Live In Freedom

The Simple Things in Life

Deschutes County has so much activities in the summer months and we have enjoyed taking advantage of some of them. Today, my friend Kristin and I squeezed in a block of time and spun with a few inspiring spinners in Sunriver Summer Craft Market while our boys played games in the mall together.

Later, we met up with hubbies and Kristin's dad down at Drake Park to hear live music by my favorite band Mystic River. As I sat and watched the people, I was so touched by some of the scenes I saw...dads dancing with their little girls, hubbies slow or line-dancing with their wives, people scattering and leaving when icy rain drops began to downpour following thunders and lightnings, kids of all ages dancing, running, and playing in the way that only kids can/would do freely. At the risk of sounding cheesy, I thought it was beautiful.

I hear so much negative about our world and, the state it is in, sometimes it can be scary to imagine my angels growing up in it. Then I sit and watch people on a night like tonight and remember...people can still enjoy the simple things in life and love and enjoy each other. It put a smile on my face and made my heart sing along with the great music. Thank you, Lord, for the gentle reminder--All Things Are Beautiful.

DREAM...EXPLORE...AND DISCOVER! (stop by here to see what I've been creating)!

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Happy Birthday, My Sweet Angel

Family life is many things

And one of the nicest joys it brings

Is having a daughter as dear as you

Side by side

Or miles apart

always close to the heart

Whose thought of in a special way

Not only on a special day

But warmly and with love

The whole year through

Happy Birthday!!!

DREAM...EXPLORE...AND DISCOVER! (stop by here to see what I've been creating)!

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A New Path...Beauty and Goodness

I don't think the feeling I have right now, in my heart and in my mind, will ever be matched again in my lifetime. We are on a new path...change is here, and it's never felt better! You know? Sometimes you can't explain why, it just is. There are times when it dawns on me that I'm having a most excellent day. I want to take a deep breath and inhale all of the beauty and goodness and light and joy around me because I can't believe how good it is.

I want to sing loudly with every song I hear.

I want to laugh with my kids.

I want to do everything I enjoy doing, all at the same time.

I want to drink in the green of the trees

and the blue of the sky

and absorb the heat of the sun all the way to my core.

Today was one of those days.

I felt inexplicably happy and thankful for my life.

It is a good life.

And even though I know that any number of variables in my life could turn on a dime and come crashing down around me, days like today give me hope that maybe, even in the face of trauma or tragedy, I'd still be able to say, Life is good because, as much as it might seem otherwise, I know it isn't the circumstances that make it so. It's the One who made it all, and he never turns or changes.

Life is good. :D

DREAM...EXPLORE...AND DISCOVER! (stop by here to see what I've been creating)!

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A Confession

Thank you for giving me such wonderful memories

Even when I am 100 years old

with a full head of white

a face wrinkled with age

and when my sight, hearing,

and energy are fading

and I can't go anywhere but sit in my rocking chair all day,

I'll think of this moment

I'll feel blissful.

DREAM...EXPLORE...AND DISCOVER! (stop by here to see what I've been creating)!

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The Unexpected

On this day of my life,

I believe God wants me to know

if I do not expect the unexpected I will not find it,

for it is not to be reached by search or trail.

Heraclitus said that, and he was right.

Life is delighted to bring me The Unexpected.

Am I delighted to receive it?

Indeed, belief in the coming of The Unexpected is the genesis of hope.

How can I hope for anything breathtaking or exciting

if I can only hope for the already expected?

Therefore, you must always think that anything can happen.

Form my ideas and dreams within that framework!

Remember, God specializes in The Unexpected.

DREAM...EXPLORE...AND DISCOVER! (stop by here to see what I've been creating)!

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Life is Like a River...

...It's moving.

I can be at the mercy of the river if I don't take deliberate, conscious action to steer myself in a direction I have predetermined.

If I don't plant the mental and physiological seeds of the results I want, weeds will grow automatically.

If I don't consciously direct my own mind and state, my environment may produce undesirable haphazard state.

The result can be disastrous. Thus it's critical that--on a daily basis--I stand guard at the door of my mind that I know how I am consistently representing things to myself. I must daily weed my garden (or simply hang out at the river!)