorms, humidity, iffy weather, and such! But this is the nature of the gamble of farming and crops. Gamble and risk coupled together with the promise of seedtime and harvest, summer and winter.

2. BEAUTY

I’m repeatedly grateful the intensity of harvest does not last any longer than it does. All the same, it holds a beauty and a feel particular to it alone.
Wheat harvest is different, even, than the fall harvest of corn and beans and milo.

Other points of beauty making my June list are:

• succulents nestled in outside beds
• flowering fuschias blooming warm pinks in cheery festoons
• soft lamplight casting a welcoming glow around my bed each evening
• the gift of a shower each evening
• photo canvases on the wall
• four adorable orphan kittens given to us
• golden wheat fields rustling and waving
• filling watering cans at my outside sink

3. CREATE

I was so, so happy to have Shutterfly photo books created from Tuc’s graduation photos arrive on my doorstep. I made books after Renae’s and they bring treasured delight to me. I love looking through them every so occasionally and I loved the process of creating them.
I was anticipating creating books to commemorate Tucker’s graduation as well.

I have photo canvases from each graduation celebration and hung them on my wall last week. It always makes me glad to create happy spots in my home with things I love and memories made.

Tucker’s graduation celebration was a very good evening, despite a little too much wind, in my opinion. I had to work on my bad attitude about it as we were setting things up. We’d had several evenings earlier in the week that were completely lovely and only a small, just-right breeze. Thus, my annoyed grumpiness because the wind decided to whoop.
It didn’t rain, though, and it was good, so good. I am grateful…. *whispering* {but a part of me is still slightly irked about picture frames which couldn’t stand up because the wind kept blowing them over, these really, really, really awesome candles in wooden mugs that wouldn’t stay lit, and 2021 number balloons that were constantly leaning.} 😉

4. DELIGHT

Looking for ideas to jumpstart your day with more gratitude and joyfulness? I enjoyed reading this list of ideas.

I asked this question on my IG the beginning of June.

Do you have a collection?
I’d love to hear!
Whether it’s a half dozen salt and pepper sets or dozens and dozens of vintage buttons, what makes your heart happy and adds delight to your day?

I went to a garage sale recently comprised of pretty much all jar candles.
“I like to collect candles,” the proprietor commented, “But it’s time to clear a few out.”
.
It interests me at what interests people. We all have our things. Whether in large quantity or small.
.
Our homes tell stories. Our homes create spaces where we enjoy living daily life.
.
My smallish collection of Candlewick glassware and various other dishes and pitchers creates sparkle and shine in my china cupboard. It really does bring me feelings of joy every time I look at it.
.
My books stand delightfully in their places and each one is a treasured friend filled with ink and fonts and words and stories; with inspiration and wisdom, encouragement and insight.
.
Pens and markers and pencils make me undeniably happy, but should you ask for a lengthy explanation for why this is, I really can’t tell you.
.
From shoes to toy tractors to plants to old signs, from dolls to shaped cake pans to cookbooks and beyond, we’re drawn to a variety of interests and items as varied and unique as each person and personality themselves.
.
What do you collect OR what do you wish you collected?

5. ENCOURAGE

“It comes the very moment you wake up each morning. All your wishes and hopes for the day rush at you like wild animals. And the first job each morning consists simply in shoving them all back; in listening to that other voice, taking that other point of view, letting that other larger, stronger, quieter life come flowing in. And so on, all day. Standing back from all your natural fussings and frettings; coming in out of the wind.

We can only do it for moments at first. But from those moments the new sort of life will be spreading through our system; because now we are letting Him work at the right part of us. It is the difference between paint, which is merely laid on the surface, and a dye or stain which soaks right through.”
~ C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
.
.
.
standing back
stepping back

soaking it in
spreading in me

constantly refining
continually reshaping

a remaking, a renewing, reforming from the fretting,

•moment by moment•

6. FAITH

“Be patient with everyone, but above all with yourself…do not be disheartened by your imperfections, but always rise up with fresh courage. “
~ St. Francis de Sales

I ran across this poem in June and was happy to read it again. My mother says she remembers learning it in grade school and it’s always been among her favorites.

IF

If you can keep your head when all about you
   Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
   But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
   Or, being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don’t give way to hating,
   And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
   If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
   And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
   Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
   And stoop and build ’em up with wornout tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
   And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
   And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
   To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
   Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on”;

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
   Or walk with kings—nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
   If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run—
   Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!
~ Rudyard Kipling

7. GRATITUDE

Last evening, I lay on my couch for a few minutes reading words in Effortless by Greg McKeown.

“Use this habit recipe: “Each time I complain I will say something I am thankful for. “

I reread this recipe a few times and pondered the power of small ways to trigger new habits, rework our brain patterns, and train ourselves in gratitude + positivity.

It’s easy to complain. Condemn. Criticize.
Yet, it leaves us feeling fretful, frazzled, and forlorn.

Complaints invite in cheerlessness and discontent.
{ask me how I know}

Gratitude and happiness require habit building intentionality.
They demand hard work and are never garnered attention for the endeavors poured into growing them.
We so easily look at upbeat people and assume it comes so naturally for them.

Today, I’m giving gratefulness for the people in my life who live out happiness + kindness + encouragement. I believe there are hard-won battles behind these attributes in each of us.

CURRENTLY READING…

• Covert Cows and Chick-Fil-A by Steve Robinson
• Faithful Presence by Bill Haslam
• What If Jesus Was Serious About…Prayer? by Skye Jethani
• 1 Peter
• Company of One by Paul Jarvis
• Building a Multiethnic Church by Dr. Derwin L Gray

Anticipating reading…

• This Beautiful Truth by Sarah Clarkson
• Me, Myself, and Bob by Phil Vischer

COMING UP!!!! Several delightful giveaways in July I’m excitedly anticipating sharing with you!

In Conclusion……

This past year has held its hurts and hardships, uncertainties and unmoorings, devastation and disease, to name only a few. I’ve grown to believe very few of us have been unaffected or have moved forward unscathed completely.

If you need a safe space to share a bit of your burdens or hurts, you are welcome to send me an email. Sometimes we simply need the power of voicing something in a space where there are not spoken or unspoken expectations put on us. I will pray over you and hold your words with consideration and care.

I don’t offer this because I have it all together, but because I absolutely do not. I had some very unexpected hurts and expectations laid on me last year. I’m still aching deeply in many ways. It also made me confront other hurts I wasn’t totally aware of and scraped scabs off places I didn’t know were still trying to heal.
I know I’ve caused hurt, knowingly and unknowingly. This is heavy to me as well and never something I hold lightly.
Yet, I also refuse {as kindly as I can} to be pressured into places I do not find truth or righteousness. Don’t mistake me as not holding strong emotions. I do. I tend to withdraw, to need time to process, to block out voices and untruths I do not want in my mind or my life.
I also believe in the power of hope and goodness and pointing to beauty and the power of compassion and positivity when it comes to what I share online. I struggle to know always, what to share and the best way to do it. I want it to build up, to encourage.
I don’t want to be known for my dissenting, my “dislikes”, what I’m against.
I want to be known for what I delight in, what builds me up, what inspires.

Everything that “is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, praiseworthy.”

Yet, I never want to discount the very real adversities and difficulties our days and lives have in them.
I want to delight in the day while also holding space for the days that, really, are not very delightful at all.
I want to live out Pollyanna’s glad game without ignoring that gloom swoops into our hearts and minds too.

God is good in every day and every day has good in it. I believe this to my core, yet I have dark times when I do not live it out well at all.
Fellow comrade, let me know how I can pray for you.

May July hold peace and good books, hope and fireflies, and delight and ice cream in abundant measure.

“There’s a cliché that no one ever said on his deathbed, ‘If only I’d spent more time in the office.’ That’s a cliché because it’s true. I’ve seen a lot of people in their dying moments and none of them—not one—ever talked about their professional triumphs—or even their ministry successes. As a matter of fact none of them ever talked about the big rite of passage moments of life—weddings or graduations or promotions. What they all were thinking about were those little moments: that evening watching fireflies at dusk with someone they loved, walking through a mall with parents, taking the kids for ice cream or to a farmer’s market. That’s what matters. Pay attention to that. Don’t worry so much about the other stuff.”
~ Russell Moore

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