Beauty from Ashes - A Continual Process

Please do not carry your pain alone.  You are not alone.  I too carry grief.  So many carry a quiet pain.  Part of it is a new normal that will always be there.  I'm learning to live with loss.  But often still,  that new normal can surprise me and hit hard without warning.  It’s  especially true for many during holidays.   There are many stages and time frames for grief, but one thing is true, it often hits harder at Christmas no matter where you are in your grief.  I say "holistic grieving" because grief affects the mind, body and soul.  Emotional, physical, and spiritual health are a package deal.  I/we need help in all areas. I've shared many times that I've take a maintenance anti-depressant for years because I'm predisposed to anxiety and depression (MIND), and I run to keep my fybromyalgia at bay  (BODY) .  Please don’t feel shame if you need a doctor, or counselor, and or medication. ...

Most days I ask God to place people in my path, Divine appointments.  I'm pretty sure that more often than not, I miss those Divine appointments by steeping in my own thoughts.  Do not over-steep the tea or it will become bitter. I get tired of my own thoughts!  That is why I find so much refreshment in the book of Psalms and Proverbs.  The verses relate to where my thoughts often start, but they take me to the place I want them to land...in the hands of Jesus.   2 Corinthians 10:5 even warns us to keep our thoughts in check, "... take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ."  As God's children, we fight our battles with His Divine power, as talked about in the verses leading up to verse 5.  So why do I often wield my own sword?! During my deepest grief I had a counselor who wisely suggested that I read Psalm 119 because it is so repetitive with truth - 176 verses!  It would prove to help me jump off the "merr...

A little encouragement for those in the dark places, feeling isolated, boxed in, and hopeless.  I have been in that dark place.  The causes may be different or the same, it doesn't matter.  What matters is that you need hope.  Proverbs 13:2 says, "Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life." I write about what is most near to my heart at any given time.  If you've noticed a theme, it is because it is where I have been living and wrestling.  And for now, my greatest joy in writing is to give an answer for my hope.  1 Peter 3:15 says, "Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect,..." So gently, I share my experience, not as an expert, but as a sojourner.  If darkness resonates with you, know that we are at different places on the journey of darkness, grief, dismay... I'm not one to point to hope u...

I recently posted a new profile pic that is pretty ridiculous, but I wanted to show some enthusiasm for the Cleveland Cavaliers LOL!  I told my friend I always wanted a pic of me jumping but that I couldn't jump.  She said lets go outside and goof off, and the first time I jumped she got that silly picture!  Thanks Casey!  I put a Cavs frame on it and made it my profile pic. But before I added the Cavs frame to it my sweet friend Pammy commented, "They will enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away. " That's from Isaiah 51:11 That is the truth! Thank you Pammy for calling the truth out of that pic! Because honestly, I have not goofed around much until recently. That is the story God has been writing on my heart for a long time. Everlasting joy will come, " sorrow and sighing will flee away ." I was out running today and it felt so good!  I've wai...

Things often seem dark in January through March - The middle!  The fall crisp colors are gone, and there is typically no pretty snow here in Kentucky.  Spring feels so far away!  Honestly I'm not a fan!  It can make all that's already hard seem even more so.   If you're fighting your way through I'm just sayin', yeah me too.  We all have stories, and we all know people with hard stories, and we all know the news.  But I won't stop there, not today. Yeah. Life. Hurts. But! Recently,  my spirit has been reminded in the most gentle ways, that God, the Creator of the Universe humbled himself as a man ( Philippians 2).  He suffered to the point of death, so that even in our suffering, we can have LIFE!  So He too says, yeah me too!  "He sees, He knows, He is making a way." He did this so you and I would know there will be an end to suffering. Jesus is the reason we can fight FROM VICTORY not FOR VICTORY!  Easter...

Today I pray a glimmer of God's light will shine through my brokenness, the many cracks held together only by the Spirit of God. He is my glue. I'm learning that there's always a new filter through which we see life. Each painful experience, changes the way we filter past pain as well. We see everything differently.  With the unimaginable, there can come unimaginable strength as well. At some point we get to the place where this filter, though unwanted and always with us, allows us to see a new kind of beauty. A beauty from pain.  There is no time table for this... On my drive home last night I saw the sun setting on the horizon of a beautiful Kentucky farm.  I snapped the picture through my dirty car window.  All these thoughts came crashing in.  The window changed the purest beauty of the sun setting, but the sun was in the picture,  and its beauty was still there. A new strength slowly sprouts from beneath the cement, it's tender and nee...