Radiance

This morning I was reading Exodus 34. The beginning of the chapter is Moses going up to replace the stone tablets that he broke when he came down last time and saw the Israelites with their golden calf. Then it goes on with the LORD's covenant which includes a bunch of laws, and then we get to the end of it, where it says;

"²⁹ When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the covenant law in his hands, he was not aware that his face was radiant because he had spoken with the Lord. ³⁰ When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, his face was radiant, and they were afraid to come near him. ³¹ But Moses called to them; so Aaron and all the leaders of the community came back to him, and he spoke to them. ³² Afterward all the Israelites came near him, and he gave them all the commands the Lord had given him on Mount Sinai.
³³ When Moses finished speaking to them, he put a veil over his face. ³⁴ But whenever he entered the Lord’s presence to speak with him, he removed the veil until he came out. And when he came out and told the Israelites what he had been commanded, ³⁵ they saw that his face was radiant. Then Moses would put the veil back over his face until he went in to speak with the Lord."

And it occurred to me after, when I was praying, that shouldn't we become radiant too? Maybe not having a physically radiant face, glowing skin, but essentially, our souls. When we pray and seek the face of God, when we spend time with Him in His word, if we are truly doing that, truly seeking Him with our whole hearts (and therefore we will find Him), then shouldn't we radiate? I know I want to! 

31 Days :: {27} :: quotes

Hey there friends! thanks for stopping by! You've found us at Day 27 of my 31 Days series on Celebrating Life. If you'd like to see all the other posts so far, you'll find the introduction here {includes post-list at the bottom} or the posts all here :)

So this is the last day of October, and it's not my wrap-up, and I wasn't going to post today, but in the spirit of posting every day in Oct {except Sundays}, I thought I would share a quote from Cold Tangerines that I really love. :)

"Everything is interim. Everything is a path or a preparation for the next thing, and we never know what the next thing is. Life is like that, of course, twisty and surprising. But life with God is like that exponentially. We can dig in, make plans, write in stone, pretend we're not listening, but the voice of God has a way of being heard. It seeps in like smoke or vapor even when we've barred the door against any last-minute changes, and it moves us to different countries and different emotional territories and different ways of living. It keeps us moving and dancing and watching, and never lets us drop down into a life set on cruise control or a life ruled by remote control. Life with God is a daring dream, full of flashes and last-minute exits and generally all the things we've said we'll never do. And with the surprises comes great hope."
~ Shauna Niequist, Cold Tangerines

And that scares me. Because I don't even like change at all, most of the time. 

"That's what I want. I want to arrive. I want to get wherever I'm going and stay there. That's why I was such a ferocious planner of my life. But I'm learning to just keep moving, keep walking, keep taking teeny tiny steps. And it's in those teeny tiny steps and moments that I become, actually, who I am. We won't arrive. But we can become. And that's the most hopeful thing I can think of." ~ Shauna Niequist, Cold Tangerines 

I can identify with that. And maybe you can too? 

this weekend I'll post my wrap-up post, thank you to anyone has stuck with me throughout this 31 Days challenge :)

love emma 

31 Days :: {26} :: Today...

Hey there friends! thanks for stopping by! You've found us at Day 26 of my 31 Days series on Celebrating Life. If you'd like to see all the other posts so far, you'll find the introduction here {includes post-list at the bottom} or the posts all here :)


So today is the second-last "official" post of this 31 Days series. This topic is so important to me so look to see more coming on it in the future :) 

Another note, I don't think I'm going to have time to post tomorrow, so my wrap up will likely be this weekend. *gasp* ;)

Today, I celebrated my Papa's successful surgery!! Thanks to all of you who prayed :)

I also celebrated a walk in the beautiful fall weather we're having right now,

and squash {with brown sugar & cinnamon ;)} for dinner,

{that's what fall tastes like :)}

everyone pitching in, to do whatever needed to be done with minimal complaining,

 pumpkin spice tea :),

and oh so much more... I meant to take pictures but it's been a busy day and I didn't get a chance to...

don't forget to celebrate the little ordinary things in your every-day life! :)

blessings,

love Emma

31 Days :: {25} :: celebrating when it's hard

Hey there friends! thanks for stopping by! You've found us at Day 25 of my 31 Days series on Celebrating Life. If you'd like to see all the other posts so far, you'll find the introduction here {includes post-list at the bottom} or the posts all here :)

Seeing that I only have two days left (whaaa??!) and I haven't really touched on this yet, I thought today was a good day to do so. And also, since I can't really do justice to the topic, I think I will let Shauna use her beautiful words today. 

"What I know now is that his [God's] kindness burns through even the deepest betrayals and invites life from death every chance we let him. There are things that explode into our lives and we call them curses, and then one day, a year later or ten years later, we realize that they are actually something else. They are the very most precious kinds of blessings." ~Shauna Niequist, Cold Tangerines

"But the only person who decided my life had turned to dust was me. The only person who is still deeply troubled about what I've lost, even in the face of what I've gained, is me. I would never have wanted it this way, but something bright and beautiful has been given to me, and I'm in grave danger of losing it, squandering it, becoming a person who cannot find the goodness that's right in front of her because of the sadness that she chooses to let obscure it.
Now we're talking about celebration. Celebration when you think you're calling the shots? Easy. Celebration when your plan is working? Anyone can do that. But when you realize that the story of your life could be told a thousand different ways, that you could tell it over and over as a tragedy, but you choose to call it an epic, that's when you start to learn what celebration is. When what you see in front of you is so far outside of what you dreamed, but you have the belief, the boldness, the courage to call it beautiful instead of calling it wrong, that's celebration."~Shauna Niequist, Cold Tangerines

 Celebration is hardest and most precious when it is hard. But it is so. worth. it. 

linking up with Elizabeth :) 

31 Days :: {23} :: family {beautiful people}

Hey there friends! thanks for stopping by! You've found us at Day 23 of my 31 Days series on Celebrating Life. If you'd like to see all the other posts so far, you'll find the introduction here {includes post-list at the bottom} or the posts all here :)

We've talked about beautiful: hidden beauty, and tangible beauty. Today, we're talking about beautiful people.

You know, sometimes your family can seem like the ordinary. I mean, I guess they are, really. They're a big part of the daily fabric of your life. 

And along with so many parts of the ordinary, it's so easy to see only the ugly, or the common, when we look at them. 

But what about the beautiful of your family? The humour, the honesty, sacrifice, the loveliness of those people in your family? 

When was the last time you looked for that in the people you live life with - your family?

apparently we don't take family photos very often... this one is from February and it doesn't even have my mom in it...

So today, try. Look for the beautiful in each of your family members. Because they are beautiful people. 

blessings,
love Emma

linking up with Oak and Oats :)

31 Days :: {21} :: believing it

Hey there friends! thanks for stopping by! You've found us at Day 21 of my 31 Days series on Celebrating Life. If you'd like to see all the other posts so far, you'll find the introduction here {includes post-list at the bottom} or the posts all here :) 

So far, we've talked about beautiful: hidden beauty, and tangible beauty. Next week I want to talk about beautiful people, and beautiful moments, but for today I want to talk about believing that something is beautiful. 

Often, it's not even about discovering, or finding the beautiful within the the ordinary, it's about believing the ordinary to be beautiful in itself. 

Example, the other day I went for a run with a friend of mine. I probably should have, but I didn't actually look around for little beautiful things to celebrate as I ran by, but rather I simply believed what we were doing was beautiful. A gathering of friends, to run, is a beautiful thing. 

Sometimes we need to believe something is beautiful simply for the reason that we know God is working through it, using it to grow us. Otherwise it's just too ugly or painful. 

It's not always about looking for the little moments I spend with my sisters that are beautiful, or looking for hidden beauty, or tangible beauty in those times. Often it's just about believing that spending time with them is beautiful.

Service is beautiful. Therefore, cleaning the bathroom is a beautiful thing. So is washing the dishes. And yes, so are the soap suds {all filmy and shiny and rainbow-y}, but so is the act in itself. 

Next time you're doing something, think about why it is beautiful. And believe it. It is!  

What sorts of things is it hard for you to see as beautiful? Why?

blessings,
love Emma

31 Days :: {20} :: the root of celebration

Hey there friends! thanks for stopping by! You've found us at Day 20 of my 31 Days series on Celebrating Life. If you'd like to see all the other posts so far, you'll find the introduction here {includes post-list at the bottom} or the posts all here :) 

I will admit, that while this topic is certainly something that I feel passionately about, and try oh so very hard to practice, the first half of the month, I really struggled. I felt kinda fake about this. And it super-bothered me especially because I'm trying to write about it and felt kind of hypocritical.

I considered that maybe trying to write about it every day was the problem, but nooo, it wasn't. It was my reasons and my priorities. 

Even doing something right for the wrong reason turns it into something wrong. When I started this I was all gung-ho to learn lots and glorify God, but as I went along it kinda turned into something else. 

This is supposed to be a follow-after of what God is teaching me. A way to process and keep learning. But when you start to make this more important {of course, I would never say that but my actions showed otherwise} than Bible reading and prayer and learning from God? Well then it becomes words of my own mouth, not real and empty. That's what happened. 

And then on the 16th, I realized, my goal here - why I'm even celebrating life at all - is to seek and glorify God. I touched on this a little bit yesterday, talking about how to celebrate and enjoy life is a way of thanking and honouring God, and it's so true. 

He gave us this glorious gift, and the best way to say thank-you to Him is to use it so fully. If you gave your friend a dee-licious cake, and they said thank-you, maybe even wrote you a nice little card, that would be nice, wouldn't it? But would you still think they were thankful for it if they just set it on a shelf in their kitchen and didn't eat it? Would you really believe they were thankful for it? I wouldn't! 

But if they ate it up, maybe all in one sitting, maybe asked for the recipe, gave me back an empty pan, then yes, I would know they were thankful for it, and that they enjoyed it. The same is true of our Father in heaven. He gives us this gift of life, and all the little gifts within that. When we walk right by them, when we don't eat them up, bask in the luscious warmth of the sunshine, does that show Him we are thankful for them or not?  

But when we taste the flavour of the food, when we inhale the scent of the woods, and notice it, when we pause in the middle of the street because something is so beautiful, when we dance because music makes us need to move - then we are saying 'THANK-YOU GOD', with our lives!

The other reason we celebrate life, the gift from God, is to seek to know Him more. I love love love how Caroline put it. {<please go read her whole post!! :)}

"Look for the gifts and truly see them, and you’ll better see the Giver."

Amen!! This, this is what I need! I look for the gifts, so that I can see the Giver better. Last fall what God placed upon me to learn deeply was contentment, this fall I'm learning to seek Him first. {Matthew 6:33}

And the last thing, something very important to remember, is that we cannot do this all on our own. We need to take the initiative to do this celebrating and thanking, but if we try to do it on our own strength, we will fail. We will become weary and we will give up. But through the power of Jesus, we can indeed do this through Him! So make sure you're doing this with Him. :)
  

"Each one of our lives is shot through, threaded in and out with God's provision, his grace, his protection, but on the average day, we notice it about as much as we really notice gravity or the hole in the ozone. So what I'm trying to do is learn to see the way Sister Carmen sees. Because once you start seeing the faithfulness and the hope, you see it everywhere, like pennies. And little by little, here and there, you realize that all of life is littered with bright copper coins, that all of life is woven with bits and stories of God's goodness." ~Shaua Niequist, Cold Tangerines (pennies)

Don't celebrate for the wrong reason - do it to thank God for this beautiful gift of today!


On another note, my grandfather's surgery was postponed from today to next Thursday... and my great-grandmother is very weak, still in the hospital, but holding on... prayers are appreciated!


blessings friends!
love Emma

linking up with Chantel and Elizabeth :)

31 Days :: {19} :: intention, part 3

Hey there friends! thanks for stopping by! You've found us at Day 19 of my 31 Days series on Celebrating Life. If you'd like to see all the other posts so far, you'll find the introduction here {includes post-list at the bottom} or the posts all here :) 

Soo.. the story is here, part 1 is here, and part 2 here. I thiiink this will be the last part. ;)

So you may have read the other posts, and been like, Emma, this is cool, but I thought that your series was about celebrating life, not living with intention. Please please explain exactly how this connects. And so that's what I'm hoping to do today. 

We are not, by nature, thankful people. Because of our sin nature, we will not, unintentionally, give thanks, which is, incidentally at the root of celebrating life. {did you catch that? sorry for the run-on sentence.}

We celebrate life as a way to say thank-you for each glorious moment - because even the 'un-glorious' moments, truly are glorious. We celebrate as a way to say thank-you when we live life fully, making the most of this sensational gift of life. 

Here's what Shauna has to say:

"I live according to my faith when I love a meal that has been prepared carefully, when I notice texture and color and taste, when I let the flavor and scent of something fresh from the ground surprise me and bring me back to life. I demonstrate my theology when I dance all night with people I love, because this life is worth the best celebration we can offer up to it. I thank God every time I eat crusty bread and garlicky olives, and when I smell clean laundry and hear that little squeak of fingers on a guitar. For me, what God said when he made the world is a prayer: It is good. This world, it is good. The beauty of a perfect green apple is good. The first steps of a child are good. Watching my grandparents dance in their kitchen is good. It is good. 

I have to remind myself that it is good. I have to create hope in my life, because there's something inside me that has radar for the bad parts of life. I walk into the kitchen and all I can see are crumbs on the counter, and I look in the mirror and don't even see my face, I just see all the potential wrinkles forming. I have a dark, worst-case scenario sensor, and it takes over."

{And here's where it's really hard. Because that thought continues and it's really amazing but I can't put her whole book here {otherwise I would, because I love it so much, and I think everyone should read it!!} so I have to pick somewhere to stop, but please go and read the next couple of paragraphs right here. She has so much beautiful to say about this!} {Or you could read the whole chapter... I think I underlined every word of it in my copy.}}

"When I live purposefully and well, when I dance instead of sitting it out, when I let myself laugh hard, when I wear my favorite shoes on a regular Tuesday, that regular Tuesday is better." ~Shauna Niequist, Cold Tangerines

 

So, in conclusion: to celebrate requires a conscious choice. To make that choice, you need intention. Celebrating is a way to say thank-you to God. He loves it when we celebrate life! 

But how many times do you walk past that clean laundry without noticing the scent? How many times do you eat good food without really tasting it? It takes intention to see all those things. Practice it! :) 

love emma

linking up with Chantel and Elizabeth :)

31 Days :: {18} :: Tunes Tuesday :: Something Beautiful

Hey there friends! thanks for stopping by! You've found us at Day 18 of my 31 Days series on Celebrating Life. If you'd like to see all the other posts so far, you'll find the introduction here {includes post-list at the bottom} or the posts all here :)


I have love love loved this song for such a long time and I always knew what it was about, but it struck me yesterday that this song is pretty much exactly what my series is about!  My favourite lines are: "when we laughed so hard we cried, all the love between you and I, something beautiful"

Newsboys - Something Beautiful

I wanna start it over
I wanna start again
I want a new beginning
One without an end
I feel it inside
Calling out to me

It's a voice that whispers my name
It's a kiss without any shame
Something beautiful
Like a song that stirs in my head
Singing love will take us where
Something's beautiful

I've heard it in the silence
Seen it on a face
I've felt it in a long hour
Like a sweet embrace
I know this is true
It's calling out to me

It's a voice that whispers my name
It's a kiss without any shame
Something beautiful
Like a song that stirs in my head
Singing love will take us where
Something's beautiful

It's the child on her wedding day
It's the daddy that gives her away
Something beautiful
When we laugh so hard we cry
It's the love between you and I
Something beautiful 

blessings today, friends! :)

love emma

 

31 Days :: {10} :: sleeping in

Happy {Canadian} Thanksgiving! thanks for stopping by! You've found us at Day 10 of my 31 Days series on Celebrating Life. If you'd like to see all the other posts so far, you'll find the introduction here {includes post-list at the bottom} or the posts all here :)


Sometimes, it's important to celebrate the things you didn't intend to have or do. For example, I didn't intend to sleep in yesterday. It resulted in my not being able to do all the things I wanted to do before work yesterday {including a blog post}, and I could have chosen to be frustrated. Also: I hate the feeling sleeping in gives me. :P But instead, I chose to celebrate it and enjoy the extra rest, my comfy bed, and the great dream I had {which of course I cannot for the life of me remember now lol!}.

Unexpected and unplanned things can be beautiful if we choose to see them that way. I know that I for one tend to become frustrated when things don't go as planned, but I am trying to learn to embrace the way life flows, and celebrate things I didn't intend to happen. It's a discipline that takes lots of practice. 

So sleeping in gave me more practice, something extra to write about this weekend, and did I mention my bed is so warm and comfy and cozy? ;)

what unexpected things have you celebrated lately?

blessings,
love emma


linking up with Chantel and Elizabeth :)

31 Days :: {9} :: don't wait

Hey there friends! thanks for stopping by! You've found us at Day 9 of my 31 Days series on Celebrating Life. If you'd like to see all the other posts so far, you'll find the introduction here {includes post-list at the bottom} or the posts all here :)

We can wait forever for the life we wish we have, and miss out on the life we do have right now. I'm guilty of it all the time! But isn't that such a shame? 

So here is encouragement from Shauna, don't wait for your big moment, or for life to change, or for you to be where or what you want to be. Start now.

"I don't want to wait anymore. I choose to believe that there is nothing more sacred or profound than this day. I choose to believe that there may be a thousand big moments embedded in this day, waiting to be discovered like tiny shards of gold. The big moments are the daily, tiny moments of courage and forgiveness and hope that we grab onto and extend to one another. That's the drama of life, swirling all around us, and generally I don't even see it, because I'm too busy waiting to become whatever it is I think I am about to become. The big moments are in every hour, every conversation, every meal, every meeting." ~ Shauna Niequist, Cold Tangerines

Life goes by so fast. A whole life can go by in an instant, while you're waiting for your big moment, to become whatever it is you want. 

But life isn't just made up of the big moments in movies. 

"Life is a collection of a million, billion moments, tiny little moments and choices, like a handful of luminous, glowing pearls. And strung together, built upon one another, lined up through the days and the years, they make a life, a person." ~ Shauna Niequist, Cold Tangerines  

 So today. Choose not to wait? Choose to be content with where and who you are, and start living. Wouldn't you rather have a necklace all full of regular size pearls than one giant one anyways? 

blessings,
love emma 

linking up with Chantel and Elizabeth :) 

31 Days :: {8} :: hidden beautiful

Hey there friends! thanks for stopping by! You've found us at Day 8 of my 31 Days series on Celebrating Life. If you'd like to see all the other posts so far, you'll find the introduction here {includes post-list at the bottom} or the posts all here :)

I believe there are such things as tangible beautiful, beautiful moments, beautiful people, and also, hidden beautiful {which I think, actually fits into all the other listed 'categories'}.

When we first moved to our house, a couple years ago, it was a new neighbourhood, a new side of town for us. That meant lots of exploring, and we walked down street after street, trying to find all the parks and soccer fields, and how all the streets fit together. Well one day, after we'd been living here a couple of months, my mother said there's a wetland with paths through it somewhere around here, we are going to go find it. 

And so we did. We ran down a hill at the end of a court, and made our way through a giant clump of birch trees and bushes (actually, my mother found the path, which was on the next street over, but we decided it was more fun to make our way through the woods), into the wetland and onto the path. Oh my goodness it was beautiful in there!

From the edges of the wetland you can see the backs of houses on either side, but in the middle, it's like you're not in the middle of a subdivision. If you know where the paths to get in are, it's easy to tell that the wetland is there from outside of it. But if you don't, and you didn't take the time to look for it, you would never know it's there. 

I think that's like the beauty in life, so often. Sometimes it's hidden within things, like our wetland in the middle of a subdivision, and it takes you looking for it to find it. And once you do it's like there's a whole other world out there. 

Since then, we have discovered a whole bunch of other trails and meadows and such in this neighbourhood, and they are all so very lovely. I can be five minutes away from my house and {almost} feel like I'm in the middle of the country.

I love this wetland. I go running there all the time, I take the little girls walking through there, we look for birds and bunny-rabbits and snails... during each season it is so different and beautiful. It makes me sad to think that if we hadn't gone looking for this beautiful, we might not have found it.  

It's kind of like that silver lining to the clouds... God puts it in there but we've gotta look for it. And sometimes... it's very well hidden.

What kinds of hidden beautiful do you have in your life that you would've missed if you hadn't gone looking for it?

blessings,
love emma


linking up with Chantel and Elizabeth :)

31 Days :: {7} :: we need it

 Because, some days, I think I can do without celebrating. Sometimes because all I can see is the ugly, and other times because I think everything is 'just okay' without taking the effort to slow down and celebrate the beauty in life. 

But then I am reminded, that there is no neutral. Either we are celebrating, or we're shunning it and turning to despair and anger, even if we don't see it. And I believe that, as Shauna says, despair is a slow death. I. don't. want. that. 

From Shauna's Cold Tangerines:

"I need optimism and celebration and hope in the face of violence and despair and anxiety. And because the other road is a dead end. Despair is a low death, and a lifetime of anger is like a lifetime of hard drinking: it shows in your face and your eyes and your words even when you think it doesn't.
The only option, as I see it, is this delicate weaving of action and celebration, of intention and expectation."

So today, choose to let go of the frustrations, the deadlines, and the irritation with whatever it is in your life. If you hold on to them, it will show. Choose to celebrate. Take it one step at a time, what is something special you could do right now? could you make yourself a tea, hot chocolate, coffee, then savour it slowly, enjoying the feel of a warm mug in your hands? 

Look for the little things, they add up. They really are the beautiful within the ordinary. 

We need celebration, folks!
blessings,
emma 

Hey there friends! thanks for stopping by! You've found us at Day 7 of my 31 Days series on Celebrating Life. If you'd like to see all the other posts so far, you'll find them here :) (or here). 

31 Days :: {6} :: Tunes Tuesday :: 10000 Reasons

and wow. that was a long title. lol

Hey there friends! thanks for stopping by! You've found us at Day 6 of my 31 Days series on Celebrating Life. If you'd like to see all the other posts so far, you'll find them here :) (or here).

 Today I'm celebrating beautiful music. I think this is my very favourite version of 10,000 Reasons (Bless the LORD)! It is so simple, soulful and beautiful. 

Rend Collective - 10,000 Reasons

The sun comes up; it’s a new day dawning
It’s time to sing Your song again
Whatever may pass and whatever lies before me
Let me be singing when the evening comes

Bless the Lord
Bless the Lord
Oh my soul, oh my soul
Worship His holy name
Sing like never before
Oh my soul
I’ll worship Your holy name

You’re rich in love
And You’re slow to anger
Your name is great
And Your heart is kind
For all Your goodness
I will keep on singing
10,000 reasons for my heart to find

Bless the Lord, oh my soul

Bless the Lord
Oh my soul, oh my soul
Worship His holy name
Sing like never before
Oh my soul
I’ll worship Your holy name

Sing my soul, sing my soul

Bless the Lord
Oh my soul, oh my soul
Worship His holy name
Sing like never before
Oh my soul
I’ll worship Your holy name

And on that day when my strength is failing
The end draws near and my time has come
Still my soul will sing Your praise unending
10,000 years and then forever more

Bless the Lord

Bless the Lord
Oh my soul, oh my soul
Worship His holy name (Oh your Goodness)
Sing like never before
Oh my soul
I’ll worship Your holy name
I’ll worship Your holy name
I’ll worship Your holy name  

When we celebrate life, when we enjoy this gift that God has given us, it's kind of like we are blessing Him. Here's a really neat post Cynthia made about blessing the LORD. 

blessings on your day!

love Emma

31 Days :: {5} :: today...

Hey there friends! thanks for stopping by! You've found us at Day 5 of my 31 Days series on Celebrating Life. If you'd like to see all the other posts so far, you'll find them here :) (or here).


Today, I am celebrating

The chilly weather

Scarves,

The sky which is continuously changing from blue to cloudy,

The bright leaves everywhere, both on trees and scattered on the ground,

Old quilts to cuddle up in,

leg warmers and wool socks,

who cares if they don't match lol

{This is part of my 31 Days series, see the introduction here, and all of the posts here}

What little things are you celebrating today? Open up your eyes and you will see them :)

blessings,

love Emma

linking up with Chantel and Elizabeth :)

31 Days :: {4} :: tangible beauty

Hey there friends! thanks for stopping by! You've found us at Day 4 of my 31 Days series on Celebrating Life. If you'd like to see all the other posts so far, you'll find them here :) (or here).

most days, it can be oh-so-easy to walk around and miss the beauty right in front of you. today I'm talking about this earth, things that are all around us. Later we'll be talking about other types of beauty, but not today.

It takes a lot of practice and intention to open our eyes and be aware of the beauty. so often I just 'coast' through my day without paying any attention to beauty, without trying to find it at all. but when you make the effort, there is amazing beauty out there, some that will take your breath away.

a while ago, I went for a walk in the morning, and I wasn't really paying attention to anything. You know, just coasting along. But for whatever reason, as I walked past this puddle, something caught my eye and I stopped. I looked at it for a while {and actually, it was more of a pink sunrise sky at first}, and eventually decided that I should take a picture, which I did {obviously}. My point to all this is that all the times beauty is right in front of us even if we don't realize it.

As for me, I don't want to miss it!
 

my apologies, because, like I said, it was more beautiful before, and if you don't think it's beautiful still, the idea still applies, right! :)

And now, a beautiful quote from Shauna:
{At the end of a beee-yootiful chapter called The Red Tree, {which by the way if you want to read it, it's short and I highly recommend it, go here and click down from the contents, to 'the red tree' and voila! ;)}}, here's what she says:

"What looks like a plain old city street is just that until you lift up your eyes and see the red tree, and then you realize that this is no plain city street. This is a masterpiece just here for the week, our very own wonder of the world, and I just about missed it."

wow.

I think this quote was also applicable, because around here at least, the trees are beautiful shades of brilliant and gorgeous, and sometimes I miss them. 

have you got any tips for intentionally seeing the tangible beauty around you? :) would you share them?

blessings, friends!
love Emma 

linking up with Chantel and Elizabeth :)

31 Days :: {3} :: Beautiful

 

Celebrating Life. Finding the beautiful in the ordinary. So what is the beautiful? Let's take a look at the dictionary definition of beautiful and then talk about some different kinds of beautiful, okay? :)

According to Dictionary.com:

adjective

1.

having beauty; possessing qualities that give great pleasure or satisfaction to see, hear, think about, etc.; delighting the senses or mind

2.

excellent of its kind:

3.

wonderful; very pleasing or satisfying.

{to be honest I was a little bit confused about whether I should use the definition of the adjective {which I thought} or the noun {because I'm pretty sure that's what I used in my sentence. yeaaaah.} so here's both.}

noun

4.

the concept of beauty (usually preceded by the).

5.

(used with a plural verb) beautiful things or people collectively (usually preceded by the):

"the good and the beautiful."

6.

the ideal of beauty (usually preceded by the):

"to strive to attain the beautiful."

If you got a little overwhelmed by this don't worry, you're not alone. ;) Let's just totally be all simple and comfortable and un-official here and call Beautiful "something wonderful, giving pleasure and delighting the sense or mind" {I guess we're going with a noun for our def.}

But enough with this high-fallutin but perhaps necessary rambles. Practically, what is beauty? I believe in beautiful things, and beautiful moments, and beautiful people. {I believe in more beautiful too but my mind isn't totally working today. :P}

Let's take the next few days to unpack some different kinds of beautiful, so we know what we're looking to find in the ordinary. The ordinary, by the way? That is your everyday life. All those little supposingly mundane things you do. There is beauty in that waiting for us to open and train our eyes to see it!

what about you? do you have a definition of beautiful? let me know because I'm not totally sure I love the one I've got lol :P

blessings,

love Emma

linking up with Chantel and Elizabeth :)

31 Days :: {2} :: Introduction

for real. {and I promise that most posts will not be this long lol!}

Life. I'm still (LORD-willing) still very near the beginning of mine, but even by now, I know that life is a journey. I truly believe what Corrie ten Boom said about every experience preparing us for a future we cannot see. And I can see it.

I can see the way life has lead me through a couple of years to get to this point. And I'm trusting that God will use this point where I cam right now to bring me somewhere new in the future. 

I don't even remember how, or why, but for some reason, several years ago, I picked up Ann Voskamp's book, 1000 gifts. And it awakened something inside. Something that said, the ordinary is more than ordinary. It is the very grace of God. And it began to change the way I looked at the world.

It was a fight. Everyday. It still is a fight. I don't imagine it will ever stop being one, but I do know the more I practice the stronger I am to fight this battle. 

"Life is a collection of a million, billion moments, tiny little moments and choices, like a handful of luminous glowing pearls. And strung together, built upon one another, lined up through the days and the years, they make a life, a person." ~Shauna Niequist (Cold Tangerines)

have you ever stopped to celebrate sunset? a glorious show that God placed in the sky just. for. you. to. celebrate?

At the beginning of September I was thinking about 31 Days and whether or not I wanted to do a series in it this year, and if I did, what on earth it was going to be about. And about that same time, I picked up Shauna Niequist's book Cold Tangerines and I was hooked. captivated. excited. I couldn't put it down. This book spoke to me, right where I was at. Right in the middle(ish) of my year of Here & Now, which I was failing and succeeding at by turn. But mostly failing :P

And I got to the end, and this quote: 

"I want a life that sizzles and pops and makes me laugh out loud. And I don't want to get to the end, or to tomorrow, even, and realize that my life is a collection of meetings and pop cans and errands and receipts and dirty dishes. I want to eat cold tangerines and sing loud in the car with the windows open and wear pink shoes and stay up all night laughing and paint my walls the exact color of the sky right now. I want to sleep hard on clean white sheets and throw parties and eat ripe tomatoes and read books so good they make me jump up and down and I want my everyday to make God belly laugh, glad that he gave life to someone who loves the gift, who will use it up and wring it out and drag it around like a favorite sweater." ~Shauna Niequist (Cold Tangerines)

and I knew. This, this was my 31 Days. I want to celebrate life - my everyday life. I learn by teaching and I process by writing. And maybe, too, someone else will be encouraged to celebrate their every-day! 

Because I don't want to get to the end and realize that my life was only mindane things, lifeless days that followed lifeless days, that turned into months, and years, and decades. "I want a life that sizzles and pops," I want to find this beauty in life. I want to celebrate!! :) 

So this is me. And Shauna. My writing will be raw and haphazard and unpolished, and hers, - well we all know her writing is refreshing and beautiful. 

One of the things that I had trouble with, even just getting started writing this post, is that I will puck up her book for inspiration, and then her sparkling words make the ones in my head, that I struggle to put to paper sound scattered and ungraceful. 

But by the grace of God, her book inspired me, and I can do no less than pick up my pen and write, and offer them to my LORD as a love offering, praying that somehow, in some way, He might use them to bless someone.

Glory to His name!

And so this month will be, as Shauna says, "a shameless appeal for celebration." I know I need it. Join me?

linking up with Chantel and Elizabeth :)