The best thing that happened (in 2014)

It's mid-way into the first month of the new year and I've been itching to still write out some kind of reflection on 2014. As I was driving the other day, my muddled thoughts cleared to remind me the best thing that happened in the past year.

It was my relationship with my mom.

I've always had a good, close relationship with my mom. As the years have passed, we have over time transitioned from a mother- daughter relationship to really a best friend relationship.It especially deepened when I moved away for college. This new life transition while necessary, was also challenging. When everything is changing in your world, you want to find a constant, something or someone steady that doesn't change. My constant was my mom. College helped us solidify an even better relationship.

I would say two very significant events in the past year really propelled us forward. Just days before 2014 came, I went through a break up and who was the only person who could make it better?

My mom.

Quote of the Day 12/15/14

"Our bravest and best lessons are not learned through success, but through misadventure."    [Amos Bronson Alcott]

Laughing Without Fear of the Future

I came home one evening and saw that someone had taken the time to inscribe the kitchen chalkboard. My wonderful roommate Katie had written the following in beautiful calligraphy - "She is clothed in strength and dignity, and she laughs without fear of the future."

It's a verse I'd read many times before but never given much thought to. But lately, there's been a lot on my mind, situations I can't yet comprehend and that haven't quite added up, and those words, those words of "laughing without fear of the future," have been inscribed in my mind.  

Quote of the Day 12/11/14

"I’m not doing it well or neatly, but on days like today I can see a glimpse of where we’re going, and it makes me swoon.

Less hustling. Less proving. Less frantic. Less bone-tired.

More true rest. More connection. More prayer, more listening, more tea.

More sacred space, more blessed monotony.

More love.

I like it."   [Shauna Niequist]

Quote of the Day 12/09/14

"It is when we choose to be Christ to others, and to see them as He sees them that our perspective begins to change. Christ cares for everyone, and when we focus our lives on Him, we see how much all of God’s creation matters. We love relentlessly when we love Christ completely. But I will say this, one day someone will come into your life and you will know what it means to love without need, because loving the right way does not make us dependent on another; it makes us dependent on Christ together."     [T.B. LaBerge]

Giving thanks

Tis the season... For hectic-ness, crammed parking lots and over consumption of calories!

Or at least that's what we've made it out to be.

But really, this should be the season of gratefulness. Not that gratefulness should be for a season, or one specific reason (rhyming is maybe intentional).. But if anything, the thanksgiving/upcoming Christmas season should serve as a reminder. When the world gets overwhelming and life is flying faster then the pumpkin latte orders at Starbucks, I am thankful for the reminder to be grateful and to give thanks.

This thanksgiving, I want to give thanks for the opportunities that have come my way and the ones that never did; I want to give thanks for my Santa Barbara family but also my San Diego one; I want to give thanks for the job(s) I have; the people I have met; and as simple and maybe cliche statement, I want to give thanks for the life I am able to live.

They say that the secret to happiness is living with an abundance of gratefulness. Melody Beattie wrote the following: "Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow," and I couldn't agree more.

Quote of the Day 11/04/14

We are always falling in love or quarreling, looking for jobs or fearing to lose them, getting ill and recovering, following public affairs. If we let ourselves, we shall always be waiting for some distraction or other to end before we can really get down to our work. The only people who achieve much are those who want knowledge so badly that they seek it while the conditions are still unfavorable. Favorable conditions never come.   [C.S. Lewis] 

Quote of the Day 10/27/14

“Sometimes God’s power is shown as much in preventing things as it is in making them happen.” [Lisa TerKeurst]

Quote of the Day 10/24/14

“Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow.”   [Melody Beattie]

Quote of the Day 10/21/14

“To be loved but not known is comforting but superficial. To be known and not loved is our greatest fear. But to be fully known and truly loved is, well, a lot like being loved by God. It is what we need more than anything. It liberates us from pretense, humbles us out of our self-righteousness, and fortifies us for any difficulty life can throw at us.”  [Timothy Keller]