Learning about silence and noise pollution through this interesting interview.
Learning about love from Scroll II in The Greatest Salesman In the World.
Getting some wise advice from my husband that being an artist/writer is partly about the business of creating/writing, but largely about the business of influence.
Reading through the interesting comments in a blog post by Randy Elrod about the people you wish you had known. For the first time in my life I’m thinking that it would be fun to read biographies in order to listen to the stories of other people’s lives.
Listening to these powerful lyrics from a song by Sara Groves, passed onto me by Amanda Sims. Realizing how hard it is to push into a new me. Wanting to run back to the safety of what was comfortable and yet realizing I wouldn’t fit that version of Mandy anymore:
I’ve been painting pictures of Egypt
Leaving out what it lacked
The future seems so hard
And I want to go back
But the places that used to fit me
Cannot hold the things I’ve learned
And those roads closed off to me
While my back was turned
Having an impromptu adventure with my kids and being fully in the moment with their little excited bodies. So glad to have them in my life because of their contagious passion for life.
Sitting in the presence of a tired friend and momma who has a baby in the hospital and gaining perspective on what matters in life.
Sitting in the presence of a friend who knows me and knows my heart and asks me all the right questions and gives me time to talk and things to consider.
Taking in the “mess” of my home and accepting it. Letting it teach me that I am not behind, I just “am.” Letting the days and nights blend together into one long process. Taking the next step that is possible and knowing that there is always time to do what matters most. Breathing through the imperfections of that.
Moved by the lonely little life of the girl Beatrix Potter. Understanding her words in relation to creating:
“I cannot rest, I must draw, however poor the result” and “I do not remember a time when I did not try to invent pictures” and “I have just made stories to please myself.”
Listening to my body and its physical soreness and off-kilter emotions. Trying to push through to find a rhythm in life again that has been lost over the last week or so. The reading, the writing, the discipline, the focus, the passion – it’s waned. Why? Listening. Trying to hear what changes need to be implemented. Knowing things are changing and trying to embrace that. Trying to be patient with myself and this past week’s awkward dance, where I keep hitting my elbows and knees and wishing everything was smooth again. Trying to love the bruises for what they teach me. Feeling the need to just go and sit in nature. To go and sit with God. To be beside still waters and have my soul restored. To catch my breath and then be sent off in the right direction.
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