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 :: {16} :: intention, part 2

Hey there friends! thanks for stopping by! You've found us at Day 16 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 :) 

On Thursday I told y'all a story. Yesterday, I started talking about one of the things that I've been learning because of it. Today, I'm gonna keep on with that thing - intention.  

 The hardest part that I have found is starting. It takes slowing down and pausing. But if you have been coasting along, through habits, perhaps aimlessly, maybe at a high speed, how do you even remember to slow down and pause? For me, that often means setting alarms just to pause, and give thanks. Or maybe do something special, something like taking the time to play a game, or taking kids to the park, or having a little 1 or 2 song dance party, or anything that means you're not on auto-pilot anymore.

And I hope what you'll find - I know what I've found - is that the more you do it, the easier it becomes. Is it an oxymoron to say that living with intention can be a habit? Because I think, maybe it can. 

One of the benefits of intentional living are things like feeling more satisfied with your life: instead of getting to the end of the day and wondering what you even did and if there was a point, you can know that you took the time to do things on purpose, which means there was a point.

And once again, I'm going to say the same thing... come back on Monday and we're going to continue with intention. Maybe we'll even make a week of it? ;)

So today, do at least one thing with intention?

blessings,
emma  

linking up with Chantel and Elizabeth :)

31 Days :: {15} :: intention

Hey there friends! thanks for stopping by! You've found us at Day 15 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 remember yesterday I told you a bit of a story? Yes, well today I'm going to share the first lesson that I am trying to learn from it. 

Right after that first day happened, and I realized that I was going to need to be getting more sleep in the near future, some things hit me. I would need to change some things up. My waking hours would decrease, which would, by default, mean that I would be able to fit less things into my day.  

But how to have make sure to get all the things that I need and want to get done, done? That calls for something called intention. Intention is "an act or instance of determining mentally upon some action or result." Which I think is just a semi-fancy way of saying, to choose to do something, purposefully. 

Because it's so easy to let minutes and hours and days and weeks and months and yes, even years slip by filled with little mindless time-fillers, and we can turn around and say, what was the point to that day, month, year? 

This is something that I have been passionate about for a while, this was my lock screen image for a long time:

 

source

But I guess I wasn't doing enough putting it into practice so God decided to make me jump right in. 

Do you have any tips for living with intention?

Come back tomorrow and I'll keep on with intention, because, now that I'm writing, I'm realizing that I have more to say ;)

blessings, 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 :: {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 :: {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 :: {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 :)

Summer is...

How is already the last weekend of summer?!?!
I've been trying to soak it in as much as possible, and made a list of things that summer has involved for me this year :) 

Summer is...

Sitting on the porch bench reading,

warmth of the sun on my skin,

Peach juice dripping down my chin, 

Hot kitchen full of canning,

Buckets of peach skins & pits,

Corn on the cob,

Watermelon,

Ice cream,

Tan lines,

Sweaty curls in the not-so baby's hair,

Slower pace,

Jumping on the trampoline with the girlies,

Story time on the couch,

Early morning sunrise & Bible reading,

Peach pie with a gingerbread crust (for breakfast!!),

Swimming in the pool,

Watching the kids jumping competitions (and occasionally being in one too ;) ),

 Sunlight through the trampoline net, 

people falling over on the trampoline,

late nights and early mornings,

the animals we see on our walks,

long hours of sunshine,

bbq pizza,
your butt sore from a long bike ride,
strawberry picking: aching back and fingers & lips turned red,
playing in the sand (and being turned into a giant octopus ;) ),

I'm sure there's many many more... next season I think I will start a list right off at the beginning :)

What is on your 'Summer Is' list? 

The only thing that makes me somewhat ready for summer to be ending, is that fall is coming, and I just love how beautiful fall is :)

Blessings upon your day!

love Emma

linking up with Elizabeth  & Chantel :)

To-Do Lists and What to Do

Still in the middle of a super busy week where we are trying to pack for a vacation, organize for school, clean house, and can food (mostly 3 bushels of peaches but there is more too); I can say without a doubt that there is lots to do! I am a list-maker, that is my preferred way of working. The lists do. not. end.

But in the middle of all this busyness, there's something else you gotta remember, too. Life is short, and relationship is what counts. It's sort of like that Bible passage on love:

If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. (1 Corinthians 13: 1-3)

"If I finish everything on my to-do list, but have not been purposeful about spending time with people, I fail. If I always have my school done, and my house is immaculately clean, and supper is always on time, but I have not been intentional about relationships, I had my priorities skewed."

On one of those days where the baby is cranky and clingy and just wants to be carried around all day, which makes it at least twice as hard to do many tasks; remember the baby won't be a baby for a lot longer now and soon enough won't even want to be carried at all... so treasure this time while you have it. Instead of mopping the floors right away (after all, they've made it this long without being mopped - they can take another week, can't they? ;)), play a game with the kids. 

It's important to work; to clean, to be good stewards of the things God has given us in this life. I am not at all telling you to be lazy; to not work or just leave the work. There is lots of work to be done, and we are the ones to do it. What I am saying is that we need to get our priorities straight! We complain that there is not enough time to get all our daily tasks done, let alone spend some time reading to the kids - but how long do you spend on the computer (or such devices) each day? (etc etc) There is always enough time, what there is enough time for depends on you.

There will always be work to do, but children will not always be little and people will not be around forever and if the world ended tomorrow would you wish you had cleaned the bathroom more or spent more time with the wee ones (& big people) in your life?  

Today:... pause for 5 minutes, before you fold that basket of laundry, and play a game with the kids... and then have them join you with the laundry and have a folding game! 

Life is sweet, don't miss it!

God bless y'all today!!
Em

(This post was partially inspired by this.)

Morning Prayer

Bless this day, LORD. Help me to do what You will. Give me strength and patience and endurance. Open my eyes to the many many blessings that surround me; may I be a blessing to others, too. Let me feel your presence close today, God. All we ever have is now; help me to ever be present in this moment. LORD, you are awe-inspiring, and I praise you! Amen!

take a moment this morning, before you jump into the endless rushing, pause, be still, and talk to God. let His presence surround you, feel it.

blessings on your day!! :)

Soak it In

I was listening to this song the other night as I was washing the dishes, and even though I have heard it many many times before, God kind of used it to speak to me again, so I wanted to share it with you.

I was just beginning to make this post and I realized that this is very much connected to Cassidy's last post 'Slow Down'. These days DO go by and they are gone before we know it. So let's take the time to slow down, soak it in, and thank God.

Psalm 118:24
This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.

James 1:17
Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.

Washing dishes is not something that I particularly dislike but nor is it something that I would choose to do for fun, but why I am I going to grumble about doing it and waste the time? I can NEVER get that time back.

And like it says in the song, 'like a September morning, like snow without a warning, like how the summer feels upon your skin'; I don't know about you but for me it is often very easy to take all those things for granted. 

I decided to enjoy the feel of the nice hot water on my hands. Today I challenge you to find 5 things that you are taking for granted and enjoy them!

God be with you!
Emma