March Twenty Thirteen and HAPPY EASTER!

March 2013

"Celebrate God all day, every day.

I mean, revel in Him!

Phil 4:7 The Message 

Abiding in this truth from the UPC Women's retreat at the beginning of this month: 

" Define yourself radically as one beloved by God.  This is your true self.  Every other identity is an illusion." -Brennan Manning 

 

Seattle Hot Chocolate 15K run... (wearing Elizabeth Hutchinson's 4th grade Halloween costume for the race to be festive) 

Just a little nuts, but why not?! 

But here's the thing: the more we try to compensate for our weak places, the more we try to edit the "us" others encounter, the more we attempt to hide the fact that we really aren't nearly as smart or agile or profound or intriguing as we suspect others judge us to be (or as we desire for others to judge us to be), the less we become our true selves, the less beauty we're able to give away. Worse, as we maneuver and manipulate in all these places, we will find ourselves exhausted by our self-absorption….The world does not need perfection. It doesn't need the best 'you' that you can dream up. The world needs you. The actual you. Foibles and giggles and goofiness and all.  http://winncollier.com/an-inadequate-grace/

HAPPY 42nd BIRTHDAY TO JASON!! 

"The grace of God means something like: Here is your life.

You might never have been, but you are because the party wouldn't have been complete without you." - Frederick Buechner 

 

"The world is charged with the grandeur of God." -Gerald Manley Hopkins 

 

 

"Go slow. Be God-struck. Grant grace. Live Truth. Give Thanks. Become the gift." –Ann Voskamp 

more unicycling/ videos of the Huff circus act below: 

http://celebrate-2day.blogspot.com/2013/03/partner-riding.html

http://celebrate-2day.blogspot.com/2013/03/circus-acts.html

 "The art of really celebrating life isn't about getting it right – but about receiving Grace." –Ann Voskamp  

 

 

GIVING THANKS FOR A FABULOUS 40th BIRTHDAY!! (3/16/13) 

"There are few things more subversive in this world than someone who sees grace in every corner, who chuckles easy and loves easy and has both whimsy and mirth mixed in with even their honest assessments of the way things truly are. These glad-hearted people have discovered that thankfulness is not merely a discipline but the only sane way to live in a world offering so much gritty beauty, so much possibility for love, so many joys.

These unlikely provocateurs have not caved to rose-tinted glasses or withdrawn from bitter reality. They simply know that sorrow does not finally own the day. They do not ignore the pain. Quite the opposite, their heart has grown so large that the life they know possesses the courage to see all that is wrong and yet has strength enough to gather the afflictions into itself, allowing love to tend to the wounds. They know that joy, not misery, holds the ace. And they are so very, very thankful.

"Grace and gratitude belong together like heaven and earth," say Barth. "Grace evokes gratitude like the voice of an echo. Gratitude follows grace as thunder follows lightning."

– Winn Collier http://winncollier.com/like-thunder-follows-lightning/

http://celebrate-2day.blogspot.com/2013/03/you-are-every-age-youve-ever-been.html

"Your problem is how you are going to spend this one and precious life you have been issued. Whether you're going to spend it trying to look good and creating the illusion that you have power over circumstances, or whether you are going to taste it, enjoy it and find out the truth about who you are." -Anne Lamott

 

 "Look at the lines beside these eyes of mine. Like parenthesis. They cup all that I have seen – a testament to the fact that your mercies are actually new every morning." –Lisa Jo Baker

 

"I'm something like halfway. Today, the calendar flips to 40. There's that moment in every good novel when you're mid-through, the pages to the left as thick as the pages to the right. And you pause. You sigh deep for the story that won't let you loose, resting to breathe in the words and characters and memories before you eagerly dive into the long second stretch. This is that moment in the story of my life.  I'm grateful for the place I find myself...." http://blog.winncollier.com/2011/11/halfway.html

Lauren Winners shares the wisdom of her friend's mother: "Every ten years you have to remake everything." Reshape yourself. Reorient yourself. Remake everything.  Still pg 31

 

 

 St Patrick's Day 2013 

 

"I will ask my Father for help when I fail. I will swim in grace. I will take joy in His help." 

 

 

Famous UW Cherry Blossoms above

"Drawing on nothing fancier than the poetry of our own life, let us use words and images that help made the surface of our lives transparent to the truth of who we are and who God is and the gospel of our meeting."  – Fredrick Buechner 

"And when I give thanks for the seemingly microscopic, I make a place for God to grow within me." -Ann Voskamp

 

 

giving thanks that because of Easter, 

tomorrow is in His hands...