Slowing the Hurry.

It's a Saturday, It's an apple-picking, egg nogged coffee sipping, wool sock wearing, quiet, slow day. None of this was planned. In fact, I cancelled all my plans. It struck me, and almost brings me to tears that it took me being sick to slow down. To take time to listen to the birds chirp, hear the calm before the storm, listen to the rain come down, look around and see the beauty of our first true fall day. It took a recovery day to really enjoy Jesus? To write, talk to friends, smile, take joy in the moment?

I've had to be told "haste makes waste" on more than one occasion. But how come we don't see this as a statement that pertains to all of life? We get so hurried. We bustle and we hustle. We look to the next great thing, the next exciting event, but what about now? How often do we miss out on the moments that God gives as gift. We miss out on His presence, because we don't live in the present. We plan for the future, or even think about the past, yet we try to over look today. Ya know? Sometimes it's ok to be a bit weary because it causes us to rest. And it certainly shouldn't always take me being sick to quiet down, slow down. To simply just take it all in. I've had some rough weeks recently, but mostly it's been because I've chosen to have a rotten attitude. To not see each day as grace. To not choose thankfulness, because joy comes from thankfulness. To not choose Jesus. 

I'm going to do something a bit different. Here's to 20 days of less hurry. Here's to twenty days of seeing Beauty. Here's to noticing the little things- that are really the big things. For the next twenty days I'm going to share the moments of grace. The moments that my Creator, Sustainer, Father, and Delight-er chooses to give me. And ya know what? When I choose to notice those things, I'll not fail to have something to notice. When I choose to see the things that He gives, it'll turn my day around. Maybe yours too? Here's to enjoying today, loving now, noticing beauty, slowing the hurry. Because He is beautiful, He is loving, He is present, always. 

My tea drinking, apple-picking, 1872 schoolhouse sitting, fall whimsy moments of today, all is grace. 

"He who notices a providence will never fail to have a providence to notice."