Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Barnes and Noble

I just spent over an hour in Barnes and Noble...I absolutely love that store, but it sucks me in and I could seriously spend an entire day or week there and still never see everything..I walk in there and there is just so much that you could read about...everything and anything...people's thoughts on life, how to learn new skills, hobbies, books on animals, cookbooks (TONS!), and the list goes on and on...I think it's one of my favorite places to go because of that reason...you can go in there and really learn about almost anything....I saw a hanging item that said "Life isn't about finding yourself, it's about creating yourself." A friend of mine gave me a wall hanging with that same quote on it and it's taken me awhile to finally get it or believe it....For some reason I have thought for the longest time that b/c God created me, that means that I just need to "figure out" who He created me to be, which has always caused me to just strive more and try lots of things to "figure it out".....instead of picturing who I desire to be and choosing things based on what will help me to grow into that person or picturing the things that I desire to accomplish or do and making decisions that will help me move toward those...God gave us the amazing power to choose and to be creative and for us to have the ability to picture in our minds and imagine and dream...it's really quite amazing! God could have made us puppets on a string, with no choices and really no real, true relationship b/c we would love Him b/c we had to....I think we strive way too much to try and "figure out God's will" instead of really searching deep down in our hearts and souls (that He created!) to find out what we really desire, get excited about, imagine, envision and walking those out one day at a time, making a moment by moment decision to choose things that are true to who you are and what you find out about yourself....why you think this, why you believe this, why you like this, why you don't like this.

So, walking into Barnes and Noble tonight felt like looking at a blank canvas and there are hundreds of paint colors to choose from to create a beautiful painting....Life is so beautiful...thank you Lord for choices and the ability to make them...thank you too that you have put wisdom and the ability to problem solve in us to make the best choices and the freedom to make not the best choices and the grace to help us move on....I love Barnes and Noble! Go and create you with the abilities and choices our Creator has given you!

Thursday, November 12, 2009

The journey of self-discovery

I am sitting in a guesthouse at St. John's University in Minnesota reading the book "Conversations with God" and having major epiphanies and realizations about my life.. and looking back at choices I have made and seeing where I am now today from where I have been...I have realized that for most of my life I truly have not loved me and I haven't always stayed true to who I really am at the core...and when I have walked out who I really am and what I really desire and believe, it doesn't always fit into what I think other people perceive as what is best. I also wonder about the decisions I have made in my life and if they were really made out of fear or out of love....I am fearing the outcome of this, so I choose this option...OR I love these things and this opportunity fits with who I am, so therefore I am going to choose it......

I have been reflecting on the last couple years of my life and looking at choices I made and why I made those choices...the choices that I made that I did out of a heart and desire of me walking out what I love and who I am, choices that were not easy but were the most fulfilling at the core, not always most accepted by people in my life who love me. I often found myself questioning what I really believed to be true for me....the reactions of others actually solidified more for me that I was making the best decision for me....though the things that stood in the way of people's acceptance was fear instead of belief that with God all things are possible...

I have realized how much my soul craves believing that God can make a way where there seems to be no way, but how fear keep my actions from following my soul truth...how much I desire to be free from "this is the way it should be done"...this is what your career path should look like...this is the way you are supposed to meet someone, date, and go about marriage...this is how you should approach intimacy and sex...this is the way you should think about life...this is the way you should think about God and how He works...this is the way that you should go about thinking about ANYTHING....if you look back to many of the amazing men and women who created, invented, wrote, sang, developed, and led in this country and in the world, years and centuries ago, they were men and women who were free to think, ask, explore, create, ponder, experience...and therefore, paved the way in their fields and areas of exploration and in this world. I think this is why I desire to live out west and in the mountains and in nature.....the beauty, the majesty, the calmness of the mountains speak to me what I believe is God's highest truth for all of us.....It's like He's saying, "Look at all the beauty and wonder I created just for you..to live, breathe, experience, play, work, love, create, and marvel in..." and you spend all your time worrying, trying to be perfect, act perfect, get it all right, judge yourself, judge others, tell people this is the way it should be, and live in fear...and miss what is all around you all the time..ME!" I am so tired of living this way and want no part of it....my soul has spent so much of my life peeking out once and awhile when I have been doing things that I love and experience great joy in...but so much of it has been stuffed by my own and other's expectations...including the expectations I have felt by the members of church, when the people in it aren't really walking out in love and grace and freedom in their own lives and then impose their judgments and hurts on others.

I have spent the last year of my life really evaluating my beliefs and have felt challenged in the ways of thinking that I was living in that was limiting me and causing fear, a judging attitude towards other, and joylessness...I was hiding behind a wall of beliefs and paradigms that ultimately were there out of trying to protect myself from being hurt and out of fear of doing the wrong thing. I have made a lot of changes in my life in the last year and they have not been easy, but they have been the best thing for me...I have experienced so much healing and self-realization that has led me to be even more of who I desire to be and believe I am meant to be..and believe I already am but aren't living it out on a daily basis. I believe that God desires for each of his creations to be walking out who we already are but don't know it or acknowledge it and let other things get in the way of "being" who we desire to be. Challenges only strengthen it and show us more of who we are.

Last summer at Tentmakers, we each were asked to write out a 7 year letter..picturing what our lives would look like in 2015 and what had happened the previous 7 years... we also did a 2 year letter...both of them were the most the most powerful exercises I have ever done...it gave me the freedom to picture how I desire to see my life happen and to believe that it will. I pictured having my own wellness business, getting married to my best friend, having a family, traveling, moving out west, writing songs, and being apart of a young women's conference/movement (when Bella was still going to happen and still could, though my vision of it has changed). What's awesome is that those things have already been set in motion and God will continually do more than I could even ask for or imagine, which is so amazing...but we need to set it out there in our minds and believe in what we desire...for so long I diminished my desires because I thought they were selfish or wrong to look at what I really want, but I realize that the desires that are there are there for a reason and if they give me an opportunity to experience joy and fulfillment and to be able to help other's experience the same, then those are Godly desires.

I am learning more and more about who I really am and it has been the most freeing experience of my life being on this journey of creating and discovering..my healing journey as a wounded healer...as God continues to use me to help others in their healing processes...one of my greatest purposes. Thank you for the journey Lord and that we are never alone on it....keep showing us all more and more of everything you have given us as gifts.

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Here's a memory of my grandma....she used to chew wrigley's spearmint or juicy fruit and when she was tired of chewing it but not done with it, she would roll it in a little ball and set it on the counter, like on the ledge of her recipe holder....later she would return to it and chew it again. That always made me laugh!

Today I am working on thank you's from our wedding showers--finally!! It really is quite amazing how giving and generous people are when you are getting married, it really blows me away. I love writing thank you notes b/c you can really thank people and leave comments with people that you don't talk to on a regular basis and everyone loves to get thank you cards.

Does anyone have days where they ask themselves, am I really making a difference in the lives of others? I was having one of those days and then I got an email from a friend in Des Moines who thanked me for ministering to him and teaching him more about God by the way I lived my life...I again am completely humbled and blown away and was really encouraged by that...so my encouragement to everyone today is that even when you don't feel like it, know how it's happening, and don't see it, God is ALWAYS using us in the lives of others...we just have to be available.

Monday, February 2, 2009

Today was a day of remembering my grandma

Today was my grandma Elsie's memorial service..I had the privilege of sharing with everyone a poem that I wrote about her, based on a letter I wrote her a couple weeks before she died. It was a beautiful service...really strange though to see the urn where her ashes are sitting up there knowing that was my grandma. The urn has butterflies on it which I thought was beautiful and perfect cuz grandma loved butterfliess...funny, b/c I do too. Funerals have really united my small family the last couple years...first with my dad, then my cousin Christopher who was only 6, and now grandma...so good is definitely brought out of them.

Here is the poem that I wrote:

Today is a day of remembering and celebrating my grandma's life.
These are the things I will never forget.
Her laugh
Her smile
and how it could light up a room

Her acts and words of kindness
Her warm and loving countenance
and the prayers she prayed for her family and friends every night.

Her love and support for all we do
The root of her worry for others
was out of a heart that cared so deeply.

The way she took care of others
and welcomed them into her home
always with great food made with love to share
and conversations that would last for hours.

She was a model of a beautiful woman,
who was giving, kind, generous, hardworking, funny, caring and loving.
She was a committed wife
and her and grandpa modeled a marriage rooted in faith, laughter, and love.

We all can learn from her life
the way she gave relentlessly
her thoughtfulness in all she did
her persistent prayers and her faith in God
and the way she loved those around her unconditionally.

Today is a day of remembering and celebrating the life of my grandma.
And though she will be greatly missed,
she has left a legacy of love and memories in our hearts.

Friday, January 23, 2009

human suffering and death

Not the most uplifting of title's today, but it's the topic most present on my heart and mind right now.....I just found out that my grandma is being moved to Hospice today and has a week to live...she has been in the hospital the last couple weeks after she fell at home and broke her arm. Since then she has been unable to swallow much food and has had a tube feeding her the last week. Since that is not the desire of her heart or my family's to have her living on a tube the rest of her life, she is being moved to hospice...so I have had a couple weeks to start digesting the fact that she probably was not going to be around much longer and knew deep down she wasn't going to be..but I am an optimist and I still had a glimmer of hope she would pull through.

So I am asking myself these questions....why do we have to experience suffering, pain, and death? How is my grandpa feeling right now knowing that he's no longer going to be experiencing life with his best friend of 70 years? And I think I have experienced lonliness...they have hardly been separated during that entire time. Just can't even imagine what my grandpa is going through...then there's my grandma..does she even know we are there? Her mind has been all over the place...does she know what's going on? Did she decide a long time ago to give up or is she still fighting? If I were her, I would want to be done and move onto eternity with God...I am sure that's exactly how she feels..but then I wonder, is she sad, scared, etc.? Then there is my mom...losing her mom who has been in her life for 63 years...again, I don't know what that feels like, though I have a small idea losing my dad....but each person's experience with it is unique to them.

So, I am really hating death, suffering, and sickness right now...I know that its apart of life here on earth, but why? No one has the answer to that one.....except God....I am thankful for the relationship I have had with grandma and her presence in my life. Some people aren't close with their grandparents but they have been an intricale part of my life since I was born and they have helped shape who I am today...it's so important we stay connected to them..they have so much to offer to our lives. If you don't have a close relationship with your grandparents...call or visit them today...you will make their day, week, month...and bring a smile to their face. My grandma and grandpa have the biggest smiles on their faces when I call them or visit them unexpectedly...and they have warmingly welcomed Jeremy into their lives..you should see the big smile my grandma gets on her face when Jeremy comes into the room and says "Hi grandma!" Melts my heart each time..will never forget her smile...oh how I hate losing people.

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

A New Year

Wow, I can't believe it's already January 21, 2009! The past month has flown by with many new beginnings and transitions.....I married my best friend on December 13th and its been a wild ride of adventures since the day we met. So today I thought I would share that story...from my perspective. :)

It all started on July 6, 2008 when I went on an adventure to the great wilderness of Northern Minnesota to Wilderness North Training Center to participate in the Young Leaders 40 day program. I felt led to do this two year program to grow more into the woman I was created to be and to grow closer to God. I would have never guessed that I would meet my partner and best friend for life during this adventure. Within a couple days of conversation on Dumb and Dumber and organic food and supplements, Jeremy Erdman began his pursuit of my heart and through hesitancy and fear, I slowly let him in. Our connection was unmistakable and mysterious as I could not figure out how we connected so quickly and easily. It's like he could see right to my heart when I couldn't even see what was going on. One night we spent two ours on the kayaks on Murphy Lake and asked each other get to know you questions..I asked him what his ideal Saturday morning would look like? When he responded, I just knew that we would be spending Saturday mornings together someday...this deep knowing continued even though I continued to ask the Lord if he was the man I was to marry...we had so much in common with living a healthy lifestyle, being active, loving the outdoors, but even more were the dreams we had and the way we wanted to live our lives...he wanted to spend his life creating and doing things to help others, as well as experiencing an adventurous life by exploring and trying new things...growing and learning. He is a dreamer...I am a dreamer who is also super goal-oriented and practical so our combination would move us both into the dreams we both had on on our hearts. We worked well together, based on our projects we got to work on together, like putting shingles on an outhouse..ha..ha.:) And we just had fun together...not to mention we were highly attracted to each other. We spent 6 weeks being intentional with each other but also getting to know others in the group as we worked on establishing a great foundation of a friendship. Through canoe trips, a sailing trip, solitude days sometimes spent together in silence, late night talks in the lodge over reading assignments, and kayak rides on the lake, it was clear to both of us that this relationship was meant to continue post 40 days. I knew before I went to Wilderness North that my life was going to look drastically different when I returned and God has already prepared me to move, but I wasn't sure where...through lots of prayers and conversations, I felt the Lord leading me out of Des Moines and to Minnesota to grow closer to Jeremy and to get to know myself more. Things moved quickly when I returned and within 6 weeks I moved to Minnesota to start a job the Lord opened up, as well as a free place to live. Within 2 weeks of moving, Jeremy propose to me (not to mention the same weekend I severly sprained my ankle and was on crutches for 3 weeks!). Within another 6 weeks I had renter for my townhome in West Des Moines who is wanting to buy it this Spring. Within 8 weeks of being engaged, we got married on December 13th, 2008 in Iowa at the church I grew up in. After the wedding, we went on a honeymoon to northern minnesota to a cabin in the middle of no where, and then headed back to Taylors Falls to move into our new place...a 2 story loft apartment on top of a wood shop. It's the greatest place for a new couple and the rent in super cheap. Jeremy's still working with Speed Trac Technologies and can do some of his work from home. I work for Regis Corporation in Edina and am now working 3 days from home b/c of the long commute. This allows Jeremy and I to get to spend a lot of time together these first few months of marriage and get our home and lives in order.

All of these new beginnings and transitions definitely brought some hard and lonely days as I was outside of my comfort zone and I had to depend on the Living Creator of the Universe living inside of me to help me through each day. He proved himself faithful through each situation. I am in a new season of my life where I am learning more and more about who I am and my place in this world...as well as how to be the best wife to my new hubby. I don't have as many friends up here like I do in Iowa, but I believe that is for a reason. I am now able to spend more time on my own and with Jeremy as we continue moving forward in the dreams God has laid on our hearts.

When I look back to January 21, 2008 and think about all that happened in 2008, I am blown away by the creativity and power of God. I could not have thought up the way He answered several of my prayers in 2008. I am so excited to see what He has in store for me and for Jeremy in 2009 and how He is going to use us to encourage, inspire, and love on each other and those around us.

Stay tuned for more postings and pics and random thoughts...I am also in a season of deep contemplation on life and have lots of questions and thoughts to share with all of you.