"They keep coming up new all the time - things to perplex you, you know. You settle one question and there's another right after. There are so many things to be thought over and decided when you're beginning to grow up. It keeps me busy all the time thinking them over and deciding what's right. It's a serious thing to grow up, isn't it, Marilla?" (Lucy Maud Montgomery)

For all the ways Christians in "Christian Culture" today can grow, I don't know any topic that wouldn't improved by admitting we don't know everything more often. We don't ALWAYS have a defending, prepared answer ready. I'll never forget the life-changing value this admittance had on my life.

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Don Shorey's Rule Number 8 in "12 Small Rules To Get Over Ourselves and Take A Deep Breath": https://www.instagram.com/p/CKXETNXBc7Q/

"Shall we make a new rule of life from tonight: always try to be a little kinder than is necessary?" J.M. Barrie

Expounding on the concept, heart of, richness-available, and "best of" self-care... and God's heart for us.

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Maker's Hollow Conversations On Rest, as mentioned in this episode:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/s2e02-on-rest-makers-hollow-conversations-episode-1/id1507890671?i=1000512052786

Not a persuasion piece on why anyone else "should want," but a personal testimony on why I *wanted* to be a mother before I was one. "And what do all the great words come to in the end, but that? I love you- I am at rest with you- I have come home." (Dorothy L. Sayers)

In-between "me" and "him and then the "us" was a time where our lives merged. The first memories of us as us. This is a sacred, living, continued stage that should take you "there" as often as possible.

"To me it is really important to live in what I call the spaces in-between. Bus stations, trains, taxis, or waiting rooms in airports are the best places because you are open to destiny, you are open to everything and anything can happen." (Marina Abramovic)

"We must bless without wanting to manipulate. Without insisting that everything be straightened out right now. Without insisting that our truth be known. This means simply turning whoever it is we need to bless over to God, knowing that God's powerful love will do what our own feeble love or lack of it won't." (Madeleine L'Engle)

A few thoughts from someone who has been carried through hardship over and over, and wants you to know how impactful the little efforts to ease and show up are. Thank YOU.

I cringe a little when "people" insist we need to be dreaming BIG. In relation to size, only. "The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams." (Eleanor Roosevelt) Some GOOD dreams may have large ramifications and ideas, and that is beautiful. But other good dreams are deliciously simple. Dream well!

On paying attention and being grateful! "It all matters. That someone turns off the lamp, says hello to the invalid, listens to the repeated tale, folds the abandoned laundry, plays the game fairly, acknowledges help, gives credit, says goodnight, resists temptation, wipes the counter, makes the bed, tips the waitress, remembers the illness, congratulated the successes, accepts the consequences, takes a stand, steps up, offers a hand, goes first, goes last, chooses the small portion, teaches the child, tends to the dying, comforts the grieving, removes the splinter, wipes the tear, directs the lost, touches the heart. What is most beautiful, is least acknowledged. What is worth dying for is barely noticed." L. McBride

Thinking through the importance of "ask, and it will be given to you." Starting with these words from Fred Rogers:"In times of stress, the best thing we can do for each other is to listen with our ears and our hearts and to be assured that our questions are just as important as our answers."

Primarily dwelling in the last two chapters of scripture, Revelation 21 + 22, to frame a view of compassionate hearts, action, and hope as we live, learn, and endure all this life means. How to "suffer with," like the word compassion means.

A special joint-episode podcast with Don Shorey from No Mere Mortals. Talking about story in Part 1 right here! Go to "No Mere Mortals" episode #8 for Part 2! "Life is a story. Why do we die? Because we live. Why do we live? Because our Maker opened His mouth and began to tell a story.

Do not fear the shadowy places. You will never be the first one there. Another went ahead and down until He came out the other side.

Drink your wine. Laugh from your gut. Burden your moments with thankfulness. Be as empty as you can be when that clock winds down. Spend your life. And if time is a river, may you leave a wake." (N.D. Wilson)

Reading an excerpt from chapter 9 of my book "Meet Mama Bear." "Gone from my sight. That is all. She is just as large in mast, hull and spar as she was when she left my side. And, she is just as able to bear her load of living freight to her destined port. Her diminished size is in me, not in her. And, just at the moment when someone says, 'There, she is gone,' there are other eyes watching her coming, and other voices ready to take up the glad shout, 'Here she comes!' And that is dying." (Henry Van Dyke)