I took some time today to check out some old posts, and have been entertaining the idea of publishing some of them in a little book.
I was astounded to realize I am entering my eighth year of blogging!
When I started, I was recovering from a surprise heart attack, which happened just before my 53rd birthday. I was in the middle of my spiritual formation course at Carey Theological College. It was a stretching time, a growing time.
I’m so grateful for all the lessons I’ve learned along the way, and know more than ever, it is about the journey, living one day at a time, practicing being fully present, and practicing awareness of Gods Presence every day.
Just for fun, here is the first post… and I might reshare another favourite or two in the next while.
Thank you for sharing this journey with me, and I’d love to hear about yours…
First Blog – July 3, 2011
So I’m taking the plunge and starting a blog. A therapeutic exercise perhaps, a place to share my thoughts, hopes and significant happenings. It is also a time in my life where I want to record the journey – which is one of hope, faith, and love. As with any journey, there have been bumps in the road, and significant challenges, as well as rich experiences.
A number of years ago, I published my little book “A Journey of Hope”, which chronicled not only my journey so far, but also told the story of my grandmother Annie, and of my first husband Andy and his battle with cancer. It was healing for me to share my story of grief and loss, and the rich gifts that were gained as I grew from that deep experience.
This past year has been more of a journey of faith – and sometimes faith is putting one foot in front of the other – when you can’t see the way clearly. It is radical trust in a God who has been faithful in the past and whom you trust will never leave you. It is about knowing in the dark that which you remembered in the light, and hanging on to that truth. I had actually thought of giving this blog a “heart” name – “thoughts from the heart”, “the heart of the matter”, or something of that nature, but that seemed a little too corny and overused. But the fact is that since my surprise heart attack on March 13, of this year, it has been on my mind… how language of the heart and our actual hearts seem to be connected.
The pain of emotional heartache and physical heartache are really not that different, in my experience. I’d love to do a study of heart words and phrases as they relate to life and the human experience, and to faith and belief. But I’ll leave that for another time.
The purpose of this blog is to simply share the journey – because it is not about what I have learned, but what I am learning. It is more about the questions than the answers. It is about searching after the heart of God and finding Him in surprising places. It is about being fully human and honest. It is about discovery and finding joy wherever it can be found.
