Looking for the Sunrise

  I feel like I need a challenge... a reason to write and so I figured a 30 blogs in 30 days challenge would be good for me. I'll be adding some random photography too ;) My hope is to keep this pretty positive and full of good things. I'm not going to try and hide the fact that I am struggling right now but as Amanda over at The Fundamental Home has reminded me over at her YouTube channel, I have to be active in overcoming this bout of anxiety and depression. ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRBBT0kG3xs&t=10s ) She is just a really down to earth gal that I have come to appreciate so check out her Worthy Wednesday series on anxiety and depression :) Anyway the real reason I wanted to blog today was to expand a bit on why I walked away from Facebook. I will link this to my FB profile for anyone who cares to know. So about a year maybe a year and a half ago, I cam e to the realization that FB was stealing so much from my life. I was connected to my phon...

I feel like I have written a few blog posts in honour of friends who have passed and sadly I have another. This one is close to my heart and has been percolating for a few days now. It feels sacred somehow and I'm not entirely sure I want to share it just yet so if you read know that for all the missing details and possibly inaccurate ones this is my narrative on what has easily been one of the most abstract and yet important friendships my grown up life. Long ago when the Internet was new, there existed these strange things called message boards where you interacted with complete strangers using whatever pseudonym you desired. I don't even remember how I stumbled across the Steven Curtis Chapman fan boards but I did. We were a grand group of strangers who became friends. There were so many of us. One of the younger ones started a community we fondly called Chapmanville and many of us moved in and claimed residency with fictitious jobs and so much more. It was a virtual...

The word Home brings so many images to mind, memories, smells, stories. I think it is that way for all of us. Everything we do is about home when you really think about it. We work so we can come home and enjoy our families. We travel but long for home. We raise our kids and send them off and wait for the holidays so they can come HOME. We write songs and stories and create art all about home. Home seems to be at the centre of everything. I think God created us that way for a reason... so we would long for home... for our place with Him. I know not every one believes in a literal heaven and hell and whatever I'm not here to debate that but what I know is that we all long for home all the time we are away from it. I have friends who are waiting so impatiently to bring their baby HOME from the hospital and I rejoice with them that he is finally healthy and strong and ready to take his place in the world. I remember that feeling almost 20 years ago as we waited for the discharge pap...

I have a newsletter written and I'll probably post it with pictures in the next week or so but today I just want to take a moment to say thank you to 2015and look ahead to 2016. I anticipated 2015 being a year of celebration and it truly was. We celebrated many joyous things, my parents 50th anniversary, a Hoehnle family reunion, Anna's grad and many other things. I got to know myself better and became a truer version of myself. 2015 was a really kind year and I am grateful. As with every year, there were defining moments. These moments often come at a great cost and with a great deal of pain. 2015 held a moment or two like that, my heart has been broken at the deepest part but in that brokenness I found freedom from the chains of the past. So even as my eyes fill with unshed tears, my heart sings with a deep abiding joy that only comes with true acceptance and forgiveness of others and of myself. As I look forward to tomorrow and the 365 days after that, the only word t...

To my beautiful friend who is traveling across the world for a big adventure who will spend Christmas Day in the air, Merry Christmas. To my favourite aunt who will be getting through her first Christmas without her son and to all of that special family, I still wish you a Merry Christmas for God is holding you in His hand. To my far away friend who will once again navigate this holiday without her husband by her side, I wish you and E joy and peace. To you my sweet friend who knows this Christmas is likely the last she will spend in this earthly shell  I pray you experience the miracle of Christmas in a whole new way. To my dear friends who are spending this Christmas in the hospital with their sweet newborn instead of at home, my prayer is that you will still experience all the joy new parents should! To the many of my dear ones who will be figuring out how Christmas looks now that seperations and divorce have changed your lives I pray you find the peace you need. To those ...

It's a bit of a melancholy morning. I watched a sad episode of a favourite tv show and now I can't stop thinking about my friends who will be having their first Christmas without someone dear to them and those who will be navigating this holiday for the second, third, fourth, tenth time and still miss that person. I am praying for friends who are sick and know they have to make the most of every day they have left to walk with those they love. This Christmas carries a lot of sadness and yet I am so grateful for the lessons I have learned from these same people about resilience and hope and strength and peace in all circumstances. 9 days to enjoy the preparation for a day or two of Christmas... Enjoy the moments that come along the way. Make the most of everyday and love those around you like you have a to squeE a lifetime of love into a day.

Identity is such a huge issue in our lives, isn't it? It was the topic of our small group this past week. How do we define ourselves? What voices do we listen to. It wasn't the easiest session to get through but it was a great time together as we wrestled with some of these things that define who we are. There was one quote that I really liked this week. I did some research (ok a 30 second google search but that counts, right?) about the author and was not surprised to find out she was an expert on the writings of C.S Lewis :) Anyway, here's the quote; He is the one who can tell us the reason for our existence, our place in the scheme of things, our real identity. It is an identity we can't discover for ourselves, that others can't discover in us- the mystery of who we really are. How we have chased around the world for answers to that riddle, looked in the eyes of others for some hint, some clue, hunted in the multiple worlds of pleasure a...