Same. Real. God.

Have a seat. Quiet your heart. Take a moment. Settle down. Before you lament, and while you wonder.. before you decide you're not sure, anymore. 

Remember. Consider. Conclude.

Remember God's many words to your heart & recount the moments He's met you with love. 

Remember His faithfulness. 

Consider His confirmation of your pursuit - the peace, added strength, and every one of those God-winks💛

#NotAfraid

As if the past year and a half wasn’t preparation enough, these past 9 days have taken many Americans on quite an interesting ride (and that’s -- to say the least). We’ve faced unwelcome surprises. Daily, political developments grow more & more bizarre. We’re either witnessing overt and sick behavior we haven’t seen before, or, overt and sick behavior we haven’t seen in decades... We’re greeting old friends and wondering who they voted for… failing to make eye contact with strangers at Shop Rite, signing out of social media because it’s just too much, or signing on because we’re info-addicts. We’re watching the news all day or shutting off the TV in protest for peace. We're living in a new kind of day, but perhaps without the cheer that newness typically brings.. 

It's true.

 Because - the biggest misstep, I believe, is that some have tied their entire futures to the successful or failing fate of this country. Now - whether this past week was a victory or a loss for you, if you’ve paid enough attention to anything that’s taken place – ANYTHING -- you may have felt a new kind of fear, faced different doubts, drummed up new concerns, or at the very least, found that you had new questions... And it's true.

It’s clearer now more than ever before that times are changing and this world needs more than a “good man” in a seat -  it needs God, and He's on a throne..

I Think You Should Know that You're Legal...

Ever wondered if you even belonged on this planet?! I know I have.. be it my quirks, and perks =) or something as simple as how I perceive and process any given day or situation...people are different.  I have laughed way too hard in the wrong moments, and cried watching the Animal Channel because I can't stand to watch when the baby deer loses mother deer and the lion comes and ---- you know what happens next. My heart can't take it!!! :( #circleoflife

But I've digressed. Back to the point. God is so creative in His placement that we
often come into contact & even do life with people who are so different from ourselves. At times, it's wonderful, but other times it can cause us to question our belonging. It may cause us to run

30 and Worthy :)

Mood Leading Up to My 30th

OK, I promise... I do understand that I've been an adult for at least the last 5 years, but THIRTY? What. The. Flip? My cutesie twenties are officially leaving the building, but I hear it gets better from here, and that's nice... I'll take it :) 

To commemorate the end of my roaring twenties, and begin my celebration to THIRTY, here are 30 lessons I've pulled from my last 10 sets of 365 days :) 

1. You don't have to be wrong to apologize first.
2. Save your money. You'll need it.
3. A peanut butter and jelly sandwich with milk makes a great breakfast. 

On GRACE & Progress: A 2016 Check-In.

Are you a Perfectionist?

Perfectionism rarely works out for the carrier, and I've been a bona fide perfectionist way more than I've allowed myself to just live and let live.

As freely as God's grace is given is about as hard as it's been for me to receive - but that's an exaggeration...  because grace, even in its smallest form, is still much greater than my occasional inability to simply exhale & take it all.

Because We All Want Something to Believe In..

IIt was a little over a week ago when I was sitting in Newark airport waiting for my flight to clear. Delayed twice with storms in our destination - I had no idea when we were going to make it into Orlando. I was in no rush given the report, but I still didn't want to spend my day stuck in a blue, soiled, leather seat.. watching the digits on the clock increase by the hour.

It's a work trip so I'm surrounded by people I know. We board the plane with a 2.5 hour delay, and the conversations begin. I'm sat in between a  man and a woman, a Director and an Account Executive. Let's call her "Sally." Let's call him, "Jim."

Featured Blogger #2: "Will We Know Each Other in Heaven?" by Dr. RayPritchard

I'm sharing this article because I've always wondered. Always had this question.
Because people around me are facing loss and I want to be of sure and sound heart when I open my mouth to comfort them..

When my Nana passed, my great grandmother, and even one of my schoolmates at age 9...
I needed to know... Do we really get to see them again? Will we even recognize them? How would I cope with the devastation of even thinking that the last time I saw this person was indeed, the LAST time? ... I loved them too much. That would hurt most.

2014

Hmm... 2014:)

I'm going to be honest. I had  mixed feelings on New Year's Eve.  I LOVE even numbers and the year was one of my favorites. Not that I hadn't had my brush with bad news, blood, sweat, or tears... it's just that I had a hard time letting it go | It's hard to let go of a year that you always felt would come.. But you have to settle on knowing there's more...
You live and you learn that it doesn't stop here. It doesn't stop wherever you are..

I may not have passed every test, but for the ones that I have, and for the moments that have stretched me,  it's been worth the journey.

And the journey is what we live for. The journey makes the destination worth our arrival.

Ray Rice and Other Thoughts on the Golden Rule: A Response

I have to be honest -- I was a little bothered after reading responses to the Ray Rice scandal on Facebook.

As soon as Janay indicated she would stand by Rice in the light of what really happened on that elevator (which, in my opinion, was obvious without the new video leak).. FB blew up again - NOT withholding unfiltered ridicule and name-calling. I don't know what the commentary was to accomplish, but it seemed as though the general public was unconcerned, and maybe even hoping that the Rices would stumble across their taunts.

I must preface this writing by admitting that perhaps because I've seen this guy a few times on campus, held a conversation or 2, went to football games and threw rice on the field.. he's not just a face on the TV screen. I preface this by saying, I DO NOT, in any way agree with or intend to minimize what he did, BUT, I do consider him human, and so is Janay. I do consider them to have hearts, and wills, and emotions. I can't imagine what it would be like to be in the public eye at your darkest moment, but it was a lot for me -- to wake up to a newsfeed full of  popular consensus to throw them away.

I resolved to pray for them, but meanwhile on FB...

Quotes for Poets...

  

  "If it sounds like writing I rewrite it. Or, if proper usage gets in the way, it may have to go. I can't allow what we learned in English composition to disrupt the sound and rythm of the narrative."
     - Elmore Leonard 

 The person born with a talent they are meant to use will find their greatest happiness in using it. 

    - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

        "A poet can survive everything but a misprint."

 

        - Oscar Wilde

Try.

Playing small doesn't serve the world....

All your fun isn't worth a fail.

How Do You Know You're a Writer?

How do you know you're a writer?

When you wake up with an abundance of thoughts and remain unsettled until you put them into words -- on paper, on a recorder, on a post it note, somewhere, anywhere...

How do we know we're writers?

When our experiences cast an overwhelming shadow over our years of living, and at young ages we become, old souls.. When you know too much, too soon - and there is much to wrestle with, much to reckon...You write..and there's rhythm, you write, and there's resolve.
  
You write, you learn, you grow, and perhaps... you should share.

To write is to conquer fear --  if with might you fight for a right to privacy: a right -  to your own life.

What selfish claim...

If you want to know what you're thinking, pick up a pen...

If you want to know what you're thinking, write.

If you want to know what moves you, pick up a pen.

If you want to know what moves you, WRITE.

Writers have one commission: With the amount of thoughts, questions, answers, resolutions and lessons that graze through the pastures of our hearts and minds daily... it is quite obviously God's will, that we write.

The world depends on its writers, its speakers, its teachers and preachers....  
... the people  who have fallen, gotten up, but given up their right to private note taking.  

A writer can't ignore the world out there, the people who have to keep living a long time after their dying. A writer understands that humanity needs to know... how to love and relate, how to survive, what to avoid, how to overcome... 

So then writing isn't so much a choice as much as you are chosen.

You really don't have a say in the matter.

You are a writer. 

You must write..