Graced For This Moment: The Golden Thread of Joy

Here we are, all of us, in a moment we could have never anticipated...but here we are, all of us, also graced to handle this moment well. 

I realize that there are many different emotions attached to the walk we are walking...grief, fear, frustration...but there is also hope, love, peace, and a newly acclaimed sense of community in the midst of isolation.  Joy and stability, like a lovely golden thread, are woven throughout our moments and our days even in the midst of uncharted territory and trials if we look for them....I will not be shaken.

If we are going to be home more than ever, let’s attach to it again...let’s be in the moment and see the graces and the gifts around us, and appreciate them, and speak of them.  Let’s take time to cook, to clean, to organize, to spiff up, to rearrange, and to freshen up our spaces...and even to try things we haven’t had time to before.

Let’s pause and be thankful for the smell of fresh laundry, for the vegetables we are cutting up, for the dishes we get to wash, and the faces we get to love.

Let’s donate the things we don’t need, and share the things we have enough of, and use the things we already have when we can.  When we need something, let’s not be too prideful to reach out and ask for help.

I want to remember to pray more, to love more, to fear not, to speak life and not death or complaining, and to slow down, to breathe and know that God is in control, and He is bedrock under my feet in a world full of sinking sand.

I am finding myself enjoying the little things: stovetop potpourri simmering all day long...planning meals, the smell of fresh sheets smoothed across my bed, my bougainvillea on my table, the cactus blooms out my kitchen window that greet me as I wash dishes, and the sounds of my teenagers and college students singing throughout the house because they are all HOME!

Joy is something you have to take.  I don’t believe joy just comes naturally for any of us...it is practiced through gratitude.  Gratitude brings joy unspeakable...and it turns what we have into more than enough.  It’s a pausing, a nodding, an inhale and exhale of appreciation for this moment: this flower, this meal, this home, this song, these people.

My heart is with each one of you.  I look forward to the day when we can swing wide the doors of Dandy again and crank up our Bing Crosby and hug you with a big embrace...but until then, we are adding to our web store every day, and are shipping out orders like crazy, and we are with you in spirit!

Let’s take joy and see it’s lovely thread woven through every moment...as we are graced to handle it all and navigate it well.

Much Love, 

Amanda