One, Two, Three

I'm reading Ann Voskamp's book One Thousand Gifts - A Dare To Live Fully Right Where You Are. I was first introduced to Ann (she says she's just plain Ann without the 'e'... just like me.. lol) through her blog "A Holy Experience" where she paints the picture of her life and relationship with the Father with words and photos. I enjoy her style of writing, more poetry than prose, and find her insights into how we can worship God with thanksgiving to be quite, well, insightful! :) So, I've decided to count 1000 gifts myself and see how it goes. And maybe, just maybe, it will actually help me have something to blog about.

#1 Warm sunshine after winter's gray chill

#2 A doctor who listens

#3 Doggy joy... pure joy, undeserved, unreserved

#4 A yard full of happy children on an unexpected warm afternoon

#5 Her struggle and the unity that they are trying so hard to keep, to use, to love her through this with a love that's a little tough right now

#6 A grown up son

#7 The tears shed through a childhood which toughened up the skin I wear

#8 Lessons learned, unlearned and relearned through tough times with the ones we love

#9 That she has insurance

... the ones above were written in my notebook over the past few days... the ones below are from today...

#10... Raindrops on the widows

#11... Crisp, hot onion rings

#12... Smiling boys with unexpected doughnuts

#13... Boys who cooperate

#14... His hands... that held on tight through youthful mistakes; hands which pushed back just enough and reach out always, ready to help, to hold, to give and to receive what was given in love; hands that lifted me up and then remained joined with mine in partneship; his hands that wore the ring, cradled the babies, washed the dishes, stilled in prayer, earned the dollars, held the leash and loved me always... his hands. (Why do some hands stay together through the years and others loose? My heart is heavy tonight as I think on people who have let go of each other somewhere along the line and are hurting... I pray that his hands will reach for her and she will respond and they can be at peace and in love again.)

Well.... the past week nearly knocked me off my efforts at both blogging and rejoicing. Though I guess to be fair to myself I am focusing on rejoicing as my 'one word' for 2012 so that is where I failed... the conscious effort at focusing on rejoicing. Had I been doing that, perhaps I wouldn't have gotten so down, so negative this week. Friends who are watching loved ones hurt, friends who are hurting, friends who've lost loved ones... my own illness... my child's illness... stress, both fun and not-so-fun... these things pushed at my, taking me away from the positivity and joy that filled my soul the past weeks. Even my husband noticed and asked me about my 'one word', though he did wisely drop it after hearing my reply... haha! Seriously, as I sat down at the end of the day to check the blogs I like, cruise through facebook, just kill the last few moments of the day I was feeling so down and discouraged. And then at the end of one of the posts I was reading was a link to another blog. And though I don't "need" another blog to follow, for some reason I clicked. And there I found God, waiting to pick me up and dust me off. So, if you're struggling with rejoicing, with finding joy... take a minute and click one more link.