{Whine less, breathe more; talk less, say more}

Imagine, if you will...

Brooding clouds gather in the distance; a young girl, high heeled and ready to be done with work, runs to her silver Honda, leaping over puddles and skipping between each rain drop. Breathless and giggling, she slides behind the wheel, enjoying the snap of the seatbelt and a break for her feet. A lone drop slides down her wet windshield as she grabs a towel out of the backseat and, fruitlessly, tries to soak some moisture out of her soaked clothing and already frizzing hair. Plugging in the ipod, "... a chickadee in love with with sky" fills the empty sound and the car shifts into 3rd gear. The clock skips through the minutes, suddenly its 30 numbers past when she first found refuge in her silver steed. Humming a bit off-key, thinking dreamy thoughts, when suddenly the heart beat stutters, stops. Her house still stands, a tree house in her magical forest that separates her from reality... One of her entrance guards, a double- trunked tree under whose shade she spent many hours, has fallen to the storm. Now her canopy has a new opening to the sky, which is clearing up to a light blue, stating its own innocence. Down to the ground she smiles at the dogwood flowers singing their joy in His protection, still standing when they could have fallen. A breath in, breathing out, the beat of life restarts.

God has a way of making you stop from reality, getting your attention, focusing on the preciousness of every solitary breath.

Psalm 37:4, 7 "Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him & He will do it. ... Rest in the Lord, and

wait patiently for Him."

Tonight my mind is a jumble of thoughts and emotions, ideas and frustrations, possibilities and shut doors. I know that I tend to make problems a lot bigger in my mind if I don't talk them over with the Lord and just wait. Otherwise I become this giant ball of nervous energy that doesn't accomplish anything except start hyper-drive and drive people crazy.

I want this blog to be about encouraging others; drawing you to see His beauty that is created just for you, every day and in every situation. So often I fail, and I hope you forgive me and look past those obvious errors. However, I do hope this blog does, in some way, uplift you and motivate you to really smile, breathe, and whisper {or shout!} thanks to our God and Savior.

sleep well, dear readers, wherever you are!

because He lives,

me.