January 30, 2012

• One Thousand Gifts

  I had an inspiration the other day followed by another inspiration that night. The first one was that I was going to take some One Thousand Gifts pictures…1,000 of them, to be exact. And then as I was falling asleep that night, it hit me that I could blog about my new project and even post some of my favorite pics from each month…which would be a monthly post, which would kind of bring me back into the world of writing (publically) which makes me very happy. I was so excited I couldn’t fall asleep for an entire hour or so.

  To explain about the One Thousand Gifts: it’s an idea from a book. That’s the title and it’s written by Ann Voskamp. I read it last year in April or so and it changed my life in wonderful ways and I’m reading it again this year (I think reading it once a year is probably going to become a tradition with me) and it’s so inspiring and beautiful and true and…*deep breath* I love it so deeply I feel almost incoherent when I start talking about it.

   

  

  Please read it.

   

   

  One of the things this lady talks about (she’s a pig farmer’s wife, by the way…and her writing is like poetry it’s so vivid and beautiful) is gratefulness…eucharisteo. The act of thanksgiving. The JOY in it. She writes about living…truly living the fullest life and how some people think they have to travel places and DO things and…accomplish certain things to be able to say they’ve actually lived. She asks, “Are there physical places that simply must be seen before I stop breathing within time, before I inhale eternity? Why? To say that I’ve had reason to bow low? To say that I’ve seen beauty? To say that I’ve been arrested by wonder? Can’t I find it here? Isn’t the wonder here? Why do I spend so much of my living hours struggling to see it? Do we truly stumble so blind that we must be affronted with blinding magnificence for our blurry soul-sight to recognize grandeur? The very same surging magnificence that cascades over our every day here. Who has time or eyes to notice?” I think it can be done. It takes practice, but it’s a Practice of Praise that makes the miraculous flood your everyday life. This world we live in…this life “…this life of the bare toes across grass, the sky raining spring down on eyelashes…” it will end. It’s so short. Why not embrace it while we can? I believe that if you are where you are as a result of following God; obeying him; that’s exactly where he wants you. And you can live the fullest life…a life full of grace and beauty and JOY (isn’t that what we all search for so frantically?) right where you are. And it’s found in thankfulness. The “little” things…the gifts from God…the little evidences of his love he spreads so lavishly in our lives…once you start noticing, it’s a never-ending stream of joy and beauty and Awed Adoration. I’ve written a list of 1,000 things I love (which end up being 1,000 ways in which God loves me) over the past year and have started another one this year…and now the pictures. It may take me way longer than a year with pics…but it’s causing Joy to burst inside me all over the place! It was the 26^th of this month that the Idea hit me so I don’t have very many January photos…I’m posting some of my favorites though, and will have a little post every month from now on (if I can) and just post a few of my favorite pictures from each month…and keep whoever reads this updated on how many pics I have so far…

  Let the fun begin…*huge happy grin*

  

  my peppermint mocha lattes

   

  

  swingset in sunlight

   

  

  My wonderful orchid is blooming in the middle of January…and the flowers last sooo long!

   

  

  piano to pound on

   

  

  First crocus of the year…this winter has been weirdly warm so far (I’m thankful for that too;).

   

  

  Pictures taken that are kind of mistakes but still quite happy (and time with my guy:).

   

  

  Lemon poppysead muffin to go with my coffee for breakfast…

   

  

  sparkles in grass

   

  

  bobble-head pics (I love em) and happy scarves:)

   

  

  winter’s dead beauty

   

  

  I’m falling in love with gray…:)

   

  

  gold (and my favorite time of day)

   

  “Satan, he wanted more. More power, more glory. Ultimately, in his essence, Satan is an ingrate. And he sinks his venom into the heart of Eden. 

  Our fall was, has always been, and always will be, that we aren’t satisfied in God and what He gives. We want something more, something other. 

  Standing before that tree, laden with fruit withheld, we listen to Evil’s murmur, “In the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened…” But in the beginning, our eyes were already open. Our sight was perfect. Our vision let us see a world spilling with goodness. Our eyes fell on nothing but the glory of God. We saw God as he truly is: good. But we were lured by the deception that there was more to a full life, there was more to see: the ugliness we hadn’t beheld, the sinfulness we hadn’t witnessed, the loss we hadn’t known. 

  But from that garden beginning, God has had a different purpose for us. His intent, since he bent low and breathed His life into the dust of our lungs, since He kissed us into being, has never been to slyly orchestrate our ruin. “His secret purpose from the very beginning is to bring us to our full glory” (1 Corinthians 2:7 NEB). He means to rename us. He means to heal our soul holes. Us, unworthy. And yet since we took a bite out of the fruit and tore into our own souls, that drain hole where joy seeps away, God’s had this wild secret plan. He means to fill us with glory again. With glory and grace.”  -Ann Voskamp

  • 10:01 pm
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