Look around your world, pretty baby

♫ Is it everything you hoped it would be? The wrong guy, the wrong situation? The right time to roll to me. ♫
* dances in chair

After the last post and after any number of life changes, I took a hiatus from writing... pretty much anything, but I’m back and am hopefully a little more focused!

Here’s a quick list of things that have happened, leading to where I am now:

• R.A.D. class, leading to the come-to-Jesus experience that had led to the last post
• Come to me, all you who are toiling and loaded down, and I will refresh you. – Matthew 11:28
•  Being lied about and consequently, the loss of my best friend close-as-a-sister roommate
• Ongoing health issues/pain
•  Repeated bad behavior and emotionally abusive relationships, which luckily begun to turn around at least a little when I realized where it all stemmed from and with a little help from my friends 
•  The re-centering of my life and my interests, and fostering the healthy and real relationships; really focusing on some amazing people in my life 
•  Applied and landed a writing internship for the Chancellor’s office, which reignited the forgotten dream of writing and being published, and which is why I’m dusting off this blog again 
•  Applied and landed a job in Texas, which had been a goal for a couple of years or so I’d believed 
•  Uprooted my life and moved to Texas, walking away from the writing opportunity and my loved ones

And a million moments in between, moments of tears, laughter, dancing, lunches, dinners, movies, happy hours, picking flowers, moments of peace and grace and moments laying broken on the floor. (< Seriously, great article about brokenness!)

So here I am, settling into a new state, a new job, cultivating new friendship and cherishing the long-distance friends with all of my heart, dusting off old interests and being open to new ones.

I received two especially poignant good luck cards as I started this journey. I hold onto words like lifelines and find comfort in them, so much so that these cards are hanging in my office for inspiration and to remind me of the well wishes and support I brought with me. (Each card also contained a Bible verse. #heartful)

“She did not know where her heart would lead her, but she knew she had to find out.” Numbers 6:24-26

“Change in all things is sweet.” Jeremiah 29:11

Here’s to finding the sweetness and following wherever my heart may lead!

Thanks for rolling with me!

Inspiration

This is not a cop out, I swear. I've been looking for inspiration lately. I've been trying to re-center myself, re-evaluate the choices I make, the options I have, my words, and actions, and re-assert the person I'd like to be. 

I would like to share two beautiful pieces with you.

The Paradoxical Commandments ~ Kent Keith

(often attributed to Mother Theresa)

People are often unreasonable and self-centered. 
Forgive them anyway. 
If you are kind, people may accuse you of ulterior motives. 
Be kind anyway. 
If you are honest, people may cheat you. 
Be honest anyway. 
If you find happiness, people may be jealous. 
Be happy anyway. 
The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow. 
Do good anyway.
Give the world the best you have and it may never be enough.
Give your best anyway.
For, you see, in the end, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway.

Desiderata ~Max Ehrmann

Go placidly amid the noise and the haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence. As far as possible, without surrender, be on good terms with all persons.

Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even to the dull and the ignorant; they too have their story.

Avoid loud and aggressive persons; they are vexatious to the spirit. If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain or bitter, for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.

Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans. Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.

Exercise caution in your business affairs, for the world is full of trickery. But let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals, and everywhere life is full of heroism.

Be yourself. Especially, do not feign affection. Neither be cynical about love; for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment, it is as perennial as the grass.

Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth.

Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.

Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here.

And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should. Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be.

And whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace in your soul. With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.