I have rocks in my life for years.
I used to write on them and make piles of all that God did in our life as reminders.
I used them in my classroom for rock stars.
I used them with my girls to show them how much we carry in life.
Today I used them to remind ourselves that teamwork matters.
I threw them in the pool. And I just didn’t want to forget that.
I seriously am so glad that God created rocks.
…asks sweet Keagan as she sits in my car and waits to go into the state swim meet. The one she couldn’t swim at because she was recovering from surgery from a torn ACL. The one that she got up early, missed school, and came to CHEER at. That one.
Sometimes you show up when it’s so hard to do. You are cheering on the outside but it’s not because it’s what is easy. Cheering is a choice. Cheering is a choice. Yep. That’s what I’m learning in my 47 year old life more than ever.
Sometimes cheering looks like dyeing your hair purple and wearing fun overalls. And making cards and bringing Pom poms and straight up screaming. That’s the “easy” cheering.
But sometimes cheering is the texts sent to encourage. It’s the hugs and reminders that there is so much more than the moment we are in. That’s the easy cheering technically too.
Until…
Until that reminder is for yourself and you can’t see past the moment you are in. Who cheers then?
How do we cheer for others when we can’t see it for ourselves?
The best way out? Is through. To cheer when you don’t know that your ACL will heal, your migraines will ever go away, your family member has turned from faith, your heart is still broken from the loss of a parent 30 years ago…whatever your moment is, nobody is immune.
And so we all chose to cheer. To know that when others rise that hope gives us hope.
So yes sweet Keagan I will blog again, because my heart needs the reminders too.
Here's to many more. Cheers!
It’s November 11th, 2023 and I haven’t posted in 3 years. And what a ride those 3 years have been.
Gift.
Shalom.
Thrive.
Tend.
And loved.
Those have been the words I chose but I think I chose them because I thought if I chose the right words life would look and be a certain way. Especially thrive. And I lived in such denial that I thought if I just claimed thrive it would happen when really I learned nobody thrives individually, and when the rest of your family is suffering you surrender and change your word to match your life not the other way around. And so I named it…tend. And that is what the last year has truly been. Tending our hearts and bodies to restore that which was dying. And now those buds continue to peek up and life has so much more spontaneous joy. Like friends coming over and naps on the couch. And hikes in the sunshine. And FaceTime calls. And courage. Courage to stop pretending, to stop fighting and to trust.
I had stopped trusting. In Jeremy. In God. Oh you wouldn’t have known it from the outside because I still said and did the right things to look like I trusted, but I didn’t. I pulled tighter. I gripped so hard that I suffocated anything that was trying to breathe. And so I surrendered and chose tend.
I knew this was the word when I heard the song.
So be the gardener of my heart, tend the soil of my soul
Break up the fallow ground, cut back the overgrown
And I won't shy away, I will let the branches fall
So what You want can stay and what You love can grow
