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What about being surprised?

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My son is a little late to the party but he has a major crush on Ana from Frozen.

Today Cate and I sat together and planned the final details of our upcoming retreat in just 14 days time. After dreaming and talking, thinking and problem solving, we sat to pray together.

A funny little side note though, is as soon as we started to pray, I could hear the background song of my son’s favourite all time tune of “let it go” blaring in the background.

The funniest part of this, is I struggle big time to let things go.

I work hard, I engage my heart and mind, I am a works kinda girl.

When we talk about surrender, it can be seen as a last resort, okay I am just letting go and whatever will be, will be.

Enter the serenity prayer…

God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.

Living one day at a time;
enjoying one moment at a time;
accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;
taking, as He did, this sinful world
as it is, not as I would have it;
trusting that He will make all things right
if I surrender to His Will;
that I may be reasonably happy in this life
and supremely happy with Him
forever in the next.
Amen.

Surrender is not so much a dumping something on the ground, with our hands on our hips saying “I GIVE UP”.

It is a simple knowledge that greater plans can be executed when we hold our ideas a little more loosely.

Just recently I was talking about twenty sixteen to my friend Kelley from Kinwomen. We were talking about the potential of what next year could look like. Now I need to put in a little footnote here. My friend Kelley is just as much as a details/ control-ish kinda/ driven/ choleric personality as me. So the wisdom that came out of her mouth stopped me profoundly.

She said this;

“Amanda, what if we just let God surprise us!”

Yes, what if the answer is just allowing more surprises to come our way?

Yes, engage.

Yes, pursue truth and hope and wisdom.

But what if the song of Let it go, became an anthem in our current season and we became courageous warriors, who left the worrying and control to a greater power.

What if?

We allowed a little more surprise in our everyday life.

What could possibly come of it?

I think the art of surrender, is so much more than a dropping of the weight, it is a releasing the end of the story to the potential of being blown away by the limitless possibilities.

Frozen, you may be so addictive for our littles, because you actually are speaking truth into the atmosphere, that we just need to surrender a little more.

Till tomorrow, I’m seeking serenity and trying desperately to just let that stuff go.

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Finding Shelter in the midst of the storm

Fremantle, inspiration

Fremantle, inspiration

Many people don’t understand the place of transition, because they struggle to give priority to placement in their season. Some people live in their tomorrow, hoping, dreaming, vision casting and wishing away their today. Most people live in their yesterday reframing their every detail by what has gone before. There are a small group of wandering souls, that live in their today, who are learning from their yesterday and are hopeful for their tomorrow.

Storms come and storms go, times when we feel like every little piece of the universe is throwing its absolute best to derail us.

I find transition seasons bring unforeseen storms that try to unsettle us.

Are you in a storm?

I see you.

Lately, I have been spellbound as I have been reading Padraig O Tuama’s book In the Shelter, finding a place in the world. He is a poet, that is seeking a new way to find his shelter in the world. His words are full of beauty, life and hope. He takes his readers on a journey of discovery acknowledging every place that we find ourselves captive in.

A place of disapointment,

A place of deferred hope,

He speaks to the forgotten, the displaced, the wanderers and the dreamers.

He says hello to each and every one of us, giving place and priority to the seasons we find ourselves in.

He quotes David Wagoner;

“Stand Still. The trees ahead and bushes beside you.

Are not lost. Wherever you are is called Here.

And you must treat it as a powerful stranger.”

Padrig goes onto to say;

“The truth of this poem is an old truth. There are places you wish to go, there are places you desperately wish you never left, there are places you imagine you should be, and there is a place called here.”

We need to stand still in our here and acknowledge it’s emotion. Shame often stops us from really admitting to ourselves what is happening in our today. Unless we name it, unless we confront it, unless we say hello to the truth of our place, we struggle to find a safe shelter that protects us from being washed away in it’s storm.

Are you running away from your today?

Are you seeking direction for your tomorrow?

Are you desperately trying to recover your dignity from your yesterday?

I say hello to you, in the place you find yourself in and am praying that you find shelter in the midst of your storm.

The only way I have found any sense of peace in my place of transition, is awaiting on direction and hope from One who protects, guides and brings his acknowledgement of my storm.

Psalm 91: 1-2 has become one of my resting places;

“He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.

I will say to the LORD, “My refuge and my fortress, My God, in whom I trust!”

He is our refuge,

He is our shelter,

His shadow casts a rim of protection that guides and leads me in the midst of my personal storms.

He is not only a shelter, he is a fortress that builds up and around me as I seek placement in times of uncertainty.

The reason I can say this, is because the more I learn, the more I experience, the more I delve deeper into relationship with Him, the more He proves faithful.

Every step along the way.

Every moment that I am unsure.

Every time I get it a little wrong.

Every time I get it a lot wrong.

He is constant. He is steady. He is waiting to guide me back to a place that brings hope, even when I feel hopeless.

No matter where you are today, I believe you are seen and known.

That storm will not take you out.

Dig deep my friend.

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the space between where you are and where you want to be

Sydney, creativity, goals
Sydney, creativity, goals
Sydney, Flowers.

Do you feel like you were made for something more?

Have you let go of an old season but are unable to find the words to explain your new one?

Do you have an idea, that will take a whole heap of courage to actually see it realise?

Are you stuck, but the only thing holding you from moving forward is fear of the unknown?

The thing you are most afraid of is called the Liminal Space.

The Liminal Space, is an artistic word to describe the space when you are on the threshold of something new and wonderful, but you are just not there yet.

Another way to put it, in my words “The in-between”.

We spend more days, in seasons of transition, than we actually do in seasons of success, so how come we feel so ashamed of describing our days this way?

If we told a friend, I am just about to do something cool, I just don’t know what it is yet, they would probably look at you a little funny and say “Okay, then.”

I love this idea of threshold.

the magnitude or intensity that must be exceeded for a certain reaction, phenomenon, result, or condition to occur or be manifested.

My definition is this…’we are destined for purpose, but are waiting in a position of hope for its discovery.’

The funny thing I am discovering about the Liminal Space (the moments right at the threshold of new) is we can so easily lose the potency of these precious moments, by filling our time with just anything, rather than the right things.

When my son Maximus had just turned one, I had a series of brilliant job offers. It was honestly the hardest decision in this season to say no, to these opportunities. I knew without a doubt that I needed to succumb to the in-between. I was on a journey of discovery and filling my time with anything, just so I could escape the Liminal Space, would have stopped the growth and potential in my in-between.

When we let go of an old season with finality and grace, it propels us into a new space of maturity.

When we hold onto anger, disappointment, lack of forgiveness and strife, it holds us captive in a holding pattern in the liminal and we will do anything to grab onto something that will drag us out of that funk.

I believe the space between the known and the unknown, teaches us more than any opportunity does.

One of my favourite writers Richard Rohr says this of the Liminal Space;

a unique spiritual position where human beings hate to be but where the biblical God is always leading them. It is when you have left the tried and true, but have not yet been able to replace it with anything else. It is when you are finally out of the way. It is when you are between your old comfort zone and any possible new answer. If you are not trained in how to hold anxiety, how to live with ambiguity, how to entrust and wait, you will run…anything to flee this terrible cloud of unknowing.

Are you willing to say no to some things, so you can say yes to great things, in the space of unknowing?

Are you happy to walk slowly in an open space of transition, rather than filling your days with something, just so you feel safe?

This is the walk of the in-between.

To keep hoping,

To keep discovering,

To keep dreaming,

but not to fill your days with something or someone, just so you can escape the terrible feeling of not knowing.

I have found, we need to take small steps, breathe deep breaths, read great words, think brilliant thoughts and reconnect with our true purpose in these seasons of change.

Beauty is awaiting discovery in the in-between.

Take a step.

Move with grace.

Don’t just fill your days with anything though, dig deep and move forward with purpose.

Let peace lead you home.

It has always been my best navigating friend.

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