Forty Plus Miles

         Into the light, I rise to fight, today in the cold winter day; slowly, intentionally, praying today. Into the light, I am given new sight, as cold presses in, seeing where to begin. Into the light, I find a new way, grace as I pray, hope in Jesus, knowing He sees us, ever working there. Into the light, I rise to fight, slowly, intentionally, on a cold winter day.  Sidenote: If any of the writing on this blog has made a good impact on your life in someway (EVEN if it was something you may have enjoyed reading for a particular reason), please feel free to share this blog with someone else who could be blessed also. Thank you for your support!

        There, then, seeking to overcome in the harsh environment. There, then, walking through a wild morning, one of cold and challenge. There, then I continue on, slowly, prayerfully, in hope in Jesus again. Sidenote: If any of the writing on this blog has made a good impact on your life in someway (EVEN if it was something you may have enjoyed reading for a particular reason), please feel free to share this blog with someone else who could be blessed also. Thank you for your support!

         Hope! Hope! Hope in the heavy and the cold! Hope in the going and the coming! Hope when life is hard! Hope when trials come and success doesn't! Hope when the way is too much and still you continue, knowing there's something greater, something better, that this too shall pass; but hope placed in Jesus will NEVER pass! Hope dear soul, hope, for hope is the bravest thing of all!  Sidenote: If any of the writing on this blog has made a good impact on your life in someway (EVEN if it was something you may have enjoyed reading for a particular reason), please feel free to share this blog with someone else who could be blessed also. Thank you for your support!

              Caverns of trial and survival, mountains and cliff faces of faces of many moments, walking through the cold. Times of joy and wonder, mixed with minutes of wondering how to make it; through the cold.                What to express and say, remembering to pray, in the dangerous cold days of a brutal January snowstorm aftermath. Will it pass, these frigid days, trying times where we are walking together and seeking to make the best of together under tough circumstances and seasons? Will it pass, the tough moments of wondering how long we can last? Will it pass, the moments of trial that seem to outweigh the joy and wonder sometimes? Will we pass through better and not battered, three people of some small family in the middle of a countryside on the other side of a rough winter weather moment? Questions that linger; still I remember, how we were led through, where Jesus brought us through in past times...

              Brighter, brighter than the dark still, the possibility of hope. Strong, stronger than the ruin that would overtake, any assault that isn't Godly in the slightest. Warm, warmer than the coldest winter chill of icy despair and apathy.                Here, as the Light seeks to waken us all, warm and set fire to the embers of faith and hope once more, we rise again; this small family of ours. We enter another day, on a cold winter morning, remembering Jesus is brighter, stronger, and far warmer than the cold icy chill of hopelessness that circumstances would try to enslave us in but cannot. Sidenote: If any of the writing on this blog has made a good impact on your life in someway (EVEN if it was something you may have enjoyed reading for a particular reason), please feel free to share this blog with someone else who could be blessed also. Thank you for your support!

            Today is 1/21. Don't consider the year, just this visual reminder today WHERE our help comes from, and that we are protected there as this is a very obvious reminder of Psalm 121. Sharing this to encourage someone today. Sidenote: If any of the writing on this blog has made a good impact on your life in someway (EVEN if it was something you may have enjoyed reading for a particular reason), please feel free to share this blog with someone else who could be blessed also. Thank you for your support!

Cold continues. Continuing consistency. Continuing carefully. Sidenote: If any of the writing on this blog has made a good impact on your life in someway (EVEN if it was something you may have enjoyed reading for a particular reason), please feel free to share this blog with someone else who could be blessed also. Thank you for your support!

       Could I? Should I? Would I? Try? These aren't perfect words, just me, creating. Creating something to release stress, realign this Monday monotony hidden with the extraordinary in plain sight.          Could I; create something good to make impact? So I write again. Should I even try; would there be a productive, constructive good for all? Would I be willing to try regardless; wrestling with messy words on a Monday? Whether there's grace to create, a lasting impact to be seen, or a healing in these words I don't know; still I write to be whole, perhaps even give another permission to create and be human as they do through these words. Sidenote: If any of the writing on this blog has made a good impact on your life in someway (EVEN if it was something you may have enjoyed reading for a particular reason), please feel free to share this blog with someone else who could be blessed also. Thank you for your support!

           In ten minutes I'll write something. Among the busy and the hustle I'll struggle to create, here in this place, this busy space of a day. In seven minutes I'll step, walk down a page, setting foot with words and intention to create margin through ascension; give meaning and impact beyond myself. In five minutes I'm trying, striving to create something, room to live and breathe in the busy again. Here with two minutes, before I go again.  Sidenote: If any of the writing on this blog has made a good impact on your life in someway (EVEN if it was something you may have enjoyed reading for a particular reason), please feel free to share this blog with someone else who could be blessed also. Thank you for your support!

        In the sacred space, between still and steady. In the calm, the slowdown, the solace, grace enters and begins it's work. Healing hurries hurt, stresses sickness in the hustle.         Joy jumpstarts worn souls and brings the broken into healing. In the sacred space there is grace and mercy, where Jesus meets me, gives creativity and I'm listening and writing. Wild wordplay in a short time and I'm grateful, made able to be whole again; in the sacred space before the world comes crashing in with busy again. Sidenote: If any of the writing on this blog has made a good impact on your life in someway (EVEN if it was something you may have enjoyed reading for a particular reason), please feel free to share this blog with someone else who could be blessed also. Thank you for your support!

            Somewhere between sleeping and waking there is awe; that moment of transition. Somewhere in the shift Life calls us, issuing an invitation to start again, enter something new and exciting. Between the light and the dark Hope calls us to something amazing: grace in a new day. "Walk with Me. Listen and follow.", words that stir us all, stir me. Light enters this tired soul from a dark slumber of struggle and I am rising, taking steps, slowly and fully as Life as Hope calls me; as Jesus calls. Sidenote: If any of the writing on this blog has made a good impact on your life in someway (EVEN if it was something you may have enjoyed reading for a particular reason), please feel free to share this blog with someone else who could be blessed also. Thank you for your support!

 Hope happens. Hurt happens. Here, hope. Hardship happens. Heartache happens. Here, hope.  Sidenote: If any of the writing on this blog has made a good impact on your life in someway (EVEN if it was something you may have enjoyed reading for a particular reason), please feel free to share this blog with someone else who could be blessed also. Thank you for your support!

          A sparkle and a limp, treasure worn on a worn head. A sparkle and a limp, the glimmer seen, the struggle too. A sparkle and a limp, still this would not hold her down, keep her from remembering whimsy, joy, and worth, limping down the street to wherever she was going to; this older woman who wanted to change her circumstances. Change them through a jewel-encrusted winter stocking hat worn unashamedly as she limped her way slowly down the road of life in another day for her.  Sidenote: If any of the writing on this blog has made a good impact on your life in someway (EVEN if it was something you may have enjoyed reading for a particular reason), please feel free to share this blog with someone else who could be blessed also. Thank you for your support!

           For a moment there was light, suddenly, brightly, and then it was gone. Among the grays and dark blues there was grace, and it was beautiful! In the day there was rest, peace, and the hope for better, even in the gloomy; here my soul was lifted. Mercy made mention of ascension, of elevated perspectives and a faith that would grow.              For a moment there was awe and inspiration, one I was meant to see among the busy and the cold approaching our area, and it was here, and it was beautiful; even if it was only for a fleeting moment given through light on a cloudy cold day!  Sidenote: If any of the writing on this blog has made a good impact on your life in someway (EVEN if it was something you may have enjoyed reading for a particular reason), please feel free to share this blog with someone else who could be blessed also. Thank you for your support!

       Between the lights I move, looking and listening; listening to life move all around me. Between the greens I go, seeing through thirty, fifty miles per hour of life in the busy of a day down roadways through traffic lights. Between the stopping and going it catches my attention, buildings new and old, cars with people and stories untold, and I'm asking what happened. Wondering how time told stories of all kinds and what those stories are. 'Were they worth telling? What could be learned, if anything?", and on and on as my mind wanders in and out of traffic called thoughts as I consider these things.           Between the lights I continue, hoping for a stop in the go. Searching for the time to reflect and process the constant miles taken in the day, praying for recovery and endurance to bounce back, wondering how many others are between the lights of life, praying over them as they come to mind also. Driving, driving through twenty...

          It ran on, then away, first the sight then the sound. This hulking metal whale swimming the seas of metal, dirt, and fading daylight. It swam slowly through the vast rising and falling of oceans of land and civilization, making it's way through a twenty four hour journey. Something drew me in as we traveled parallel for a fleeting moment, something that put me in awe at this God-given ingenuity of a train passing through that ran on down some old tracks of an old neighborhood we were journeying side by side through.  Sidenote: If any of the writing on this blog has made a good impact on your life in someway (EVEN if it was something you may have enjoyed reading for a particular reason), please feel free to share this blog with someone else who could be blessed also. Thank you for your support!

         Tales of endurance heard, years of long labor told proudly. Stories of places been, journeys there and back again laid bare, and I'm listening; listening to the elderly worker. Parallels made of that journey and mine and I'm reflecting. "Will you join us?", a question recently asked of me in a work's shift from labor to education as a manager stopped between breaks and simply sought to find where I was in my headspace. "No. I'm just exploring right now.", my condensed answer given here, tired from an industry that has taken more than gave me. Still, I would rejoin the fold of skilled laborers in the same industry not long after, curious about more than what we did, wondering more about who was doing such work; but for the time then I needed to escape, find margin in some fancy hotel that called me to dream again and rest from busy and hard-pressed working conditions.             Then I would wander for a moment, catch ...

           Something Else (Non-Fiction Experiment)              Between the gray and the light, the day and the night I am thinking once again. Looking upon new roads and the light that makes them call us to journey there. Between the two I'm travelling, first in soul then in steps, taking a walk down these once discouraging ways that lingered long and became something else.             "Walking on a winter's edge. Venturing through the frozen forest the timid deer takes new steps into a bright new day. He's afraid, yet curiousity bids him go forward; so he does. Hope gives him grace to continue. Light encourages him to move into the new warm unknown that grows his courage with each step." . Here I reflect on a fictitious animal written, find peace on the ever changing path again as I create again and find the grace to. Here I'm finding empowerment again, rest to create, and the courage to be ...