Celebration Friday

Today I'm linking up with Emily over at Chatting at the Sky. Such a kindred spirit connection I have found in her. Today we're talking about Things We Learned in June.  I love how a blog, journal, and quiet p a u s e help us to take in the abundance of God and the many ways he chooses to invade our lives.  Often times in ways we at first may be liable to miss unless we create the pause.  So here's my p a u s e about the month of June.

1. Sometimes you get the gumption to do something and it's best to go for it then dilly, dally for the perfect time.  There is no perfect time and it usually costs us something to do the thing we want to do. My bookshelf needed a "do-over."  I'd had it a certain way forever and while it looked fine, I wake up to that baby everyday and needed a change and a little more order. So wal-lah! 
   
2. Making room for p l a y is not something I regret. Honestly. If room is made it tends to have ongoing good results in the home, workplace, and places I pour out because I'm rejuvenated and taking myself a little less seriously. 
   
3. There is such a thing as too much of a good thing.  Birthday week has been a m a z i n g. I think I have the best friends around and God was pouring down some serious lovin' through these folks.  But I have a confession and you. Will. Not. Believe. It. I had too much dessert!  As in waiter asks if you'd like dessert after dinner and my answer was "No thanks." WHAT? This may be a Susie first. A sign of old age and early dementia?! I. Said. No. To. Dessert.!?
4. Black outs are fun simply because they disrupt the ordinary.  The whole Central Coast was out for a few hours last Sunday night.  I was lingering at my sister's after the family Birthday part when the lights dimmed and then went into total blackout.  Something about gathering in the same room under the flickering lights and wondering about what caused it? How long would they be out? What ifs?  It makes for fun. Almost like when you were a kid imagining you were a princess in a castle or a giant storm was coming and you needed to create a fort with rations for the week.  
   
5. I l o v e finding a new show in the summer.  I'd heard Call the Midwife was a good filler for my beloved Downton Abbey (dear me, I'm still recovering from the season finale. Gasp!) Oh, how I love this little series.  While I'm not a nun (though I often joke you could call me "the reluctant nun" because of my singleness and devotion to Christ) I love seeing the personalities and relationships evolving with these midwives, nurses, and nuns.  I cry, laugh, hurt, and genuinely relate to so much of their experiences. And the babies being born? Grab the kleenex, just super, super touching.
6. I learned memorials are worship.  I've never been to a memorial for someone younger than me.  It was such a holy experience hearing people sing about, remember, laugh about and cry over the loss of our friend Christina to cancer at twenty-four. Twenty-four?  Yet the memorial was such a memorial stone to the impact of one life--one life surrendered, one life living with purpose, one life wrestling in the tensions of her faith. I got a window into the sacred as her life was shaken out in the gold digger's pan.  Brilliant, uniquely formed memorial stones were cleared pointing to a life that loved, risked, and surrendered in Christ. B r e a t h t a k i n g.
   
   
   
   
7. Summer is so beautiful to me and I think it has something to do with the l i g h t. The descending beauty of a sunset, the ascent of the sun, the hauntingly mysterious fog that rolls in and cascades upon the light. It captivates me each and every time.  The light amidst the darkness. And I'm always, always drawn back into the light.