Feeling Inspired::: Mary Oliver

This lady is my inspiration as of late.  I wouldn't say that I am a girl who is all into poetry and what not, but when I find an author I love..I'm all about it!  Wow does this woman have a way with words or what?!

She is known for her celebration of the natural world.  She is said to have once found herself on a walk without a pen and paper and later hid pencils in little places within the trees so she would never find herself in the same predicament. Ah, isn't there something magical about that? And just so simple?

Happiness.

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“Instructions for living a life. 

                                                                 Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.” 

“I believe in kindness. Also in mischief. Also in singing, especially when singing

 is not necessarily prescribed.” 

“Hello, sun in my face. Hello you who made the morning and spread it over the fields...

Watch, now, how I start the day in happiness, in kindness.” 

“You must not ever stop being whimsical. And you must not, ever, 

give anyone else the responsibility for your life.” 

“Keep some room in your heart for the unimaginable.” 

 “You can have the other words-chance, luck, coincidence, serendipity. I'll take grace. 

I don't know what it is exactly, but I'll take it. ” 

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I hope you find her words as refreshing as I do.  I am feeling inspired to start writing down little observations that maybe could even be crafted into poetry.  Who knows maybe I'll tuck some pencils into trees.  Nah, that's Mary's thing.  I'll have my own =).

xo, Kelsey Belle

Feeling Inspired::: Mary Oliver

Seven

Oh man.

I have been reading this book by Jen Hatmaker titled 7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess.  And woah, this book is getting to me.  What a controversial read in the midst of a society plagued by consumerism...myself included!

I will be the first to tell you I have my vices and that I justify & rationalize them away until I feel better about myself.  But this book goes straight for the heart behind it all and you can't avoid taking a look at your own life.  There is freedom in observing where more joy might be found in the simple versus the surplus.

In Seven the author takes a month a piece to focus on seven different categories: clothes, shopping, waste, food, possessions, media, and stress.  She works through all the emotions tied to getting rid of the excess in these categories of her life and in the process is so relatable, so honest,  so funny. I literally would sit alone cracking up while reading over a cup of coffee.  Here are a few passages that are my personal favorites:::

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"When the jars of clay remember they are jars of clay, the treasure within gets all the glory, which seems somehow more fitting."

"This life is a breath. Heaven is coming fast, and we live in that thin space where faith and obedience have relevance. We have this one life to offer; there is no second chance, no plan B for the good news. We get one shot at living to expand the kingdom, fighting for justice.  We'll stand before Jesus once, and none of our luxuries will accompany us. We'll have one moment to say, "This is how I lived."

"Jesus' kingdom continues in the same manner it was launched; through humility, subversion, love, sacrifice; through calling empty religion to reform and behaving like we believe the meek will indeed inherit the earth.  We cannot carry the gospel to the poor and lowly while emulating the practices of the rich and powerful."

"He wanted it made.  He thinks the world is good, and He loves it.  It is His world; He has never relinquished title to it.  And he has never revoked conditions, bearing on His gift to us the use of it, that obliges us to take excellent care of it.  If God loves the world, then how might any person of faith be excused for not loving it or justified in destroying it?"

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I came out of my time consumed in this book feeling like I had taken a breath of fresh air.  That I have a choice, that I don't have to submit to the social norm of our culture.  Actually I have a choice to do otherwise.  And while it may feel like sacrifice, actually it is pretty freeing.  Don't you just feel so tangled up in the web of excess sometimes? Ah I do and it just feels heavy. Oh the joy of simple living.

Hope you have a little down time to pick up this book.  Seriously, its worth a read.

xo, Kelsey Belle

Seven

Your Big Moment

“Today is your big moment. Moments, really. The life you’ve been waiting for is happening all around you. The scene unfolding right outside your window is worth more than the most beautiful painting, and the crackers and peanut butter that you’re having for lunch on the coffee table are as profound, in their own way, as the Last Supper. This is it. This is life in all its glory, swirling and unfolding around us, disguised as pedantic, pedestrian non-events. But pull of the mask and you will find your life, waiting to be made, chosen, woven, crafted.

Your life, right now, today, is exploding with energy and power and detail and dimension, better than the best movie you have ever seen. You and your family and your friends and your house and your dinner table and your garage have all the makings of a life of epic proportions, a story for the ages. Because they all are. Every life is.

You have stories worth telling, memories worth remembering, dreams worth working toward, a body worth feeding, a soul worth tending, and beyond that, the God of the universe dwells within you, the true culmination of super and natural.

You are more than dust and bones.

You are spirit and power and image of God.

And you have been given Today.”

-Shuana Niqueist

Shauna is one of my favorite authors and I highly recommend her books Cold Tangerines and Bittersweet.  They are books that tell her stories and what God has taught her in the midst of them.  I find myself feeling like she as an old friend as I read her stories and laughing out loud as if we are having discussing life face to face.  Do yourself a favor and pick up a copy, you won't be disappointed.

xo, Kelsey Belle

Your Big Moment

Something To Remember

photo via Pinterest

xo, Kelsey Belle

Something To Remember

A Little Passage Worth Reading : Advent

I was reading my Advent devotional today and came across this passage by Ruth Haley Burton.  I know its long, but I promise it is worth taking the time to read it. It really hit home for me, kind of like one of those times when you feel like God is just hitting you upside the head with some truth. Yep, this is one of those days...but in a comforting type of way.  Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

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The greatest story ever told begins with a real moral dilemma: Mary was officially betrothed to Joseph and they had maintained a chaste relationship when she was found pregnant. This, of course, created a very personal dilemma for Joseph since he knew he was not the father of the baby. What’s a man to do?

When we are under pressure, who we really are comes out and this was certainly true for Joseph.

Joseph was a righteous man and righteousness is what came out when he was caught in the vice of public scandal and his own personal pain. His response to the situation came from deep inside his own character rather than being shaped by the pressure that was coming from outside forces. Even in the midst of what he perceived as a betrayal, his choices were driven by his great love and commitment to Mary’s well-being and also by his own inner conviction about how he wanted to behave in the situation.
Subjecting Mary to public scandal was not in him. What was in him was kindness and sensitivity to Mary’s situation and a desire to be good to her and to save her from additional humiliation. From his good heart, he decided to dismiss her quietly rather than claiming his right as an injured husband. If Joseph had made a different choice, no doubt Jesus would still have been born but it would have made for a very different story—one full of bitterness and human rancor. This choice alone—the choice to be good to Mary in the face of his own disappointment and personal pain—demonstrated an inner strength and a profound trustworthiness that confirmed he was the one to walk beside Mary as she opened herself so completely to God. This choice alone meant he was the one to be most intimate with the Christmas story as it unfolded. And his response of strong love eventually fashioned a home for the child that was born and the woman who birthed him.

Grace was at work in Joseph’s situation. In the midst of his grief, his inner turmoil and (probably) his sleepless nights, God sent an angel to tell him the truth about his situation, to calm his inner turmoil and to give him the wisdom to know what to do. In order to stay faithful to the walk of faith, Joseph had to wake up to spiritual reality rather than being mired in a more human perspective. He needed to have the willingness to change his approach to the situation based on his encounter with the angel and to see it in a whole new way based on the angel’s revelation.

Joseph had had a plan—to put Mary away quietly—and it was a good plan. It came from a good place inside him. But it was still only a human plan that came from looking at the situation solely from a human perspective. The walk of faith required Joseph to wake up, to see his situation from the vantage point of what God was doing and to change his approach accordingly. This kind of relinquishment can be hard—the relinquishment of a plan that we have already mapped out in our heads. For Joseph, relinquishing his own plan was necessary if he was going to respond to the spiritual reality that was unfolding in the midst of this human drama. It required inner vision that enabled him to perceive far more than the human eye can see and comprehend. It called him to rise above his own pain and confusion to belief that “all this was taking place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet.”

When we start to wake up and see more clearly what the walk of faith requires we are faced with a choice—the choice to get up and do what the Lord has commanded us to do and to subordinate every other thought and desire to the revealed will of God. Paul calls this “the obedience of faith” in the epistle reading for the week. Knowing the will of God is not enough; doing it is what matters. Here our desire to avenge ourselves, to explain ourselves, to be understood, to maintain personal comfort and security, to have our lives make sense to others or be validated by them is subordinated to the deeper desire to say yes to God and join God in what he is doing. This kind of obedience might mean that, for a time at least, we are willing to look like a fool to everyone else because God’s wisdom is the foolishness of this world. (I Corinthians 1:25)

Many of us harbor a subtle belief (or at least a hope!) that we can say yes to the walk of faith and it won’t require much of us. That we can follow God’s will and never have to appear foolish. That we can take the risk of following God and still have our security. That we can be righteous and yet take subtle vengeance on those who have betrayed us. That we can be awake to spiritual reality and still accommodate ourselves to human thinking and planning. That we can fudge on faith just a little and it won’t matter. But there is nothing in Scripture that supports this! In fact, the Scriptures clearly indicate that he who finds his life purely on the level of human survival will eventually lose it and he who loses his life at this level will surely find it.

One of the most striking things about Joseph’s story is that he was not one of the main characters in the story—his was a supporting role in the truest sense of the word—and yet his choices mattered so much! We might think that our ability to walk in faith doesn’t matter all that much. We might think we can play it safe, let others take all the risks and it won’t affect anything. But Joseph’s story tells us that nothing could be further from the truth!

Joseph’s story tells us that our willingness to take the journey of faith affects everything. It tells us that the walk of faith will require something of us, perhaps more than we thought we were capable of. But it also tells us that as we say yes to the walk of faith, we too can find our place in the greatest story ever told—the story of God’s purposes lived out in and through our simple existence. We, too, can experience God-with-us like we have never experienced him before. We, too, can recognize the coming of the Divine into our hearts and call his name Jesus.

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“Sooner or later, if we follow Christ we have to risk everything in order to gain everything.  We have to gamble on the invisible and risk all that we see and taste and feel.  But we know the risk is worth it, because there is nothing more insecure than this transient world.”   Thomas Merton

xo, Kelsey Belle

A Little Passage Worth Reading : Advent

Slowing Down

If you know me at all, you know that I LOVE to surround myself with people.  I say I need about 2 hours of alone time a day to recharge and spend time with Jesus..but as for the other 22 hours in that time frame... people people people!  With this surrounding of people, I also tend to stay busy.  Is anyone with me here?  I recently had a few days to slow down over Thanksgiving Break and I realized the importance of taking a little time to yourself every once in a while.  If what I have to say isn't inspiring enough for you, have a little peak at these quotes.  Maybe they'll back me up.

"Slow down and enjoy life. It's not only the scenery you miss by going to fast-you also miss the sense of where you are going and why."  --Eddie Cantor

"Slow down and everything you are chasing will come around and catch you."  --John De Paola

"We are always getting ready to live but never living." --Ralph Waldo Emerson

I never want to be so focused of running from one thing to the next, even if it does include people you love and care about, that life just passes me by.  Take a minute and breath.  Enjoy life. Be present!

xo, Kelsey

Slowing Down

Saying Yes

Saying yes to Love works, but not in the way we might expect.  It is the working of love, not of efficiency. It involves intention but not success or failure.  It invites dedicated practice, but not achievement or competence.  It is a conscious choice toward openness instead of control.  Saying yes to Love is not a method for breaking the chains of addiction or solving our porblems, but a response to the essential goodness of Love itself.  It comes not from our desire to get away from something bad, but from our desire to welcome Something Wonderful.  It is opening our hearts to a Gift already Given.

Excerpt from The Awakened Heart by Gerald G. May

xo, Kelsey Belle

Saying Yes