The Fragile Beauties

I am sorry I've been so silent of late, but if you saw my hypothetical calender which has included a good friend's wedding and 5 family birthdays in one month, the launching of my literary-themed online shop called The Warren, a re-inspiration for my writing, lots of reading, and the cranking-up of the family school-year, you'd realize there really has been very little time to devote to blogging. Along with this craziness has been lots of thinking, on my part. I don't know why, but I've been in a thoughtful frame of mind recently; such spasms strike me now and again and I think Plato himself would be rather proud of my philosophizing abilities now and then. ;)

From the thinking has sprung a little thing that I am Being Aware Of that I call The Fragile Beauties. I guess you could say that this Thing is like 1,000 Gifts, or even the book Sarah got for her birthday: Cold Tangerines. But The Fragile Beauties trend began for me when I would find certain pictures on Pinterest that had no place on any of the rest of my boards, but that I could not ignore. Pins that captured the little pieces of everyday life that I try to remember to notice. Or things that I've always wished I had a macro-lense to be able to photograph. Things like this:

 

 I haven't read Cold Tangerines , but I know that my Fragile Beauties are a bit less broad a list than 1,000 Gifts. Where the latter paints a broader picture to be grateful for, The Fragile Beauties are the strictly aesthetic blessings. I'm a visual, touchy, feeling, all-five-senses-roaring girl. So I love to notice the beautiful things here on earth that we've been given in abundance. The beauties that are gifts but oh so fragile because they won't last. (Perhaps we'll have even better ones in Heaven?)

Psalm 103:15 says:

"As for man, his days are like grass;

as the flower of the field, so he flourishes

for the wind passes over it, and it is gone,

and its place remembers it no more."

Fragility. Humanity. Earth-ness. It's all passing, and little of it will last, huh? But when I cared to think about the fragility a bit deeper, I saw a thing I usually pass over when reading those verses. Over in Mattew 6:28-29:

"...Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these."

So you see, man's existence on earth might be a little blinkity-thing, but it's still a thing, for a while at least, we flourish as those self-same lilies, and Jesus acknowledges the lilies are beautiful. We're also told that "Every good and perfect gift is from above", and that everything God does is to His glory. So I'm sitting here thinking:

"Gosh; The Fragile Beauties. One life to find them in. My Lover who delights to watch me notice: ...um...game on."

 I'm finding The Fragile Beauties, and I'm marking them mentally, posting them on Instagram (username: heirloomrosebud) with the hashtag: #thefragilebeauties, pinning them on Pinterest, and gathering in the beauty strewn about that so many people pass by. I'm pointing it out to other people, smiling over it myself, thanking God whenever I catch one of those fleeting, fading, lovely things, and enjoying every moment.

I hope you'll join me in this. 1,000 Gifts, Cold Tangerines, The Fragile Beauties; whatever you call them, let's go searching.

Today my heart is warm...

My heart is full of thankfulness today. Today of all days. But laying aside a day just for giving thanks puts me in mind of the state my heart should be in every day. "So I'll stand with arms high and heart abandoned, in awe of the one who gave it all." Amen?

Today my heart is warm over the small things:

Pie-crust, golden and flaky for once

A pair of kittens

Walking--alone--in the moonlight

Nonsense

Sleep

Music--when there are no words to describe the matter.

The scent of cold pines through the darkness.

Hunters

And their dogs

Fresh venison

Boyish smiles

Blushes

Laughter

Books to read

Stories to write

Windows to stare out of

Cranberry sauce

Today my heart is warm over the large things:

Family. My family.

My dear sister-in-law-but-not-quite, Abigail.

Christian men and women who have gone down this road before and scattered their wisdom along the way....such a treasure.

Traditions

Salvation through grace--the end of me, the depths of Him.

Worship songs that pierce my soul and lift it up.

Prayer--on my knees--with a dear friend.

All my dear friends-my love to you always

They mystery of provision always-especially when it never works out on paper.

My life story.

This chapter of my life story.

Today my heart is warm. Warm with gratitude and happiness and the good cheer and hearty American-ness of this season. May your day be as warm and bright.

Blessings in the murk :)

Even though the campaign work is crazy and stressful and fun and hideously tiring all at once, a friend did playfully challenge me to make this month a month of thankfulness rather than a month of ungratefulness. :) [Yes, even when I'm so tired my head feels floaty.] So, in an effort to smile past the shabby bits, I'm starting a sort of "One Thousand Gifts" list for this month. 'Course I won't get 1,000, but I'll get plenty if I work at it! So here we go:

1. friendly, outgoing people
2. a cute little ol' town to base out of
3. a nice hotel room
4. "Touchable Softness" shampoo
5. an episode of the Reba Show (it was like a modern-day Lucy! :)
6. red campaign shirts! (They could have been yellow, and then I'd be sunk!)
7. jeans
8. flipflops
9. Ankle socks
10. highlighters
11. highly organized bags of snacks. 
12. gatorade
13. Googlemaps
14. Julia
15. emails from friends
16. MOHL
17. southern courtesy, even when inconvenient
18. town squares
19. "yes" when you ask if they're voting for your guy
20. pictures
21. sunglasses rescuing
22. little girls
23. laptops
24. the luxury (even though I'm ready for home cooking! :D) of eating out 3 meals a day
25. lemonade
26. Steak n' Shake milkshakes
27. new friends
28. timely scripture reminders. :)

A Tale of Turkeys, Pollyanna, and A Selfish Girl

"Happy Thanksgiving!"

 It has become a trite expression, and one I'm sometimes reluctant to say because I don't get that excited about turkey. I mean, come on! And then I mentally stagger backward, realizing what I just did. I just succumbed to America's holiday illness--that of commercialism! The word "Thanksgiving" now means nothing to my imagination except for another family dinner and a big turkey? I refuse to accept that.

Some years I am overwhelmed with gratitude on this holiday. Other years, the stress of life has caught up with me and I am not even in practice at recognizing blessings for what they are. As little as I want to admit it, this is that sort of a year, in some ways. Not that I am ungrateful for the big things: food, shelter, family, etc., but I've been feasting on God's goodness and not even stopping to thank Him for it. It's not easy for me to admit it, because it sounds so...horrid of me! Truly. If I stop to think about it, my heart crinkles up inside me with shame. I feel like precisely like Amy March when she said, "I'm a selfish girl."

I will admit to focusing on everything that is either happening too quickly and too much, or the things that are not happening at all. I've labeled my blessings as things I'm entitled to, and I have not recognized them as God gifts. Now that I'm stopping to confess this spirit of ingratitude in myself, I am ashamed. What is it that I've let myself slip into? And as silly as it sounds, the first person I think of when I think of someone who has the best heart of thanksgiving I think of....

Pollyanna.

I never much liked her in the Disney version--it seemed she knew the Glad Game was just a game. But recently I watched the Masterpiece Theatre version of Pollyanna, and I found my heart reaching out to this little girl who was so full of the joy of living. It sounds sappy, but it's true. There was one scene where she was just laying on her stomach in the grass, staring at the lake and singing a hymn...it was so simple, and yet it was so right. I know in my own life I am guilty of the sin of trying to fit too much in the cracks. Every moment is filled with something. I am always doing things, and this year in particular, I've left no time for being. It's a lesson children know well. Pollyanna asks her aunt, after she hears her new schedule: "But when will I have time to live? I know I shall be breathing, but it's not the same thing as living, you know."

A.A. Milne said it well: "Don't underestimate the value of Doing Nothing, of just going along, listening to all the things you can't hear, and not bothering."

I think of the story in Luke 10:38-42....

³⁸ Now it happened as they went that He entered a certain village; and a certain woman named Martha welcomed Him into her house. ³⁹ And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus’ feet and heard His word. ⁴⁰ But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached Him and said, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tell her to help me.” ⁴¹ And Jesus answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. ⁴² But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.”

I have been a Martha this year, and I've been wrong. Oh Lord Jesus, forgive me for my ungrateful, busy heart. Let me be Mary, before Your feet, enjoying life as You give it to me, and contenting myself in Your gifts to me. Now the only thing left to do is to say with Lady Harriet, "I feel chastened...truly." And to make a list of the first twenty things I am praising Jesus for.

1. I thank You for your loving arms that hold me, even when I am as fractious as a croupy baby
2. I thank You for my sisters
3. And my brothers
4. I thank You for parents who are bringing me up to love You, and to trust You
5. I thank You for godly men like Peter Marshall who have taught us to love You better
6. I thank You for literature and the ability to read
7. I thank You for quotes. :)
8. I thank You for distinct seasons
9. I thank You for laughter...what would I do without it?
10. I thank You for the gift of music
11. And for the way You with-hold some gifts, only to pour others into our laps more richly than before.
12. I thank You for whoever thought up baking
13. I thank You for holidays were everyone pauses and remembers the simpler things in life.
14. I thank You for inspiration for so many projects
15. I thank You for health
16. I thank You for dancing
17. I thank You for dear friends
18. I thank You for your vast, unending, incomprehensible, enormous love that NEVER leaves me
19. I thank You for cranberries
20. I thank You for Cricket (my cuddly black pussy)

Thank you Jesus! Now all the rest of you have a blessed Thanksgiving, and please, let's not underestimate the value of Doing Nothing. :) I pledge here and now to take some time to Do Nothing each day...will you? :)

                                               Love,

                                                    Rachel