March: Letting The Light In

Hello all:) I apologize for not writing as often as I had hoped to this year, but things are beginning to look up a bit. If I'm completely honest, I've been a bit discouraged about not feeling inspired, wanting to do too many things, and setting unrealistic expectations for myself. But- all of that's changing. I'm going to write as I feel led to write, and redesign this website for a fresh outlook on things. Thank you all so so much for bearing with me and being so supportive through it all<3

There have been so many things on my mind recently- from poetry to simple living to being content within yourself- that I really don't know where to begin. So, dear reader, this post is sure to be a manic storm of all thoughts and insights I have come to realize in this past month... Buckle up. I pray it will be fruitful and fill your cup in some respect.

Simply Be.

Okay, so you know how there's always so much pressure from the outside world surrounding every single thing we do in our lives? Like the way we dress, the way we eat, the way we parent, the way we care for ourselves, the way we exercise... Literally every single thing! Well I've come to find that that's some pretty exhausting nonsense. We look at how "happy and fulfilled" everyone around us is and commit ourselves to doing all these worldly things in hopes of becoming more happy and fulfilled ourselves. But this struggle is all in vain.

Ecclesiastes is one of my favorite books to read through in Scripture. It discusses the vanity of the heart of mankind, and how we're always making a mess of things by chasing after something new and better when really there's nothing new under the sun. (Ecclesiastes 1:9) We think we'll find the right thing for ourselves by searching through all that the world has to offer. And that doesn't mean you're doing drugs or anything like that. Sometimes looking to find your satisfaction and joy in the world is as simple as being distracted by the GOOD things instead of the One who gave them to us. "All is vanity, and a grasping for wind". (Ecclesiastes 1:14)

And here's my biggest takeaway on all this: It is completely okay, in fact, it's really the best thing you can do for yourself, to live your own life how you feel called. Stop doing things out of obligation. Stop wishing you had different and better. Find contentment in the simple things and just simply be. Connect with those you love. Read good books. Sing good songs. Cry when you need to cry and laugh when you need to laugh. There is so much beauty in finding pleasure in the everyday life you have been called to live. And if you haven't been called to live this way- it lies completely within your power to change it. Find the courage to simply be in your life, and let's leave this grasping for wind behind.

-Ecclesiastes 1:14

Renew.

Wherever you find yourself in life, there are always new things beginning to grow and old things that are dying away. Think of the soul like a field of wildflowers: it is constantly changing and will continue to with or without our help and supervision. I have come to a place where one of my biggest hopes is to enjoy the beautiful things that grow within me and to pull the weeds of my soul, whatever they may be. I am looking at things with a fresh perspective. I am changing the things I don't love. I am learning to love the things that are beautiful in myself and in my life. It's sort of a type of spiritual evolution, and no, it's not as weird and new-age as it sounds. We should all be evolving in who we are, or else we bypass all the living just to merely remain alive. It is really a very hindering and torturous way to walk through this life.

As we tend to the garden of our souls, we must remember to re-cultivate some of the things we have unintentionally let die. So many people fall into a pattern of living that says, "Well, once I was creative", or "I used to enjoy that", and never stop to realize that they have every ability to re-ignite the sparks that once burned within them. The love you once felt for someone, the joy that poured out of you upon swinging at the playground, the quiet contentment it once brought you to sit down and draw a flower. These things are beautiful, and I challenge you to find the courage it takes to renew the lovely pleasures of life that have been swept away with time. It takes a gutsy person to risk looking silly or trying things that aren't right for them in pursuit of reviving a life turned mundane. But would you rather continue in the mundane forever or spend some portion of it redeeming the good and beautiful things the Father has for us? Life is much too short to spend stuck inside the fear of failure. How will you ever know what's right for you without first coming to see that certain things aren't? Spring has arrived... let's each cultivate something magnificent within ourselves.

The Danger of Default.

As the Father opens my eyes more and more, I am coming to realize that everything in life should be done with intention. The other day I wrote a note to myself that says something like "Life is always moving in one direction or the other and you're at the wheel... where are you headed?". Yahuah has been showing me that the most dangerous form of living is in a hands-off mindset.

Many believers will argue against this and say that the Father will indeed direct our lives for us if we are His children. And while I do agree with this to some extent, Scripture is very clear that we are not to just sit back and expect Him to make our lives perfect and exercise His will in us. Rather, we must live with intention, and never take our eyes off the road. When we pray for the Father to lead us and guide us, He will tell us where to go each and every step of the way. But He will always give us choice in our lives, and if we don't intentionally obey and move that steering wheel, He's not just going to force us to walk in His perfect plan for us.

This is why a hands-off lifestyle is so dangerous for us. As humans, we are all prone to sin, and we most definitely have a way of screwing things up when we look to ourselves for the answers. This means that when we take our hands off the wheel, we are going to be living in default mode. You know, like when you get a new phone and don't take the time to set it up, your wallpaper will be that ugly orange screen or something like that, your ringtone may be annoying, and you'll never know who's calling you. When we leave everything to default it's not ideal- especially not for our lives. Our defaults are set for sin and we must be diligent in seeking and intentional in building the life we have been called to.

March Quote Spotlight

Please Note: When I quote a person, it is solely because I appreciate what they said and does not mean I am endorsing them in any way. The only being we can rightfully wholly agree with is our Heavenly Father.

"What does not satisfy when we find it, was not the thing we were desiring."

-C.S. Lewis

"While we have the gift of life, it seems to me the only tragedy is to allow part of us to die: whether it is our spirit, our creativity, or our glorious uniqueness."

-Gilda Radner

"Everything that is real was imagined first."

-The Velveteen Rabbit

"It is not how much we have, but how much we enjoy that makes happiness."

-Charles Spurgeon

"Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."

-Mark Twain

"The beauty of a woman is not in the clothes she wears, the figure that she carries, or the way she combs her hair. The beauty of a woman is seen in her eyes, because that is the doorway to her heart, the place where love resides. True beauty in a woman is reflected in her soul. It's the caring that she lovingly gives, the passion that she shows; and the beauty of a woman only grows with passing years."

-Audrey Hepburn

"Not I, nor anyone else can travel that road for you. You must travel it by yourself. It is not far. It is within reach. Perhaps you have been on it since you were born, and did not know. Perhaps it is everywhere- on water and land."

-Walt Whitman

Beauty is a Blessing.

Something else I've been thinking on is this: I have always thought that it is only shallow people who judge things by their appearance. And to some extent, that is the case. I mean, if you were in a relationship with someone only because you found them attractive that relationship would die pretty fast. It is absolutely crucial to have spiritual eyes in everything.

But just because it's important to have spiritual eyes when we view the people and the world around us does not mean we shouldn't have physical eyes as well. It's not wrong in any way to notice the beauty of something and rejoice over it- whether it be a sunrise, a person, a flower, or anything else. While we are not to judge things by their appearance alone, there are so many things you can tell from the way something looks. As Oscar Wilde once said, so often the real wonder and mystery of life lies within the visible, not the invisible. I think sometimes when we are so focused on exercising our spiritual eyes we can often forget to closely study what is visible. The way a body of water ripples upon having a rock tossed into it, the way some people stand with their toes turned out and others with their toes drawn inward, the way someone's eyes glitter when they're happy. It's so important to notice these things because the Creator gave them to us to enjoy.

Our eyes for physical beauty must be always paired with our eyes for spiritual beauty. The spiritual state of a person or thing is so often reflected in its physical appearance. A person who's insecure will often stand with one hand touching the other elbow, or say "like" a lot. Sometimes we can see invisible things by examining the visible more closely. It would be a great loss to forget to study the world around us, and a lack of eyes that see the visible will result in a lack of eyes that see the spiritual.

-Oscar Wilde

Poem of the Month

Wind and a Window Flower

by Robert Frost

Lovers, forget your love,

And list to the love of these,

She a window flower,

And he a winter breeze.

When the frosty window veil

Was melted down at noon,

And the caged yellow bird

Hung over in her tune,

He marked her through the pane,

He could not help but mark,

And only passed her by

To come again at dark.

He was a winter wind,

Concerned with ice and snow,

Dead weeds and unmated birds,

And little of love could know.

But he sighed upon the sill,

He gave the sash a shake,

As witness all within

Who lay that night awake.

Perchance he half prevailed

To win her for the flight

From the firelit looking-glass

And warm stove-window light.

But the flower leaned aside

And thought of naught to say,

And morning found the breeze

A hundred miles away.

And that is all for today, my friends. Thank you for your time and I hope this post has blessed you in some way or another. I am so thankful for the beauty blossoming all around us this spring, and look forward to many more lovely moments of sunshine. (I know the above poem was more of a winter thing, but I read it the other day and thought it was so pretty).

Remember this: you are capable of living the life you want to live. There is no set formula and there is no image it must look like. Chase what you've been wired for, and respect you calling enough to walk in it. Love you all.

Love,

Nola:)