Critty Joy

When Adventure Takes Over....

Why Hello there dear ones!

I must admit I did not mean to abandon this little ole bloggy but life's been...an adventure as of late.  

It's very strange to be so very happy after nine months of really hard things.  Some days it scares me to be this happy yet I choose to embrace it and live life fully.

Oh... why so happy?

Well.

The job?  It's amazing.  I love it.  I work with some amazing people and am enjoying all aspects of it.  It feels like a perfect fit.  Just over a month in and I am overwhelmed with the goodness of it all.  I wake up excited for work and it's been a long time since I felt that way (years!).  

Having my own place is also fabulous.  I am enjoying making it a home each small step at a time.  (saving money for things like a dining room table are a dream come true!).  It already feels like home and I know in the coming months it will become even more my own space that reflects who I am.

And...

There is a guy.  Who is pretty amazing and he makes my life so much more fun.  He is good at getting me out of my comfort zone and he's wonderfully sweet to me.  

Life is lovely.

I feel like this quote has been the beauty of my life lately.  This year has been about giving up dreams and gaining new ones... it's been about hoping when things felt so hopeless.  It's been about choosing joy on the hard days.  It's been full of choosing trust and even on the most frustrating days.

A year of dare...that has turned out to be more than I could have ever imagined.

I am so grateful for the gift that has been this year...the beauty that has come from ashes and the hope that has sprung forth in the most unusual of ways.

I am not sure what this blog will look like for a while...as I try to navigate my new chapter of life.   

I will still be around on facebook and twitter as I try to figure out what this space will become.  Know that I think of y'all often dear ones!

My hope is that each of you are well... what has been going on with YOU lately?

 

Much love,

 

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A Wild Adventure....

Love Does by Bob Goff.

Reality and The Sea.

Two Yellow Butterflies.

I spent the first part of my week away with the staff of my current job.

It was a wonderfully bittersweet time.  My last staff retreat.  The days are winding down fast and there will be many more lasts in the next two months.  Some I will rejoice in and some will be the hardest days of my life.

It was a great time away...I was able to enjoy some great teaching and speak with one of my favorite mentor/counselors about what this year has held.  My nights were spent staying up late with my newest and one of my dearest friends.  Girl talk ruled the night as we talked about everything from our lives to work to rating actors on a hottie scale.  

Two things have been forefront in my mind as I settle back into my routine for a little while longer.

My freedom is found in trust.  Trusting Him.  For the first time in my life I am putting complete faith in His plans for me.  As I stood in prayer over another staff member He reminded me what I had asked for this time last year...It was that I would find true freedom.  I have discovered that true freedom lies in trusting Him.  Trust is not easy for me and some days I am absolutely terrified but I know this.....He is not safe.  But He is GOOD.  So I keep moving forward...in trust.

He gives us delightful little gifts just because He loves us.  Tangible beauty that shows us He knows our hearts deeply.  We always spend time as a staff in prayer for one another at the end of the retreat.  I took a few moments to thank those who have journeyed with me over the last 6.5 years then shared my prayer request which was that I would continue to walk in faith and to trust Him.  It was such a beautiful time and it will be treasured in my heart.  As I picked up my purse and walked out the door of the place we had stayed I saw a flutter of yellow... I glanced up and there were two yellow butterflies dancing in the autumn breeze.  That moment made my heart smile.  It felt like a gift from Him saying you are on the right path just keep trusting Me.  I have great plans for you.

 

These two things give me courage to go forward...to continue to pursue the life I have imagined and have the best story He can make of this life of mine.

And when I think of those two yellow butterflies I smile and know... He loves me so.

 

Have you seen tangible beauty from Him lately?

 

(Photo source)

Live Life Daringly.

I am not a risk taker.

I don't do roller coasters or anything the least bit daring.

Over the years I have just convinced myself that this is the way life is.

If you had asked me a few years ago if faith meant risk and daring I would have laughed and said no way.

For years I thought faith was simple.  Comfortable.  Like your favorite pajamas.  It just fit...soft and perfect.  Truthfully I like to have my faith controlled....by me.

On my journey to freedom this year I have found this to be far from true.

When I made some hard decisions a few months ago they were full of risk.  Completely out of my control....daring risks.  I don't do well when I am not in control.  Add in choices that involve risk.  Terrified is the word that comes to mind.

The past few months have been hard. Harder than I thought...but at the same time I don't know a time when I have felt more alive.

He has taught me that faith is risky.  It's suppose to be.  We take step after step... and in faith we trust that the next step is there because He is who He says He is.  

Beliving in Him.  Knowing Him.  Trusting Him.  

He is faithful.

For me to be faithful to Him it means taking steps and not knowing where my foot is going to land.  It means trusting that He knows best and He is in control.  It means knowing He is there beside me....and I keep moving foward writing my story one chapter at a time.

 

Excitement and Terror war within my heart.

I am completely excited for the new things He has in store for me.

I am also completely terrifed of the new things He has in store for me.

 

More than anything over the last few months I have learned that to truly live you have to take daring risks.  To move forward... to be brave enough to know what is coming is more important than fear.

I want to be fully alive in this time He has given me.  I want to help Him write my story. One that is full of the colors of love and broad strokes of risks, courage, excitement, terror, and LIFE.

I want to live life daringly.

I must become a risk taker.  I want more.  I want the adventure He has made life to be.  

Live. Life. Daringly.  

Are you?  Can you?  Will you?

 

Joining Jen and the SDG ladies today.

Live it Fully.

I adore how creative our God is.  How unique He has made each of us.  And how He speaks to each of us in our own special way.  One of the biggest things He knows I need is confirmation.  In words.  In the Word.  He has constantly been giving me that over the last few months.

One of the words He has used has been adventure.  One of my favorite definitions of adventure is to take the chance of; dare.  I am not one to take chances but I am.  It's all part of wanting more out of my life, my story.

A friend loaned me a book this week and in the cover for me she wrote a short note to remind me life is an adventure.

In so many other ways He has brought the word to me.  Earlier this week I was chatting with a friend about how I needed to remember the word adventure more.  To see it and remember.  To know that it is a wonderful thing.

I have a white board that I write things on... prayer requests, things to remember, quotes to inspire, memory verses....  It's in a prominent place in my room and I can see it when I go to bed and when I wake up.

I realized I needed to write the word adventure at the top of my board.  So I did.

As I sat on my bed and looked at it... I decided it needed more... and this is what happened.

 

Life.  My story.  Chapter after chapter... is an adventure.  I know this now.  I am also realizing that I need to live it fully.  Take each day and make it the best that I can.  I have been learning a great deal about living for the moments that are today.  Not focusing on the past or the future (which is so hard for me!) but focusing on today and seeing all that it has to offer.  

Taking chances scares me.  Changes scare me.  Yet that is what life has been for the last few months.  It has been the most exciting and rewarding time in my life.  In my wanting more He is helping me write the most amazing things.

So my story, full of adventure and love and hope, keeps being written and chapters end and begin...and I am going to grasp each change and chance and live it fully.

That's want wanting more out of this life is about.  Living it fully.

It's a challenge but I am up to it.

Adventure awaits!