priceless time //

these past few days have been so full but i hope this will be quick.
i'm thankful for so much. especially for traditions, old and new, and family to make them with. i'm thankful for 6 hours driving to have a thanksgiving lunch with one side of the family and dinner with the other side. i'm thankful for small houses full of too many people and too much food and just enough love. i'm thankful for long drives listening to christmas music for the first time all year. i'm thankful for full days and late nights and chilly air and full moons and bright stars. the adrenaline of night air filling your lungs, chasing each other in the bright dark. i'm thankful for reunions with cousins who lived next door, after too many months and too many miles in between. i'm thankful for drives in the truck to pick up a tree in the late afternoon, through woods and fields. i'm thankful for thanksgiving leftovers, campfires, christmas list making, tree decorating, and a fluffy new comforter to come home to at the end of the day. i'm thankful for the leisure to actually paint my nails, dust my bookshelves, go through old notebooks, for the first time in ages to not have something i have to do.
i'm thankful for time. to invest in people, to make mistakes, to learn from them, to know my Jesus better, to finish books, to just be. time is a gift. don't forget to treasure it. don't let yourself miss it, because before you know it you'll be wishing you were back here, with these special humans, precious moments, and priceless time.

every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change // james 1:17

gratitude tag

What is gratitude?
It is the quality of being thankful; readiness to show appreciation for and to return kindness.
Often times we forget to show gratitude to one another. Our everyday life struggles get in the way of focusing on what we have and what we can do to show appreciation to one another. Thanksgiving isn't the only time to be reminded of what we are grateful for. We need to be reminded of the people and things that are important to us.With that, I give you the Gratitude Tag! Unlike tags that are centered around the things about thanksgiving (food and black Friday) this is a tag you can do any time of the year.
- Vanessa at Simply Me

1// What is your favorite quote or verse that reminds you to be grateful?
One that isn't directly talking about gratitude, but indirectly affects it is this: "Comparison is the thief of joy." That one always just punches me in the gut because it's so true. Comparing myself, my situation, or my belongings to others dissolves any gratitude I have for those what God has given me. Also that quote "There are people who would love to have your bad days." It's hard to comprehend how incredibly blessed and privileged I am. And 1 Thessalonians 5:18!

2// Who are you grateful for?  Agh so many people. I'm so thankful for my family and my extended family. They're just the best. And my church family. And just friends. And my sister, especially, who I'm learning to appreciate even more as we plan for her wedding in June. :')

3// What life events are you grateful for? That's a tough one.. I'm really grateful for the local mission trip our church organized this past summer. It brought all of us so much closer and God just did amazing things through it. 

 4// What is something you are grateful for but often times don't think about?
Whoaaa so many. Um, my bed (♥), a body and mind that are fully functional and capable of learning, the ability to get an education and learn so much, living in a democracy and relative security, air conditioning, and like Vanessa said, FOOD.

5// What are you going to do to show people your gratitude towards them?
Kind of tagging along to what Vanessa said, I tend to be proud or unwilling to admit that I need other people. So, when they do help, or support, or show love for me, I oftentimes resist the urge to thank them or show my gratitude towards, because I want to believe I don't need them or something? I've never really thought through or articulated this before, and it's sounding really foolish (cause it is o.o) but it's definitely something that should change. I do need people and I really am so grateful for the people in my life. It's inconsiderate to them not to show that to them. 

Thanks so much to Vanessa for tagging me! This was such a fun and beneficial post to write ^-^ To spread the word about this fabulous tag, I'll tag 5 others (hopefully I'm not overwhelming some of you that I tagged in my liebster award post too *nervous laughter*)

Abby at Abby and the Pens
Lauren at Loving our Creator
Leah at Princess Leah
Audrey at Whimsical Wanderings
Grace at Totally Graced
And anyone else who's up for it ^-^

breathe //

I trip outside and down the road in a rush of adrenaline. 

The sky burns with a thousand shades of pink and orange and red sun, sketching silhouettes of thin, thick trees older than I am. 

I came to take pictures. I take them, looking on through a poor mirror of the image in an electronic screen.

Then I put it down.

It's quiet.

I breathe.

My eyes feel insufficient to take it all in. Colors smearing into each other to a dark blue. The moon shining a blurry, silver crescent hundreds of thousands of miles away. The field stretches to woods, full of thick grass and fox tails and wet dirt and weeds. A red light flashes above the heavy piled clouds on the horizon, a lone airplane headed east. Bats flitter by overhead. Crickets chirp. The sound of cars zooming by in the distance, always rushed, always hurried, always somewhere to be, late.

The sun has all but disappeared, sinking too fast in perfect time below the horizon, as it does everyday. Another sunset for someone else, another sunrise for another. A thick fog rises across the field, cloaking the ground and trees in a misty gray. The moon continues to rise, waiting patiently on the retreating light. 

The air is cool and wet. The night is dark. The clouds, dark and looming, pile higher, the fog steadily advancing. The flashing light of the airplane is nowhere to be seen, the small lives and beating hearts on board forgotten. My feet turn to walk home, my beating heart left behind, too busy feeling for the other confused, hurting hearts in this huge minuscule world.

We're so small and so lost and so loved. God is so close. Why do we resist him? "He will fight for you- you need only be still." 

I breathe.

//

I don't understand a lot lately, and I feel it. I know and control so very little. But this I know-

"I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth."