From My Heart Posts In 2016
What do I mean by “from my heart?” These are posts that go deeper than a recipe post or a DIY post.
These posts are my favorite to write, and also some of the most well received by all of you, which makes this heart of mine so touched and happy. It is clear I often write from my heart when hardship hits, as there are posts on suffering, anxiety, grief & tragedy. But, I also capture meaningful life moments in posts on amazing family memories, this wonderful life I get to live, and my Todd.
Oh my. I must write more posts like this–the ones where I just sit across from you all with a warm cuppa and just chat about life. It is therapeutic, and you are all so dear to just allow me to share. It also captures the fleeting seasons of life, as this post was written just last summer, but life rhythms have already changed so drastically. Time for another Saturday Morning Musing!
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Posts like these are so fun to look back on. I’ve talked about how this blog is my recipe binder, my memory keeper, my cancer journal & a place to connect with such a great and caring community. It has certainly become something very special to me and my family over the years. It is especially comforting as a 2-time cancer survivor that my words and our memories are in a place where my 3 girls could easily access them and know the things I think about and am passionate about. This post captures the personality of my teens in this season of life. I don’t write as often about my girls now that they are teens. It is a delicate thing, letting their stories be THEIR stories & not over-sharing. But once in a while…
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Whoa. Reading this post about a year after writing it was…whoa. It brought back many memories of struggle. It reminds me how far I’ve come and how many prayers have been answered.
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This is the post where I write raw all my feelings of shame and failure as a Mom and wife, and then LYSA TERKUERST, one of my all-time fav writers and amazing woman of God, comments on it. She told me that the post was powerfully and beautifully written, with a few more sentences of wisdom that made my year. Yeah, that was a pretty amazing. Take a peek at her comment in the post!
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This post is about my beautiful friend and amazing artist, Alison Rush. I want you all to know her. I will be going to her home in just about an hour and wish you all could come with me to meet her. She is pure joy.
Read more here.
As I reread these posts on anxiety, I feel like they just might be some of the most important ones I have written. As much as I wish anxiety was not part of my story, reading comments and remembering the emails I get in response make it worth it. Sharing a bit of my very personal journal and journey has brought so many of you to share yours with me, too, and that makes it all worth it. I received an email from a teenage reader on Christmas night that shared her own anxiety story and thanked me for this post. Yes, it is worth it.
Words from my journal, here.
“… I also found myself in a pool of sadness, swimming in grief. Anxiety and depression can often go hand in hand. I am acquainted with anxiety, but never of that severity & had not experienced it accompanied with depression. Deep sadness was a new experience for me. Together anxiety and depression are a brutal duet that brought my life music & happiness to a halt. It was survival time. I was a survivor learning what survival really meant…”
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So often a song will spur a writing. That is what happened in this post. It is a cry out to God of help and thanks and praise.
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I wrote this in response to the Orlando shooting and tell of the time my own sister was caught in a deadly mall shooting.
“I want to feel others pain. I want to have ears to hear and eyes to see and a heart that cares enough to stop for a moment and just listen and absorb, to mourn with and feel with. I want to enter into pain with others because this is what love does…Evil creates pain. Love enters into the pain. Love wins.”
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I write about a hero of mine. I just saw this precious man yesterday and life has not gotten any easier for him or his family since writing this post early last year. They take it day by day not knowing what each day will bring. Yes, he is my hero, and so is his sweet family.
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Last but not least, my personal favorite post from 2016 because it is about my very favorite guy. How fun that you all liked it too!
Read it here.
Well, I have had all the feels reading back over these 11 posts from my heart. THANK YOU for reading and allowing me to share. You all are so dear to me and so very very gentle with my heart.
