Somedays You Meet Yourself...

...Coming and Going!

Isn't that the truth!

Here's today's comings and goings for you to enjoy right along with me.  I've been getting a lot of hits on my Etsy shop from people searching for Eucharisteo journals.  I've meant to put more in the shop, and today I uploaded the lower image.  I was tinkering around with a new set of alpha stamps.  They're a cute, mussed and gritty look.  One thing that disappoints me a wee bit is that although the letters are cute, they're a little hard to read.  I'll have to save them for projects where there isn't much pattern to compete against.  Live and learn, right?!

Summer has arrived here on the ranch, so in my photos today I used my sunglasses as a prop in at least half the photos!  Summer means the garden needs watering, the trees need trimming, the lawn needs watering, the pool needs skimming, the lawn needs watering, the lawn...it always needs watering!  Most days I just throw on my sun hat, but if reading poolside is on the agenda, I grab my sunglasses instead, hence their presence nearby and new arrival in my photos.  As I've written about in previous posts, I don't have a camera, so the arrival of my iPad this Easter (and it's nifty built in camera!) has been very welcome.  It's so fun to take my mini and capture bits and pieces of my life.  And, it's been delightful having it to shoot images for my blog and Etsy shop!  Win win, my friends!

What's bringing you joy today?

Wise Word Wednesday: Ann Voskamp

"You’re the one in dire need of time, that thing we can’t buy, what we sell of ourselves to get more of what we think we want, what we sacrifice to seemingly gain.  They say time is money, but that’s not true.  Time is life.  And if I want the fullest life, I need to find fullest time….

God gives us time.  And who has time for God?

Which makes no sense.

In Christ, don’t we have everlasting existence?  Don’t Christians have all the time in eternity, life everlasting?  If Christians run out of time—wouldn’t we lose our very own existence?  If anyone should have time, isn’t it the Christ-followers? 

“We are merely moving shadows, and all our busy rushing end in nothing” (Psalm 39:6).

~

In a world addicted to speed, I blur the moments into one unholy smear.

The hurry makes us hurt.

And maybe it is the hurt that drives us on?  For all our frenzied running seemingly toward something, could it be that we are in fact fleeing—desperate to escape pain that pursues?

I speak it to God:  I don’t really want more time; I just want enough time. 

I just want time to do my one life well."

~Ann Voskamp, One Thousand Gifts, p. 64-68

Journaling Eucharisteo

    Hello Blog World!  Are you glad to see a post that actually has pictures?  I know I am!  This is a journal that I developed last year to accompany Ann Voskamp's book "One Thousand Gifts."    This isn't a study book or anything, but rather it seizes the book's idea of practicing thankfulness by providing numbered spaces to record your thanks.  Of course I included quotes from the book--how could I resist?!
     I've read and re-read this book, and I may need to read it again soon!  One of my biggest take-aways was how I could learn to be a thankful person by simply incorporating more thanks into my life.  Those areas that at first glance drive me bonkers may actually have a nugget in them that I can learn from, and so I offer thanks.  I choose to be joyful over learning that lesson rather than let bitterness take root.  I don't think I need to practice bitterness, annoyance, anxiety, or anger--I'm probably pretty proficient in those areas if I let myself think about it.  But is there ever a time when practicing thanksgiving is needed less?  The fun thing is, the more I practice, the easier it comes to me.
     What are some gifts (maybe even in disguise!) that you've received recently?