heart ART reflections

  Some days it feels like it takes a lot of effort to be intentional - to persevere through situations.  I'm learning a lot about being resilient ; I don't know about radiant.   (Maybe it's more like I'm glowing from the sweat of exertion.)  Persevering (endurance) and resilience is a mindset.  I want to be someone that others will see as having overcome that valley or mountain that stands in the way of what God called me to.   I want to be resilient in my body so that I'm not "falling apart" when I'm called to care for someone or so I can enjoy being with my family and not be limited because I'm in physical pain.  I want to be resilient in my faith so that I can trust God first - rather than going through all the Plan A's and B's and turning to God as my last resort.  I want to be resilient in my walk with God so that His Word is my daily manna - sufficient and satisfying for each day. So in the hard things, I had to intentionally dig deep...

Grief has a way of training and transforming a person. In my 1.5 years of being a full-time caregiver for Mom while on home hospice, it was a gradual coming to terms with grief.  Grief that she didn't want to be treated for her thymoma cancer, grief that she didn't want to fight to live to see the grandkids grow up, grief that she had maybe given up on living, anger that the living didn't have enough influence to overcome dying, grief that she was slowly dying and would eventually leave us, grief that I was responsible for making sure she was comfortable and could live the rest of her life with minimal pain, grief in not knowing how long this dying process was going to take, grief in having hope one day and then having a bad day the next with sounds of the oxygen compressor and needing more medication for pain.  But then the stars come out and there is still hope because of God.  The stars give a glimmer of hope and purpose in grief and pain.   2 Corinthians 4:1...

I've been wanting to have a place to put all my creating.  So here we go!   If you happen to land here, please no judging.  I'm just creating things as I learn.  Creating is also therapeutic and is an outlet for what I'm feeling when I sometimes can't express it well in other ways.  So hopefully it will be healing, too.  Maybe join me in creating and reflecting from your heart with art.