Planning Tomorrow

“A year from now you will wish you had started today.”

-Karen Lamb

    If I had the chance to change the calendar, I would move January to the Spring. As we come out of Winter hibernation, nature and people seem to filled with new life. We have more energy, are a little happier, and plan all kinds of interesting things for the season - gardening anyone? It seems to me then, that Spring would be the perfect time for January and New Year resolutions.
   
    Yet January happens to be in the Winter. In the coldest and darkest time of the year. And this is the time when we’re expected to come up with New Year resolutions! No wonder so many of us don’t keep up with our decisions past a few weeks.

    However, I still believe this is a good time for general life planning. With the Holidays now pretty much behind, we can focus on the year ahead. And in the quietness of Winter there is a great opportunity for soul searching and reflection. To stop and think.

    Take a few moments to look deep into your life. Is it headed in the direction you want? As human beings with free choice we have, to a great extent, the power to decide where our lives are going to go. Think for example about your financial situation, your health, your relationships, your schedule, and your home environment as these have a big impact on your well being. How satisfied are you with these areas of your life?

    If you are content with the course your life is taking then resolve to make it even better. To grow and learn more. To deepen your relationship with God and become a better you. We all have plenty of room for improvement. At the same time enjoy the fruit of the much you have accomplished. It’s ok to sit back and relax. You should not be constantly on the go.

    If you examine your life and decide that is headed the wrong way, then it’s time to put on the breaks and make a U-turn! Time to take a different road. You can either start by making small easy changes, or you can take the bull by its horns and make it go the other way.

    Whatever the outcome of the New Year know this: God’s mercies are new every morning. Every morning! Not just once a year when we make New Year resolutions. Not once a month or every two weeks when we get our paychecks. No! His mercies are new every morning. This means that every day we have the opportunity to start fresh. To turn the page and write a new chapter. With God, every day is a great day for a new you!

    My plan for the coming year is to totally dive in into the abundant life God has promised. I don't know the details of this journey, but I’m trusting the Driver. As part of it, this blog is undergoing some big transformations that I just can't wait to share with you! In it I'll tell you all I've learned and will learn about abundant living and encourage you to join in on the journey.
    
    We were promised an abundant life. Not a mediocre or poor quality life. Abundant life! All of us. Let’s grab that promise and make it ours today!    

   Abundant life, here we come!

The People In Our Lives

 "Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. 

We have only today. Let us begin."

-Mother Theresa

    This December has been difficult. Among other important dates, it marks my parents’ wedding anniversary. They would have celebrated 45 years of marriage.

    Would have…

    This year the celebration was different. I reminisced on their tender love story and remembered longingly the blessing they were in my life. The date now marks a day that was, a day filled with beautiful memories of the two people who gave me life.

    Then there are the Holidays. Like others around the world, these past days have been filled with many preparations. Because I’ve spent the last few years simplifying my life, I must confess that this season has been more enjoyable. I’ve been able to make my own Christmas greeting cards, spend time in the kitchen creating traditional Portuguese delicacies, read and re-read every greeting card received either via snail mail or electronically, wrapped carefully chosen gifts for those I love, and have enjoyed many quiet moments reading the story of Christmas. What a love God has for us, I just can’t comprehend it. But it has been nice to just enjoy this season without the usual stress.

    However, in the midst of all the joy and cheer I also feel sadness. Sadness that for the first time in my life I don’t get to share all of this excitement with my mother. Living countries apart, we would spend hours sharing every little detail of our days with each other, and Holidays were an exciting time. What an unbelievable emptiness her death left in my life, words can’t simply explain.

    My first Christmas as an orphan of mother and father...

    But God, who does not waste our pain, has been helping me see past my grief into deeper truths. And from where I stand I am strongly reminded of what is most important in this one life we’ve been given. So I see an opportunity. An opportunity to once again learn that the most important in this world are the people who were given to be part of our lives. An opportunity to learn and put into practice what I’m learning.

    You see, tomorrow the greetings cards will have been read, the food will have been eaten, and the presents unwrapped. Christmas will have come and gone and our attention directed to the next big thing. Time constantly moving forward causing tomorrow to become yesterday.

    What hopefully won’t have changed, though not guaranteed, are the people with whom we share all of this with. The people whom God placed in our lives to shape us and be influenced by us. In the midst of all the activity of the season, the people are what truly matters.

    Take a moment to think of your circle of influence. Who are the people in it? Your spouse, given to be your life partner and best friend. Show them how much you appreciate them. Your children, given for you to guide and love. Show them how proud you are of the persons they are. Your parents, given to guide and love you. Show how much you love them by giving them your time, attention, and respect. Your family and your friends, incredible blessings from God. What about your enemies? Used by God to teach you grace and forgiveness. Forgive them. Or perhaps you’re the one in need of forgiveness. Ask for it. How beautiful are restored relationships. What about your neighbors and the stranger you see often in the street?

    Remember also yourself, uniquely created by a loving God. Blessed with life, talents, and gifts to be used in the service of God and of others. What a treasure you are.

    How often we ignore others and ourselves.

    We won’t be in each others’ lives forever. That is the reality of life in this world. So let’s make the best of the time we’re given together! What about beginning today, now, by closing your computer and all other electronic devices and go spend precious time connecting with your loved ones? Show how much you love and appreciate them.
    
    I’m going to do the same.

    Merry Christmas!

The Letter

“Time going by fast is an opportunity to refocus on what is most important in life.”

- my mother

I was going through some of the things I brought from my mom’s house that I want to organize into a legacy scrapbook. There are letters between her and my dad, poems, old documents, pictures, and several other things. Reminders of a beautiful story that transformed this world into a better place. 

Among those papers I found a letter that my mom wrote to me and my siblings shortly after my dad had passed away. She was trying to decide the direction we should take as a family after such a loss, and wrote us a letter filled with love, encouragement, guidance, and wisdom. What a treasure I found! 

One of the things my mom wrote was how fast time was passing by. It had been three months since my father had died and we were going through a major life change with a possible international move ahead of us. What’s interesting is that my mother said time going by fast was a good thing. This caught me by surprise as we usually see time flying by as something negative. When time speeds through, we believe we don’t have the opportunity to do the many things we feel we have to do. 

From my mom’s perspective though, the realization that time was going by fast was an opportunity to refocus on what was most important in life.

Like many families, we were preoccupied with daily life, our jobs, school, meals, home management, vacations, and the many things that filled our days. But all seemed so unimportant after losing my father. We learned that  the plans we humans make are subject to changes and interruptions, and the things that we spend our lives running after and desire to possess, have little true value after all.

I was barely out of my teen years when my dad died. Although I learned important truths at that time, this desire to focus on what’s most important didn’t happen personally until a few years ago God took me on an adventure to the Last Frontier, Alaska. More specifically when we purchased a little home out in the woods. It was there, for the first time ever away from city life and in the quietness of the forest, that my eyes were opened to the amazing benefits of a simple life focused on what matters most.

I was sharing with friends the benefits of a simple life and how liberating it was when one of them asked me to help her simplify a room in her house. She explained that among other things, the room had boxes of stuff from when she had moved into her house 10 years ago. I told her I would be happy to help, as long as she knew that I had absolutely no attachment to her stuff. Her eyes opened up wide and with fear she began telling me what she absolutely could not depart with. In the end the room saw little change. 

I don’t blame her. We all get attached to things. A while back I almost gave my wedding dress to a friend who was getting married. The dress is timeless and beautiful, and similar to what she was looking for. It had been in a box since I had gotten married, so I offered my friend to try it out. I was delighted it could be put to good use. All was well until I saw her with the dress on. All of a sudden my attachment to it became too strong and I just couldn’t give it away. This story could’ve had a happy ending, with a bride walking down the aisle with that beautiful dress. Instead the dress went back inside the box and stored in the garage where it still lives to this day, a reminder that I still have a lot to learn. How sad. 

It’s so difficult to get rid of our stuff because we put our hearts and soul into it. We must however, change our relationship with these objects. We have held on so tight to all these things, that now we are over-worked, stressed out, and sick just trying to maintain them. We have become slaves of our stuff. Its time to free ourselves! 

The reality is that these plastic, wooden, or metal objects we love so much, don’t love us back. The clothes we so much like, could care less about us. The things we are so strongly attached to have no feelings toward us. My love for my wedding dress is not reciprocated. 

What society tells will bring us happiness is wrong. All the stuff we’ve been buying and bringing into our lives is causing more stress than happiness. It may bring temporary fun, but not happiness.

Its time to move forward! Time to let go of what’s enslaving us, the things that keep us down and distracted. Time to run for freedom, pursue peace, and start living an abundant life. Time to invest in you and in the people who are part of you.

As my mom counseled me and my siblings in that letter written so many years ago, the way to achieve this abundant life is by focusing on the bright and beautiful future God has for us. With that as our focus, we will begin to see the things of this world for what they truly are. As having no value, temporary, and of no relevant importance. Then slowly our eyes will be opened to what has true worth. 

   
    

Hunting Down Peace

      "Peace is the beauty of life. It is sunshine. It is the smile of a child, the love of a mother, the joy of a father, the togetherness of a family. It is the advancement of man, the victory of a just cause, the triumph of truth."

Menachem Begin

    
    Peace…This word has been in my mind a lot lately. 

    If we look at the world around us we can tell there is less and less peace and more and more turmoil. Just recently I attended a workshop on what to do during an active shooting situation. How sad that this is something we need to learn, but it’s the reality of life in this planet.
    
     Most of us want to live peaceful lives and the Bible does counsel us to seek peace and pursue it. (Psalm 43:14.) What does it mean to pursue? The dictionary defines pursue as to follow (someone or something) in order to catch or attack them. We are to seek peace, catch it, and make it ours! How can we do that?
    
     A few years ago I began a journey to live a more simple life, free from the many distractions that are constantly trying to get my attention. Although initially forced on me and though not always easy, it has been a very rewarding experience. Besides getting rid of many of my belongings, God has led me to let go of other things besides stuff. One of them was the daily news. I used to catch up on the news morning and evening. I wanted to know what was going on in the world. However, after the last US presidential elections, I became fatigued with my twice daily routine of catching up on the news. I realized that I was putting on my shoulders problems that I could not solve. I was worrying about things that were out of my control and that were distracting me from most important aspects of my life.
    
     I am so glad I did this. My life has been so much more calm. I don’t know how I would’ve survived this past year, if I was carrying the weight of the world on my shoulders on top of everything else I’ve been going through.
    
     Often peace comes as that inner calm we receive from God when the world is falling apart around us, and other times He encourages us to let go of things that are getting in the day of that peace. 
    
     Each one of us has a different journey. Examine yours and see if there is anything that is robbing you of peace. Often the objects that inhabit our homes cause us to feel stressed out. If this is your case, then it’s time to purge your living space from all the extra stuff. But you may also have to purge from your life other things such as old habits, toxic relationships, poor health practices, gossiping, old ideas, grudges, hate, and anything that can get in the way of you catching peace and making it yours.
    
     Peace is truly a treasure in this crazy world we live in. Don’t rest until it’s yours. Hunt it down! 
     Live a simple life, do good, seek peace, and pursue it!

 

Gifts to Remember

    "Happiness is only real when shared."

-Jon Krakauer

    Season 4 of Fixer Upper is on hgtv.com. I was so excited when I found out that I wanted to watch all the episodes in a row! Since we don’t have cable, I hadn’t watched the last season of this show. I will, somewhat patiently, wait to see the final season 5.
   
    While watching the show online, I noticed the program was interrupted often for commercials. Since Christmas is just around the corner, most of the commercials are about this season and the many wonderful things I should buy to have a perfect Christmas. I was encouraged to switch cell phone carriers, told I should shop for the perfect toys at a certain store, beautiful clothes at a different one, buy a TV, and a brand new car. If I buy these things, me and my family will have the happy smiles I saw on the TV and thus have a perfect holiday season. If only…
   
    The Holidays are supposedly the happiest time of the year. I think we all know how this time of the year should be, but often the reality is far from it. Super crowded stores, credit card debt, an unrealistic quest for perfection, and an extra amount of stress are what many of us experience during this happy time. A quick Pinterest search on Christmas will tell us the movies to watch, how to decorate our house, the gifts we should give, the best foods to prepare, and the ugliest Christmas sweater to buy.

    But the season will come and go, and if we succumb to the pressures  to buy what we are told will make the perfect Holiday, we may have nothing to show for it except debt and clutter.

    Since presents are a huge part of Christmas, I asked a group of people who are on this journey to de-clutter their homes how they celebrate Christmas. I was needing some ideas. Their answers were great so here’s a list of suggestions for gifts that will make a difference.

Something they want, something they need, something to wear, and something to read. - Many people follow this rule when purchasing presents at Christmas and it is a great option to give gifts with a purpose.

Consumables - gifts that we can use without causing more clutter. Examples would be gift cards, lotions, perfume, candles, essential oils, food, calendars, and movie tickets among others.

Charity - you can donate to a favorite charity in someone’s name. I once received this as a gift on Christmas, and it’s one of those few gifts I still remember receiving. ADRA and Samaritan’s Purse have gift catalogs that you can choose where your donation goes to. Fresh water, building schools, planting gardens, or raising farm animals are some examples of how your gift can be used.
Feeding the homeless together as a family at your local soup kitchen or creating gift baskets for families in need are some great options as well. Look for ways to serve. For further inspiration on this, check out what Nancy W. Gavin and her family did.
 
Experiences - A trip to the zoo or local museums, tickets to a game, or a day of skiing. Classes such as music lessons, craft classes, or a writing class. A family trip whether it is just a day trip, a weekend getaway, or even a longer trip later in the year. One person said they were going RVing this Christmas. 
 
Time - One of my favorite answers came from a woman who said she always asked for time with her children. Don’t we all enjoy spending time with our loved ones? In this super fast paced world, the gift of time is probably one of the best! Movies, lunches, dinners, museum visits, hikes, weekend trips, baking cookies, going out for tea/coffee, trying different workout places, taking a class together were some of her suggestions.

    I hope this list will inspire and encourage you when choosing gifts this Christmas. Simplify this Holiday season, enjoy the company of your loved ones, don't go into the debt, look for opportunities to serve, and truly enjoy this happiest time of the year.