One Is Just A Number

I thought it was pretty ironic that this week's word was better when that was a word I thought might be my word of the year and that I wanted it to be applied to being better about blogging then I don't post in Five Minute Friday until Saturday. It was just like every other aim I had for 2019 that here on January 12 I have let go by the wayside. When you can't remember how to log into your blog and almost have to ask Google to help, you know it has been a long time since you have blogged. But then I decided to let myself off the hook because yesterday was a busy, productive day for me. I worked at my second job all morning, then went to a meeting at my second job. I had to run to the grocery store to get the seventh layer of my seven-layer dip, cheese, because I forgot to get it when I purchased the other ingredients, then go home and make that dip. Finally I delivered my dip to the fun retirement party I went to last night where the above cake was a prominent feature

This 31 Days has come to a close. I haven't always written every day but I have written 31 posts. That is pretty close to perfect to me. As this year's exercise ends, I'm grateful for it for igniting my passion for writing. Even though I have sometimes dreaded it, often I would find myself writing more than one post at a time. It was hard to stop once I got started. I'm hoping that my emphasis on writing positive posts has turned into a new way of looking at things in my life. Taking 5 minutes of my day to search for the good suggested by a single word has forced me to put the negative thoughts that flood my mind during the day to the side and focus on the bright spots in my life. So as we close the books on another 31 Days, I hope I am 31 posts closer to being a better writer and closer to finding what God wants me to do with this blog.

I think all of us want to find our voice and to have that voice be heard. Whether it's a singing voice, a voice to stand up for yourself, or a voice to help others, our voice is important. Especially in this election season, we need to have our voice heard by voting. Lifting your voice in praise is like this glass on the ceiling of a building downtown, it fills the air with beauty. Using your voice to help others is also a beautiful thing. I hope that these 31 days have helped me find my voice and get me back on track with this blog. I want my posts to bring beauty to people's lives and help them find their voice too. Hopefully my words can be as beautiful as this glass and like this exhibit, draw people's eyes to above, to the one who gaves us our voice.

When my cousin visited from Texas this summer, we both bought this sign. I love that together we share a desire to write. And I love the feeling that we are both looking at this sign and together we are writing, even if we are separated by more than 450 miles. Together with our siblings we share family history, memories of cherished relatives, and annoyance by bad grammar and typos. We have found ourselves together more over the past few years, both in sadness and in joy. Together the sorrow was eased and the happiness intensified. I hope that we have many more times together ahead of us. We have dreams of the four of us traveling together or even simply spending time on a beach, just being together. Even though we all are separated by 7 hours of highway driving, we fell like we are going through things together and that's the best way to be, together.

This song, Reckless Love , has been an inspiration to me since I heard it at a concert last February. I have belted it out in my car, sung it to myself as I puttered around my house, even sung a duet with my sister as we ran errands. The lyrics remind me of how God's reckless love has saved me. How no matter what I've done, God has fought for me. And how no matter what I do, He will leave the 99 and search for me. It will be my favorite all my days. Reckless Love Cory Asbury Before I spoke a word, You were singing over me You have been so, so good to me Before I took a breath, You breathed Your life in me You have been so, so kind to me Oh, the overwhelming, never-ending, reckless love of God Oh, it chases me down, fights 'til I'm found, leaves the ninety-nine I couldn't earn it, and I don't deserve it, still, You give Yourself away Oh, the overwhelming, never-ending, reckless love of God, yeah When I was Your f

Because I am divorced, it is so easy to think of myself has half of something that doesn't exist anymore. No longer a part of a whole, I am somehow less than I was when I was married. But this is not true. I am whole, thanks to my God. Just like this art installation in Philadelphia, He has taken my broken pieces and made something beautiful. My life is whole with a wonderful family, kind friends, and work I enjoy. My spare time is whole with tickets to the ballet and Broadway shows, a monthly book club, and dinners out with my sister. And most importantly, my spirit life is whole, thanks to a return to church, something that probably wouldn't have happened if I was still married. I am whole. God has taken the jagged edges of a life that broke into pieces and has put them back together, stronger than they were before and in so many ways, so much better. The whole may not look like what I had planned but it is still something beautiful.