45 Life Lessons From A Dying Old Woman With No Reason to Lie.

45 Life Lessons From A Dying Old Woman With No Reason to Lie.

                           

1.       Life isn’t fair, but it’s still good.

2.       When in doubt, just take the next small step.

3.       Life is too short to waste time hating anyone…

4.       Your job won’t take care of you when you are sick.  Your friends and parents will.  Stay in touch.

5.       Pay off your credit cards every month.

6.       You don’t have to win every argument.  Agree to disagree.

7.       Cry with someone. It’s more healing than crying alone.

8.       It’s OK to get angry with God.  He can take it.

9.       Save for retirement starting with your first pay cheque.

10.     When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.

11.     Make peace with your past so it won’t screw up the present.

12.     It’s OK to let your children see you cry..

13.     Don’t compare your life to others.  You have no idea what their journey is all about.

14.     If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn’t be in it.

15.     Everything can change in the blink of an eye.  But don’t worry; God never blinks.

16.     Take a deep breath.  It calms the mind.

17.     Get rid of anything that isn’t useful, beautiful or joyful.

18.     Whatever doesn’t kill you really does make you stronger.

19.     It’s never too late to have a happy childhood.  But the second one is up to you and no one else.

20.     When it comes to going after what you love in life, don’t take no for an answer.

21.     Burn the candles, use the nice sheets and wear the fancy lingerie.  Don’t save it for a special occasion,  today is special.

22.     Over prepare, then go with the flow.

23.     Be eccentric now.  Don’t wait for old age to wear purple.

24.     The most important sex organ is the brain.

25.     No one is in charge of your happiness but you.

26.     Frame every so-called disaster with these words ‘In five years, will this matter?’

27.     Always choose life.

28.     Forgive everyone everything.

29.     What other people think of you is none of your business.

30.     Time heals almost everything.  Give time.

31.     However good or bad a situation is, it will change.

32.     Don’t take yourself so seriously.  No one else does.

33.     Believe in miracles.

34..     God loves you because of who God is, not because of anything you did or didn’t do.

35.     Don’t audit life.  Show up and make the most of it now.

36.     Growing old beats the alternative — dying young.

 37.     Your children get only one childhood.

38.     All that truly matters in the end is that you loved.

39.     Get outside every day.  Miracles are waiting everywhere.

40.     If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else’s, we’d grab ours back.

41.     Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.

42.     The best is yet to come.

43.     No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.

44.     Yield.

45.     Life isn’t tied with a bow, but it’s still a gift.”

http://theburiedlife.tumblr.com/post/26883892511/45-life-lessons-from-a-dying-old-woman-with-no-reason

Stream of Consciousness

Time

Tick Tock

Calendars Leaves Fall

Pages are turned and chapters are written

The moon waxes and wanes

And I sit here and wait

And wait

And wait

"But, Daddy, I want it now"

I am answered only by the clock

Tick Tock

Tick Tock

Tick Tock

I am learning to be content

Because after all,

Darling,

It's all about timing.

"It should be my hand

that is holding yours through the

adventure of life."

-Tyler Knott Gregson 

Shel

What?

It seems like people always are asking me something with what heading up a sentence.
"You recently graduated, what do you want to do?"
"What are you doing for college?"
"What's your major? What do you want to do with that?"
"What do you do for work?"
You get the picture.

Something something I was thinking of recently was when all is said and done, what do I want from life?

The answer may be cliche; but in its simplest, purest, and most primitive state, I want to be loved and to have loved.

Not just the mushy gushy love we see on Valentine's Day cards for one another (however one day I do want that. ;))

I mean different types of love. Francis Chan put it best when he said, "Do you know that nothing you do in this life will ever matter, unless it is about loving God and loving the people he has made?” 


I want the passionate radical love between me and my Creator, Savior, Lover of my Soul, Jesus Christ.


I want a love between me and a man as servants to Jesus Christ, then to each other to grow and do life together. 


I want a family's love supporting me and I them. To help, to encourage, to build. 


I want a community and to enrich its growth. 


This all may seem very "romantic" to some, very basic to others, and just dumb to the rest. 


But I ask you, if everything were stripped away, what would you wish you had done differently? I don't think I would have wished I sent that tweet, or instagrammed one last picture. Yes, you've probably all heard something along the lines of this before. Twitter, Facebook, etc. in themselves are not bad, the problem is when we allow them to consume us, they become simply, parasites. 


I do not have "grand plans" for my life that many others to, I do not aspire to become famous, I have no real "great talent." But I have the desire to love. 


I want to make a small impact, or a large impact; be it a smile, or a CPR rescue, I want to love my God and His people. It won't be easy, but now I have a goal, ambiguous as it may be, I am one step closer to reaching it. 

Kauai

My family and I finally took the vacation we have been talking about taking for as long as I can remember.

We arrived two days ago, and the island is absolutely breathtaking. The vastness of the ocean overwhelms and confounds the senses. The mountains rise out of the earth showing how nature has been unadultered by human hands. The nature exists as part of the island, and has not been contained or diminshed by human hands.

One thing I've noticed about the island life is how radically different the pace of life is. There is only one main highway around the island, and things move at their own pace. Coming from life just outside LA, and coming from a major that requires many hours of studying, this is very strange for me. However, I am taking this vacation as oppurtunity to not plan, but simply just to be. To be content with where I am and taking time to enjoy nature and the people I am with. I am not running to answer my e-mails or text messages, but to stop, wade into the water, and to just breathe.

I have taken, and am trying to take time to just sit outside, breathe, pray, and just spend time with God, and to simply enjoy just being.

In its Time

Frustrating.

The limbo of life's yellow light.

Should I stay

Or should I go? 

The breeze that flirts playfully

Enticing you to take a leap of faith

As you teeter on the cliff of contemplation. 

Once that leap is leapt 

In that instance absent of anything 

Remember

Everything is beautiful in its own time. 

It's All About Jesus

I've checked out this awesome church, Mars Hill, off and on for the past few months. The pastor speaks radical, undiluted biblical truth and is incredibly encouraging. While I haven't taken the plunge and called this church "home," I find encouragement for the teachings, and the people when I do visit. I mention this, because the church's "motto" or main focus is "It's all about Jesus."

As a Christian, or even as an athiest looking in, one would think "Duh. It's a church, of course it's about Jesus."

But I am slowly realizing Jesus is freakin' everything.

He is the good doctor who heals.
He is the love I need.
He is patient and kind.
He is a friend to the friendless.
He is a bulwark, sturdy and comforting.
He is everything.

He is needed in a marriage. A marriage represents Christ's relationship with the church.
He is needed in medicine. He is the good doctor who created our intricate bodies.
He is a soujourner to people who are hurting, having been betrayed.

I have been raised in a Christian home, church and now attend BIOLA University. However, I have at times become weary in my faith, and weary in heart. At time, I have even become apathetic really thinking if this whole faith thing is a joke. I say this in complete honesty.

Then I realize, without Jesus, I have nothing.
Truly.
When I skip a Bible reading or two, I notice it right away.
He gives me patience and kindness (admittidely, not as much as I should have.)
He listens and gives me words of advice and comfort.

I have mused on the old (and overplayed song) where the lyrics go as the following:

When the music fades
And all is stripped away
And I simply come
Longing just to bring
Something that's of worth
That will bless your heart
I'm coming back to the heart of worship

I am really re-realizing it truly is all about Jesus, and should my heart and flesh fail, God is my portion forever. I have m identity in Christ.

I have been apathetic and weary, but I am trying to push myself back to Christ into His marvelous light into His love that is deep, the love that is wide, the love that covers me.

Because after all, it is all about Jesus.