ForeverLOVEd

Wisdom:  The   ability   to   discern   or   judge   what   is   true,   right,   or   lasting;   insight. My hidden talents are few and far between.  But, if you know me well enough, you  know I am gifted sleeper. I had no intention of watching the Royal Wedding.  I knew full well that it would be happening when I was swept away and sleeping like a princess, and no amount of fluff would convince me to compromise that.  At 3:43 am, however, I awoke from a dead sleep.  Shocked, and barely able to open my eyes, I looked to see it was still dark. As I brought myself to some sort of consciousness, I could not believe my circumstances.  In the middle of the night, I was awake.  This never happens.  Shuffling in the dark, I turned on the TV. I just wanted to see where the festivities were before my snoring was back in full swing.  Plus, it would be fun to see her dress.  I lau...

To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all. -Oscar Wilde Legend says a giant named Fin built the causeway.  The beauty of it’s creation is stunning. Up and over steps and surrounded by hills, it all kind of takes your breath away. It is a love story left by a creator that you cannot help but be swept into. It is my trip to Ireland. A majestic moment of following in giant footsteps, taking in more than you one’s eyes alone possibly could, and holding on to the collection of postcard like pictures in my mind. I’m more than certain that I’m walking on a path so many carved before me. My grandparents, parents, role models, and friends have all stepped across chasms, I am lucky to leap after.  They have lived in a way I dream to live and done things I merely say a prayer I ever could. They have paved the way for a life of beauty, memorable moments, and breathtaking adventure.  And as I tossed about in the passenger seat up and down the windin...

Survive: continue to live or exist, especially in spite of danger or hardship.   In the middle of an otherwise mundane afternoon of work, their anxious joy jarred me away from my computer.  The mother beamed with a smile and looked to her husband to share this overwhelming good news. I waited eagerly to see how I might be able to help them. I could make out most of the words as they spoke to me while gazing back at each other to confirm that their words made sense.  It was probably obvious I do not speak a Spanish. They stretched beyond their own comfortability to tell me this great news. Their daughter had made First Communion in 2011 and they finally decided it was time to part with her dress.  They came to my office to donate it, in hopes that some other girl may feel the pure excitement and love their daughter did the day she wore it.  The mom lovingly pointed out every detail of the dress as she handed it to me to pass on. She then sent her husband bac...

Persevere:  to  persist  in a state, enterprise, or undertaking in spite of counterinfluences, opposition, or discouragement Walks with my dog are usually squished in between this and that.  Whether the day is rushed or not, I have a constant clock ticking. It’s a clock that says move faster, go quicker, beat the time you had before. I constantly race against myself to get the things I feel I have to do done more efficiently than before.  It’s a fault.  One I cannot seem to break. When the steps were flying and the dog was racing to keep up with my hurry, an older couple staled us. They looked mature in years, but so young in love.  He wore baggy jogging pants and her wrinkled hand grabbed on tightly to his arm. And they walked quite literally as slow as snails. At first I thought to myself, how inconvenient, right in the middle of my gold medal walking performance, a road block basically stopped me in my tracks. But then, I became captivated at th...

Reliant: dependent on someone or something.  There's a couple who comes into church everyday. She holds his hand and he stands tall.  She nudges him when he should be standing up or sitting down. The years they have spent together are written in the space between them. This couple shows me reliance. The man cannot see. The wife guides him along the way. There are moments though, when she forgets to nudge him. Maybe she is caught up in the words God is speaking to her or the list of things she has to do today. Does God reach the man any less if he does not sit or stand when he should? Does the man only hear or feel God when the person he is relying on shows up or comes through?  I want to be more like the man who is gentle with her on the days she guides him, and the days she is too distracted to. Because I believe God comes through for the man on both days. I want to be more like the man who relies on God first and her second. 

Irresistible: too powerful or convincing to be resisted. Every New Years Eve, we pick a word to define the months ahead.  Maybe it's an ambitious word, or a refreshing one. Sometimes it's a word that we hope for more of in the year to come, other times it's what we feel we finally discovered in the year gone by. Whatever it is, whether we have picked it long before the clock strikes midnight, or it's just something we fancy in the moment as we pop the champagne, we write the word on the mirror in the entry way and hope that it becomes our mantra for the next 365 days.  As 2016 came to an end, and 2017 popped on the scene with its gusto, and guts, grace, and gruel, the word I could not shake was irresistible. And maybe if you were in the new year, new you state of mind, you could consider that a resolution of sorts. To create a me that's irresistible could have been my goal for the year. But that's not why the word hung around.  As 2016 came to a close and 20...

Why you with your long brown hair flowing And you with your fresh tattooed skin And you from the Western Virginia That you'll never get to see again As darkness descended the desert And a bad actor starred in his play Why you from Tennessee did life capture And me from Tennessee get away -Eric Church  I had just fallen into that moment, the one between sleep and awake. My head rested heavily on my cool pillow, the ceiling fan swayed in constant motion above me, and a dreamlike sensation mixed with heavy eyes had me off to Neverland. And then, like the cold that filled that eery night, my slumber was erupted with that tiny vibrating of my phone. And in that moment, the world I knew, changed.  I never left my phone on when I slept. I have no idea why or how that night it had been. And twenty minutes later when I sat frozen in my bed, still in shock, and utterly terrified, my mom wondered what I was doing. I replied, "Mom, I'm so scared."  I was paralyzed i...