to Austin we go

Wandering, romping, adventuring near & afar - this makes all that is inside me spin, giddy & fast. Leaving me dizzy on the ground, with a stupid silly smile on my face. I also picture myself wearing a tutu and in a field of flowers. Now that this imagery of how I feel about traveling & adventures sounds like a feminine supply commercial, I'm going to stop while I'm ahead. Which probably would have been before that last sentence. With that, I proceed....

This past weekend, on a whim, my dreamer friend and I decided to hit the road ATX-bound. We found ourselves venturing up and down South Congress; wandering in and out of shops (Uncommon Objects, Stag, & St. Vincent de Paul Thrift Store). In between little shop pop-ins we consumed coffee like air (not using our windpipes contrary to popular belief), we super enjoyed the TOMS Roasting Co. and snagged a classic ATX snapshot by Jo's!

After a late lunch at Magnolia Cafe we trekked back to the car and headed over to the Graffiti Wall. We ended the day lake side at Mozart's Coffee Roaster. I couldn't have imagined a better end to our day than unwinding coffee in hand (#typical, I know) and taking time to write. Just one sketchy bathroom stop & several sing-alongs, and then we were back home.

So thankful for the chance to quench this thirsty inner-wanderer and enjoy such a sweet day with Jordan! Hope you enjoy a little visual peek in to all we encountered!

What was your last road trip like and what's your go-to sing-along song?

stitches of an adventure heart

You take my adventure heart
for miles & miles of wild rides
through open skies & hidden towns
You delight in seeing my heart come alive

My inmost tangles are known to You
each woven thread & knot undone
Divine Hands of Yours tug gently
winding Our thread together more tightly

No thought unseen or desire uncharted
each stitched with care on my fabric heart
calendar numbers passing fast & slow
not a single hour left unbuttoned

seams never left untouched
Your presence woven in with each
never a point, a place without
Your Holy Stitch of grace complete

Dark can never cloak Your presence
nor light outshine Your Love Divine
each waking, waning, wishful moment
hemmed in by Your heart so kind

Your fingers trace the roads like knotted stitches
grace unravels as every mile is sewn
adventure hearts knitted together,
it is here that I am known.


*inspired by Psalm 139

through His lens - week 3

Here continues the capturing of life through His lens- the messy, quiet, full, sweet, and all the little moments in-between. This week held over 600 miles traveled, 4 musicians met, 19 cups of coffee chugged & sipped, and countless memories whose beauty continues to unfold. 

Thankful that life is more than numbers counted and hours past, that it is full with the Fullness of Christ!

Hope y'all have a super rad & restful Sunday!

through His lens - week 2

Began this new series last week, after a late night of dreamer talk with my wonderful friend Jordan. So here continues the capturing of life through His lens- the messy, quiet, full, sweet, and all the little moments in-between.

Here's to learning that Life is more journey than destination.
Happy Sunday folks!

     

        

soundtrack

Need a good soundtrack for your weekend? Here are a few of my long-time and recent favorites.

Old Pine by Ben Howard

We Don't Eat by James Vincent McMorrow

Brothers by Penny & Sparrow

Pilot Me by Josh Garrels 

Dust We are and Shall Return by The Brilliance

Hope that gives y'all a little something to have as the background to your weekend roadtrip. 

Have a happy Friday my friends!

through His lens - week 1

I'm thankful Jesus is as big a fan as I am of car rides. While sometimes I don't look forward to those long four hour drives home, He always comes along for the ride. He comes along for those long hauls and for the little runs from home to store, down the street, and He sits in the parking lot as conversation ebbs and flows between sisters. The clock telling our eyes to close for sleep, but our dreamer hearts awakened by the Truth spoken in to the dark. Here we spoke of Him, with Him.

Jordan is my fellow dreamer. We sit for hours in coffee shops, plan trips we may never take, laugh deep and long, talk for too long, listen even more, and seek to know the heart of our Artist Father. Seven days ago, today; perhaps six by the hour of the night, we sat and spoke of a lens we desired. A view of the world we wanted so badly to adopt. Admitting our own selfish eyes that focused so often on the mishap and bland, we knew there was something more. So we sat in quiet, and He spoke. Calling us to see through His lens.

Here is the start of that. We decided a picture a day or two perhaps, ushered first by the prayer to have His eyes to see. See the beauty all around - the simple, exquisite, deep, distracting, hopeful, desperate, unnoticed, and bright. A necessary honesty - I struggled with this. Though so often capturing an image is worship, the recognition of Beauty Divine. As the week flooded in, my attentions were pulled and pushed in every direction. I am humbled, and thankful. He is not finished with me yet. As I fight for the decision to see beauty in mess and joy in all circumstances, He is riding with me. Over every road, every mile, beside and inside - He is calling me deeper, and He is beckoning me to look at life through His lens.

hues & shades

Hours pass that turn to days and years and decades.
They call them seasons.
Placing labels upon each as it comes:
"childhood", "young married", "adolescence", "single", "married", "retired"

Each sounding like the classrooms in a large church.
For each stage there is a class.
Somewhere to belong with those walking in that same Season.
Fellowship which is an oft brushed by gift.

Enter.....Texas.
Texas does not follow pattern in season.
One week - three seasons, wardrobes, menus.
Seeing breath in cold on Monday - losing breath in heat on Thursday.

Watch out.....hyperbolic metaphor.
Life is more like Texas than the days I spent in the predictable North.
At least you knew just like it's shape, mittens were a staple from November to April.
Suffocation from stifling heat may occur if no weather check is made in the Lone Star State.

So here I go.
Canvas stretched, now leaning on easel.
Paintbrush lifted.
Hues & Shades enter.

Boldly I have come to say:
Life is not Seasons.
While largely it may appear so
I'm choosing macro over panoramic as my lens.

Experience teaches
though I, young in days and years
I have begun to see
the reality of this metaphor come to be.

Hues of learning & Shades of life
conversations ebb and flow with peers
lessons in Love Divine and experience earthly
one which I humbly bask in the reality of, the latter a hue not on life's canvas presently

Shades of loss
a life lived deep and wide
those once held close are gone
the breadth and width I desire, the reality of memories being all that is left, I don't yet know

As I walk and see
these Hues & Shades on each canvas
the painting speaks of A Life
one lived with One that is also Artist

an Artist that boasts of chaos
Divinely organized messes
fractals that will only be beheld in their full Glory
on the other side of Eternity

as He paints
lifting each brush
delight in eyes that have seen all Hues & Shades
bringing each to canvas in perfect time

the One not bound by hands on clock
reminds us of the hope of Eternity
of the Truth there isn't a rush
and He never has to run to catch up.

Ever-present fellow Journey-man
traveling beside with canvas, easel, & brushes packed
brushing in the hue of the moment
of the lesson in Love to be revealed

We live in the Hues & Shades of life
painted by the Master of True Life itself
brushed on canvas thick with Love Real
and delight in bringing revelation of the already present realities of Eternity