quote of the week...

"There will never be another woman who owns the look, the personality, and the experience that you do. Those ingredients make up the recipe of who you are, and it's your gift from the Lord--own it."

---Candace Cameron Bure

quote of the week...

"When you say, 'I need more confidence,' what you're really saying is, 'I need those people over there to approve of me.' That is the desire to control other people and what they think."

--Augusten Burroughs

quote of the week...

“Nothing is really work unless you would rather be doing something else.”
― J.M. Barrie

how about no...

The other day at work our boss had lunch brought in for everyone from this great Chinese restaurant.

[pause for you to wish you worked where I work.]

I opened my fortune cookie and it said, "Life will bring you a grand and dashing adventure."

And I immediately thought, "That is really going to mess with watching my Top Chef marathons."

quote of the week...

"Our history can become our destiny and either compel us to repeat our errors or be the catalyst for change."

---unknown

small and simple reminders...

This small and simple reminder is about how little things can mean so very much.

I belong to an online community that over the years has become a very special place to me. I have developed friendships that are lovely, and I have even gotten the chance to meet in person some of the terrific people that I have spoken to online. I was reading a magazine a few months back, and saw the name and town of one of those friends in the comments section, and immediately knew that she would appreciate having a copy and was out of the country and unlikely to find a copy of her own. So I sent it off with not much thought other than that I hoped she'd enjoy having it.

Some time after this, I received this beautiful little box in the mail from her, along with a generous and kind thank you note for my sending her the article. If it had only been that, it would still be a sweet little story...but there's more.

On the day that I came home to find this gift, I was heavy with the weight of the world. I was tired. I was worn out, body and soul. I had been trying very hard to keep myself together, all the while wishing that I could find the time and place to fall apart. I felt unequal to the tasks before me, and felt sure that there was nothing I could do about it. I had been praying that day in the car on the way home so very hard to feel an answer to my questions of  "Can I even do this? Am I making a mess of everything? Why do you think I can be the person that it requires to make a difference here?"

I walked into a house of chaos and clutter, just sure that I couldn't be a worse person if I tried, when I saw the envelope. As I opened it up and saw the exquisitely detailed box and read the letter from my far away friend, I felt love and relief wash over me. I burst into tears. I felt a still, small voice say inside my mind, "You are loved. You are noticed. You can do this. What you do matters, in ways you aren't able to see."

The most beautiful part of this is that I didn't deserve it. But this friend, I believe prompted by God, was generous. With her time. With her words. With her gratitude. And I believe that she was able to set into motion the circumstances whereby my Heavenly Father could, with her help, tell me something that I desperately needed to hear.

So now when I pass by this tiny box that sits on my book shelf, I think of that day. I think of my friend and all of the dear friends I have talked to and prayed for and that have talked to and prayed for me in our little online community. It is a small and simple reminder of how generous Heavenly Father is with His comfort and praise. It is a small and simple reminder that it is my turn. That to show my gratitude, I must now be generous and give to someone else. So that Heavenly Father can, with my help, tell another child of His what He knows they desperately need to hear.

I can't wait.

quote of the week...

"Trial is someone standing outside of yourself, trying to tell you something about you that is not true. And the real truth of all trial is to get still, silent, centered, and know for sure who you are and who you are not."

--Oprah Winfrey