Category: inspire14

Tonight is our connect group. We meet together with friends, we have a meal and we have a time where we talk about a topic.

Some people in this group have been in it together with me for close on a decade.

Hanging out with this crew, is funny, deep, crazy, shallow and always beneficial.

The reason why my husband and I prioritize this time on a Friday night, over a date night, over pjs and Icecream and an early night is because it forces us to focus on truth together. In community, in the mess of people’s lives.

It forces us to have normal healthy conversation.

It forces us to lay down our phones and stop Instant messaging, fake conversations and sit in the company of people who care.

We take comfort in focusing on truth.

Our connect group is not intense, it’s actually super casual and this year we are focussing on the topic ‘Freedom’.

We all need freedom.

We all need to find where we are bound.

We all need truth.

It is my priority.

All week I have been getting increasingly annoyed with online communication.

To the point where I have been close to turning it off for a while.

Then I watched this video.

#truth

 

Let’s wage a war against loneliness and the lies that our culture throws at us.

Creatively you need to have proper conversations, you need to make real connection a priority, (even when it has gone pear shaped in the past).

Put down your phone.

Make an effort and go and hang with people you love.

Take comfort in truth.

Find truth in the company of deep spirited friendships.

Speak tomorrow.

Amanda

Every Saturday morning our house phone rings nice and early with news from New Zealand from Ouma and Oupa.

Maximus runs around excited singing cuckoo, cuckoo, as he remembers their clock that sings in their garage.

Every Monday night we sit on the porch and watch the kids play in the yard as we talk through the weekend, week or current issue with our kids at family night. The moment of reflection, the time of conversation, the moment in our week where we acknowledge family and friends.

Growing up every friday in our house was one that had no red meat served. Fish and Chips were often on the menu, especially during the season of Lent, leading up to Easter. A reminder of the power of the cross, confirming that the consequence of Good Friday is not a once a year event but an everyday reality for our family.

Most Sundays a Lamb roast was prepared, with potatoes, gravy, peas and corn. It was never fancy, but a reminder that the sabbath was upon us.

Each night as I calm my little two year olds beating heart, I turn down the house lights and turn on the lamps. I light candles and replace the television rumble with music and hopefully a little more peace.

We sit on the side of my little ones bed and we read books. He says ‘book more Mummy, book more’. As I roll my eyes at his new sleep aversion technique I smile at the ritual of calming his heart.

I used to calm my own thoughts each evening with reading and scripture, but lately I have found the rhythm of crochet a meditation that fills my heart with prayer and thoughts of the day. A ritual of completion, aware that the day has finished and a new one is dawning.

Every morning I awake with a hot cup of tea or coffee, I sit and allow myself to wake slowly. Lately I have been trying to not fill my heart and mind with the craziness of the online world, until I have at least sat and contemplated what the new day holds.

What are your rituals?

Without them it is hard to find a weekly rhythm and comfort in the midst of the world that evades us.

News of plane’s going missing and young boys being hurt, celebrity after celebrity taking their life and awkward conversations as people try to grapple with forgiveness.

I need to lean into ritual in this season.

It is something my soul was created for.

I am working on a weekly rhythm for this writing space, I need some framework to create within.

Then I can take comfort in that.

My thoughts are so far this…

Monday: Dream- beyond today, my hopes and yours for the future.

Tuesday: Create- What is inspiring me to create, including interviews of my favourite creatives.

Wednesday: Reflect- devotion, scripture, meditation and rest.

Thursday: leadership- humility, strength, innovation and mentoring.

Friday: family- motherhood, marriage, sisterhood and singleness.

Saturday: writing- how, what, quotes, methods and application.

Sunday: Jesus- my strength, my heart, my soul, my motivation.

This is still very fresh, but I am thinking I will mould my writing around these themes and rituals, providing direction and form to my crazy creative wanderings.

Speak tomorrow.

Lots of thinking at the moment.

Amanda