living in the moment

Years ago I read that if we take care of our outward appearance, we will start to feel better inwardly as well.  I think there is some truth to that. This morning I threw my hair into a pony tail holder, exchanged my pj bottoms for yoga pants, threw a jacket over my night shirt and brought Olivia to the bus. On days where I get up 30 minutes earlier and take the time to shower and comb my hair and put on a little bit of make-up, I feel so much more ready for the day.

I've been applying this to the Christmas season this year as well. You see, last year we did what we thought the world expected of us at Christmas. It was almost like we were trying to prove to the world that even in the throngs of raw grief, we could do it all. It was a hard Christmas.

J and I recently watched a made for TV Christmas movie. I can't remember the name of it. In the story, the main character lost her Dad that past year and he was the one who always lit the Christmas tree in the town's square ea…

This morning I was early for an appointment, so I made my way to the river for a bit of solitude on this beautiful November morning. As I was sitting there, thinking about the myriad of heaviness in our lives right now, I asked God when things would start looking up, instead of more hurt and brokenness being added to our already heavy hearts. Of course I didn't hear a voice answering, or a neon sign showing me our future, but my phone lit up and caught my attention. There was a quote by Ann Voskamp:

A smile threatened to shine through my broken hearted tears when I read this. I'd just been thinking, "How much more can my heart break? And how can I be strong for others when I'm so broken?" It's so tempting to just blurt out a piece of our mind, when in truth, that is not the most helpful. I sat there under that bridge that connects two countries and I wondered whether healing can take place with all this brokenness? Are we willing to allow healing to take place…