Here I am with my morning coffee in my back deck rocking chair, puppy exploring the back yard. I haven’t watched the news in the week since the movers arrived to pack up our old house. My laptop is gathering dust, though I must get on the computer to pay bills today.  There are still little piles of boxes in every room and a small mound in the basement, yet the flowerbeds need weeded. 

How am I to balance the normal tasks amid the continued “settling in” after our move?  I want everything completed, right now; however, life doesn’t happen that way. The motto I came to live by in this past year was “one day, one moment, one breath at a time.”  This seems to need to be my continued guide for this beginning of my new normal. 

So today I will pay my bills, meet with the man from Lowes as he comes to measure for a door, go buy a cheap tv stand, and take my middle son to begin his hunt for a car. I will send off my oldest son as he returns to his apartment 1 1/2 hours away, figure out lunch and dinner, fold laundry, and unpack a box. I might even hang a picture, but mostly, I will carry on an inner conversation with The One who sustains me, and I will breathe…

I’ve been quiet for a while. I spoke with a couple counselor friends of mine a few months ago who both suggested to me that there are times we need to live beyond, under, within words, without feeling we must always speak them. This is a silence that allows us to truly hear.  

Being quiet externally also allows us to develop a greater inner dialogue with the One who dwells within our souls. In all the chaos that has been my life of late, this inner conversation has become more real to me than I had ever before known…and yet, has reckoned me back to the truth that this has been a part of me as long as I can remember.  This is my true self that has rested in God my entire life. 

In the depths of silence, God has given me a peace that I can’t describe, an internal calm that isn’t even always visible externally as I walk through daily change and make this huge mid-life transition.  The chaotic journey of this last year of my life has needed that inner calm and stability, especially in the last two months. 

In the midst of my oldest son graduating with his MEd , landing a job, finding a new apartment, and getting a tonsillectomy, my youngest(my baby girl), graduated high school, obtained her cosmetology license , traveled out of the country for the first time, and left behind her friends in the only home she’s ever really known. Additionally, my middle son packed up his life in the town we’ve lived since he was 2 1/2, spent time with friends as he could and left to  work at a summer camp where he found a  sweet, beautiful girlfriend. 

The house is empty now. We’ve said goodbye to our great little town where we’ve raised our little family. 

We spent the end of May and much of June/July saying “see you later” to many friends and acquaintances at grad parties, weddings, church, and simple meals together all while finishing up home projects and working out financing details for our new house. 

God has carried me through each step, especially in the silences of my spirit. I know He will continue to provide , sustain, guide, and bring me to JOY for each step of the journey ahead…

I’ve been at a loss for words the last few days, yet I’ve been bursting to express how in awe I am of God, His love and the way He has worked in my life and the life of my family.  I realize there could never be adequate words to express my gratitude and amazement because my finite mind cannot fully understand or grasp all of who God is and how He acts in my life, in our world. Yet, I need to try in my small way because I want others to know God is the source of anything good in my life. 

We have come to the end of a long part of life’s journey as our oldest has completed his Masters and teacher licensure, our youngest has graduated high school and passed her state boards for cosmetology, and our house has sold. God has opened doors for me to begin a career in the field for which I’ve studied and our offer for a home has been accepted.  Life isn’t perfect, but God is opening new chapters in our lives that we hadn’t really expected, but for which we had hoped. 

In the past six months or so, God has been teaching me more and more that I can trust Him, no matter what. I owe everything and all of me to Him  He has called me to surrender fully to Him since I was a teen, and I have, yet He calls me to a deeper surrender over and over …. I give each and every part of me over to Him; the more His Spirit reveals, the more I give Him control , and He shows me again that I can trust His transforming and leading in my life , in all of it. It is well with my soul, no matter what lies ahead in this journey.  

However…right now, these days, I am truly rejoicing and in awe of His work in my life.  I desire to honor Him for all He is and all He is doing, so much more than I had imagined for this time….I had hoped and dreamed, but never imagined it would all happen as it is. 

Thank You Abba. Thank You Lord. Thank You sweet Spirit. 


It’s been two weeks since I completed my 💯 day journey towards joy. I can honestly say that my heart is full of joy as an underlying current of each moment, no matter what is happening on the surface.  There has been a change in me because of my intentional search for joy. I am more aware of that undercurrent of joy and it inspires me to fight for it and fight against all that might otherwise defeat me. 

This isn’t to say life has been easy, quite the contrary. In fact, the last few weeks have been some of the toughest I’ve ever faced, with physical exhaustion, emotional stresses, being letdown by people, and financial challenges.  God truly has been my “ever-present help in times of trouble ” and I can’t help but feel joy in my spirit as I experience His presence in the midst of troubles. 



These 100 days of JOY, focusing on the Light that came to us some 2000 years ago and the joy He brings into our lives in so many different ways, have come to a close. A sunset seemed appropriate for this post as I experience incredible joy when I see a beautiful sunset and because they represent closure. 

I started this 💯 day focus because I was battling much inner darkness with winter and feeling overwhelmed with life. Christmas, New Year and Epiphany are filled with so much light and revelations of Christ’s presence. I wanted to hang on to that and grab more of it so that I could fight against that darkness in my spirit. I also wanted to share my journey with you, whomever might read this, in case it might help you as well. 

I was a bit floored when this idea came to me and I counted the days to Easter and realized that it was almost exactly 💯 days. How cool to spend 💯 days chasing after joy and leading up to Easter!  I have often followed the Lenten season of preparing my heart for Easter , but this 💯 day challenge excited and inspired me. 

True confessions would lead me to say that there were some days I didn’t know what to write, other days I didn’t feel like it, and as you must have noticed, some days time got away from me and I forgot to write. However, I would also confess that this commitment to write this publicly forced me to be more cognizant of finding joy, light, the good and positive in my day-to-dayness.  This has changed me. I have grown more positive through this, but I have also experienced growth I didn’t anticipate. 

My trust in God has grown as well as my ability to find rest and calm in the midst of anxious times. I have learned to turn to God more automatically, to find Him in my center and see Him in the midst of uncertainty.  I’ve begun to take time to breathe and seek to let the Spirit bring me peace of heart and mind in ways I had never known before. 

I plan to keep writing because I’m on a roll and don’t want to let it dissipate. I may take a day off here and there, and I will probably just write without having a specific focus, but I will write, and I will keep chasing JOY and Light and sharing whatever the Spirit lays on my heart to share with you. 

Jesus is the Light that I’ve been focusing on these last 99 days since Epiphany.  We live in that Light on this side of the resurrection, if we choose to follow Him.  I Corinthians 1:18 reminds us “the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God.”

Jesus endured the suffering and shame of the cross because of the “joy set before Him” and is now at the right hand of God (Hebrews 12:1-2). I believe that part of His joy was in His love for all of us and knowing He was making a way fior us to be in relationship with Him, the Father , and the Spirit.  He gave us new life and He delighted in being able to do this even though He had to suffer. 

Spring blooms and buds  remind me of this new life and bring great joy and gladness to my heart. 

The eggs have been cracked; the tomb has been opened….the Light of the World has burst forth once again as He did when He was first born….the JOY of Easter Day needs no further explanation for those who believe…

I can only begin to imagine what it must have been like for the disciples and close family/friends of Jesus the days after He died and was buried. They didn’t know what was going to happen on the third day, not really. Yes, He had hinted at it in seemingly mysterious sayings, but they hadn’t really understood it, and really, how could they…?

They didn’t know what we know on this side of the resurrection …. so, even though they might have a vague hope that something was going to happen, overall, they were filled with sorrow. Yet, here we are on the day before Easter, and we know….We know He rose again; we also know He told us that He will come again. 

Do we live like we know? Do we live in the hope and joy of what we know was reality, is reality, and will be reality?  How do we live while we are waiting…..?

The sun will rise tomorrow and we will sing praises that Jesus is risen. May we let that reality impact our hope, our joy, our trust that He will come again….He kept His promise to rise again … He will keep His promise to return. 

Coloring Easter eggs brings me great joy. I think I will continue to do this tradition the rest of my life , regardless of whether there are children around or not. 

This tradition dates back hundreds of years and most likely was first practiced as a right of passage for celebrating spring. At some point, it became a part of Christian celebrations of Easter. The shell is supposed to represent the tomb being sealed after Jesus was placed there. When it is cracked open in Easter Day, it represents the new life of Christ bursting forth from the tomb. 
Rituals and traditions exist to point us back towards important events in our lives and to remind us of why they are important. Coloring eggs at Easter is just one example of how rituals can be filled with joy and impact our lives significantly, bringing together the family and serving as a means of passing along our beliefs to our children and others. 

People can surprise me still at times, for the good and sometimes the bad.   Someone can write one sentence, share a song, or actually do/say nothing and change my perspective on a day,  friendship, or even my self-confidence. Yes, others’ actions and words can impact me like that. They can inspire joy or elicit sorrow. 

I would venture to say that people in your life can affect you likewise. We are made for relationship and connection. God created us this way. Therefore, how we live, what we say and do, will always impact others in some way, and they, in turn, will affect our lives. 

However, I have been learning more and more to rest in who I am in Christ, to trust in His opinions and His love first and foremost. This week above all others is a deep reminder of this love for all of us, for the love that took Christ to the cross. 

The joy of resting in that love is for all of us.  I hope for that for you as well.