Joy

I don't naturally trend toward joy.  Which is not to say that I'm melancholic all the time.  I'm just a person who may need to be reminded now and again that the glass is half full rather than half empty.  This is not easy to admit.

Source: d.yimg.com via Nicole on Pinterest

On,Wednesday, I had my day alone.  Before I blogged, I came across Sara's blog.  And then I couldn't write.  What could I say?  The new perspective silenced me.  I spent hours that day reading her thoughts, and the thoughts of others who spoke with love of how she'd impacted their lives.  I was moved and convicted.  Here was a girl who lived in incredible pain and yet with incredible joy.  And she never ceased to praise God.  She reminded us to praise.  Her testimony so beautiful, so enlightening and I know without a shadow of a doubt that God brought me to her story that day and again today so that I might be reminded that joy is a choice.  That God can give us supernaturally what we don't naturally possess.

Source: etsy.com via Nicole on Pinterest

Linking up at: skywatch Friday and

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Real Life and Escape

We've been here for three months now and real life is catching up to us.  I was just talking to a (real life) friend yesterday who also has recently moved cross country, though more recently.  She said she is in the surreal state of being which I remember from a few months back.  In a way, that state was a bit nicer.  Alas, we must come back to reality or we end up in the funny farm.

School has started for all, boxes are all finally unpacked, the house no longer has its vast, clean unlived in look, yes, wherever you go, there you are.  We fall of the cloud eventually after any big and welcome transition.  But real life is not so bad.  Real life means coffee dates in person with friends you can reach out and touch.  It means that though there is pain, there is real healing.  It is the only way we can really appreciate anything in this life.

Source: itsthesmallthingsblog.blogspot.com via Nicole on Pinterest

And I am also finding that it is so much easier to deal with when for a few moments each day, we take a break from it.  When we nourish the creative.  When we pray and allow God to handle our problems while we just bask in His presence.   Real life will be unmanageable unless we allow ourselves bits of time to escape.

Source: art.com via Nicole on Pinterest

Wow, how was that for rambling, unedited?  Linking up at creative every day, 5 minutes just for me, and