ECHOES of NOW: ordinary moments.

There is a small, red, hardcover book that sits at my little english desk, or on my robin's egg blue bedside table, or on my grandmother's vintage trunk which I often write on, or in my purse, or generally in the vicinity of wherever I might be when the urge to write should happen upon me. Or when it doesn't. Yes, there are times when I simply do not want to write. Not because it's work, but because it's hard. There are times when the words flit just a little too far out of reach, when the idea is as mist rising from the sea, beautiful yet intangible. There are times when the ideas are so deep, to bring them to the surface is pain unimaginable. When thoughts remind me of all that was, left behind in a different life. Many different lives. Far different from the one I currently possess. And I have loved them all. I love the one I am currently in the midst of more than I can say. And I will love many, many more before my days are through, I'm sure. All this is what I would try or attempt to consider writing. All that I do not quite yet know how to put to words. But, that is the point. The writer's craft. To find the words for which there are none yet.

The little bright red book is a wonderful companion. When writing has become too hard. When I lack what it takes to muster the strength to say what I feel.

"Don't try to figure out what other people want to hear from you; figure out what you have to say. It's the one and only thing you have to offer."

-Barbara Kingsolver

"There are significant moments in everyone's day that can make literature. That's what you ought to write about.."

-Raymond Carvar

This is what it holds between its covers. This is what I would write. Those little bits of ordinary, those moments that flit by and if unnoticed, are lost forever. This is what makes up our lives, the million little moments, the beautifully ordinary, the untold...I'm just one woman, living one life filled by many lives, but I would tell of this ordinary, wonderful, extraordinary life He has given. And it is extraordinary because, like a veil lifted, I am gazing with new eyes on all I see. For I would see with His eyes, I would look out and savor all that is here in this moment.

I'm not trying to be some amazing writer who would go down in history. I'm not looking to write some brilliant piece that would be remembered long after I'm gone. I just want you to know, I'm writing this for you, right now, in this moment. Here. Now. To remind you, when your days are hard, when the strength to keep going feels like it has fled, you may remember something you've read here...a struggle, a burden, a gift, His faithfulness, and that you will be pressed deeper into your King. That maybe, on those days, you will remember you are never alone, not because of something I've written reminding you of this, but because you know your God, that He is real, that He loves you more than you can imagine, and you will be compelled to dig deep into His Word, letting the roots of your soul grow to depths unknown in all He is.

This is what I desire. I'm not looking to try and write deep every single time I post, but no matter what I say, no matter what I do, I hope you are constantly reminded how crazy Jesus is about you. More than you'll ever know. I feel like we cannot possibly hear that enough, for even when we hear it daily, we tend to brush it aside. But, this is the one thing that should utterly astound us! He is pursuing us! He is pursuing you. You. As if you were the only person in this vast universe of ours. Yeah. Seriously.

So, though there may be times that I simply write about life, about the ordinary, about the little tiny moments in this life of mine, I pray that you will see the extraordinary through the ordinary. For when you do, it will change your life. It will change all you see before you. Your God came to earth as the most ordinary of men, He had no beauty that anyone would even notice Him, yet, our Father used His Son as the most extraordinary of ordinary examples. I know, kinda mind blowing, huh? And it seems to me, in my life at least, that He works continually in this way, causing the smallest of things, the things I would easily miss at times, to speak to the core of my soul in ways huge amazing things may not speak. Oh, of course there have been some pretty astoundingly huge things He's used, but on a day in and day out basis, it tends to be those little things that draw my heart closer to His. He's amazing like that:)