Since my June photo blog is finally up a month late I may as well send July's up there with it. This past month I learned that in order for relationsips to be anything worth missing you have to put some work in. Old news, I know, but often when you experience something first hand it becomes more realistic and something you may have heard your whole life finally makes sense because it actually applies to you. My dad reminded me tonight that it's really super important to go about living with an outward perspective instead of an inward. We cannot provide all the love, care, and nourishment that we need for ourselves. Silly lame little analogy: Let's say Ann and Blake are engaged, if Ann and Blake are both in the relationship seeking only to receive, their relationship won't be strong because they will both be sending empty boomerangs out that come right back to them without bringing anything home. If they go into the relationship sending arrows of love at eachother instead, they will both be giving love and by giving they will be recieving. Make any sense? I can see the little picture worked out in my head but don't know if I explained my thoughts well. Basically, you can't walk around town thinking only of what you want and what you desire and what you can get out of every situation because that will leave you empty. If you walk into your day with eyes open to find others needs and do your best to help and love them then you will be truly blessed because that is the example that Jesus set for us. It's a struggle, it really is, especially for me. But it is also a joy to live with an outward perspective and I am thankful for the people in my life who have been reminding me of that. I had the best weekend of my summer in July as well as the beginning of something very hard and want to be as thankful as I can for everything.
Now that July is over I may as well put up my June photo blog because obviously I'm very on top of things. I don't have much to say about June seeing as it finished over a month ago. There is one thing though that stands out to me as something I discovered to be very important: the first step to being "happy" is deciding every morning that you are in a good mood. A trap that I fall into more often than not is waking up searching for happiness and waiting for something superbly pleasant to happen in order to make me happy. I learned that if you wake up and immediately dress yourself in the mentality that everything is a blessing it is so much easier to find joy and amusement in not so pleasant things such as soggy cereal, being woken up by a screaming four year old, and forgetting your shoes when you are already late for work. Waking up and deciding to put your happy pants on sure won't fix all of your problems but it is a step and you can't get anywhere without taking steps. As I look back and try to think of what kind of month June was I simply remember that I didn't say thank you enough. I didn't say thank you enough and mean it. So time to start meaning it, yeah? finger painting roadtripping sunsets sweet children adventures the friends good eats tried my hand at creating some logos //l.b.
A little something I learned this month: Stop waiting for friday, for summer, for someone to fall in love with you, for life. Happiness is achieved when you stop waiting for it and make the most of the moment you are in now. I get bored very easily sometimes and I let myself learn to dread things and learn to eagerly await things that actually don't matter in the long run. I find myself waiting for a moment that will excite my senses and make me feel happy. This month I was reminded more than usual how flimsy and temporary those little happy feels are. I was reminded how wonderful it is to dig through a pile of old books and spend an hour reading one of your first chapter books when you could be sleeping but it was really a nice book and brought back a lot of memories so it was pretty much worth it. I was reminded how delightful it is to find new music and take your little sister outside to finger paint pictures of each other. I was reminded that friends are really great and family is too and sometimes making other people happy and pointing them back to God is the best way to find lasting joy. I learned that people are still fun even after they have changed. I've learned that my big sisters are blessings. I learned that writing prayers for my friends down on paper helped me think more clearly. I learned that trying new things is fun and nourishing your inner child is so very very very fun. May was nice and I am thankful for every single day of it and how God blessed me again and again and again. got new shoes and they took me a lot of places new music happened I enjoy sandwiches travel happened the clouds are delightful sometimes a lot of bonfires happened // l.b. |