Trekking with Me

Today is my 39th Birthday.  Wow.  How did I get here so fast? To be very honest, I have been dreading this day all year.  I have been trying to find the break pedal since last birthday.  39 just seems so....,  close to 40! These last few weeks I have had weird emotions about it too.  So odd of me, but some birthdays do that to all of us.  Slap us around, tell us reality isn't what we had dreamed or something like that.  I was wrestling and pushing over the fact I am here and not there, so to speak.  Ya know?  Yet God, My precious gentle, wonderful, patient Lord and Love did something for me these last few days...  He breathed on me a truth... Love... Hope... Joy.  He changed my perspective. How?  Well, how do you explain how God changes that?  This past weekend, I had a lot of time alone.  I did not plan it that way, in fact it had been planned otherwise.  All my plans fell through.  God gave ...

I was recently blessed with a trip up to New England to celebrate completing my M.A.  My dear friends,  Tracy and Jamison , treated me to a trip so we could all be together again.  We had a wonderful time together and only wish we could have squeezed in a few more things.  We spent most of our time in Connecticut ("Connect - I - Cut" ~Thanks Tracy!), of which the capital is Hartford (a fact I will never forget thanks to my seventh grade social studies teacher).   Everytime we said "Hartford," I started quoting, "In Hartford hurricanes hardly ever happen..." in an ever-so-british accent.  (Name that movie!)   We also had a little surprise thrown in from sweet Tracy: one night in Newport, RI.  Everywhere we went I was in awe of the deep luscious foliage and the brilliant hues of the waters.  Add to that, sailing related paraphernalia was everywhere, my sailing soft spot was itching something fierce. Here are a few moments I captured...

I did it!! Woooo-Hooooo!! God is so good! I can't believe four years have come and gone.  I can't believe what I thought would take me TWO years stretched into Four!  I can remember a night early in the four year journey when I started freaking out when I realized it was going to take that much longer!!  A very wise mentor gently prodded me on by saying "where else will you be in four years?"  Hmmm, simple logic is a good thing.  It calms me down and I love sweet friends who gracious, non-judgementally point it out to me.   It kept me going for sure. I wrote about the beginning of this journey and the reason for it  way back in 2008, before even moving here.   God is so good.  MUCH ground has been covered in these four years.  I feel like a different person, and yet more of who God made me to be. This part of the journey is where it starts to feel like I am jumping off a cliff.  It is scary and exhilarating to finish something. ...

When I was in Ninth grade, I was in chorus.  The chorus leader was a lively hymnal leader, and was very good in helping us learn our parts.  I really enjoyed being a part of this group.  Not that I had a super strong voice but when I sang next to amazing voices, somehow I felt more confident and sounded pretty good.  I always have sung better in a group.  Doesn't everyone? One of the hymns he taught us was "Be Still My Soul."  At the time, I was so focused on learning my part, the words pretty much slipped by; even years later, when we would sing that hymn, I heard only the parts and not the words.  It was not till a few weeks ago, when we song a re-vamped version in church did the words come into focus.  Wow! So powerful... So strong, so what I want to hold onto in these days of uncertainty. Here are the words, if you have never focused in either.  They are worth the effort. Be still, my soul: the Lord is on thy side. Bear patiently th...