detached.

I love stuff. Period. I love experiences, big adventures to new cities, brand new journals to fill, anything made by Apple, a new toy for JMan, and (just about) anything off Amazon Prime. I fill my life with color, noise, memory making, and joy - and sometimes, in the form of stuff.

In addition to being a stuff lover, I'm also an experiential learner, one who often requires a little extra instruction every now and then. This week's lesson? Detachment from stuff. Gratitude for life.

In this week, I've had the privilege of experiencing so much more as a result of having a little bit less. While some construction was taking place on our apartment, we needed a roof over our heads. Being away from our home required a new commute for me to work, which meant relying on a second car we don't yet own. My bank account took a hit from a Superbowl ticketing scam that left me short on cash...and on tickets. All in all, I was seeing less and, yet, experiencing more.

I felt sheer bliss in sharing dinner and a King Street walk with my high school best friend and her family. I relished in a staycation with my husband at our cousins' home on the beach. I've been lent TWO cars..yes. two. I had the pleasure of receiving a phone call from a precious friend who is CRUSHING her goals and rocking this world. I enjoyed coffee with a friend and talked life, love, and the dream pursuit. I connected with a new friend over past experiences and career goals. I was treated to gals only date night, for which my tab was paid out of the loving kindness of my childhood best friend. I received the ultimate surprise, a profile book and playlist for my very first Spinning® class (complete with music and videos). I sipped coffee and talked life with two crazy great women who inspire me daily. I've fallen head over heels in love with the hubs, more-so than ever before. 

And I'm ready to do it all over again.

As I grow up and open up, I'm (uber) present to the trials we face as a community of human beings. At the same time I was leaving my apartment and losing stuff, many of my friends were stunned with the news of a loved one lost or a devastating miscarriage. With each phone call or email of more news from those I love, the "hardships" of my own week disappeared. The material things in my life had (and have) no value. I detached.

And I was free.

Free to love fully. Free to be for those around me. Free to live in joy instead of bitterness or doubt.

When I reflect on the circumstances of any week (and this one in-particular) - the tangible pieces of events that occurred - I see less. When I center on matters of the heart, the relationships we have and the connectedness we experience as a result, I am overwhelmed by the magnitude of the more.  The fellowship we share. The gratitude we offer. Living to love one another out of heartache and into healing. Those are the intangibles that make our lives rich. The rest is just stuff. And when we are for those around us, we foster a fullness that is the closest thing to real life this side of Heaven. 

"My Kingdom is not of this world...." John 18:36

Thank the Lord.

new year, new theme.

For the past several years, I've dabbled in and out of the blogging world - always coming back to this page, a journey to the heartsong. The title came from my personal view on this extraordinary life - that it is a journey, ultimately, to our truest life calling - that one that was etched on our hearts before time had definition.

The process of reaching in to begin reaching out has brought me into a new season - one of stillness, presence, and commitment to the right here and now. I'm stepping back from the journey as a whole and into the promise of today. I do this by living with a daily heart.

Anyone who knows me is well aware of one overarching theme of my life: GOALS! I wake up to connect the potential of a human being to his or her reality, and simply watch the sparks fly. Walking alongside an individual in #thegoallife process lights my fire - from the inside out - and I cannot get enough. I recently launched PowerHouse Living alongside my dear friend and fellow goaler, Mishelle Lee (meet her!) to achieve this very moment - forever.

So transitioning into a daily heart is work for me, to say the least.

I see life one, five, and ten years out. I have career goals, personal endeavors, and health stats I want to see when I am 45. In the evolving process of identifying these goals for my own life and partnering with others to develop their own, I am increasingly present to the power of stillness. To move forward often requires we stand still, strong, firm, and aware of what is in front of and around us. This often practice allows us to develop goals from a place of possibility rather than "fix-it" (a place from which my goals were once born, and a place in which they were quickly laid to rest).  It improves our self-awareness, steadies our perspective, and - most noticeably - enhances our joyfactor (yes. 100% a word).

So what does it look like?

1) Gratitude. In the form of photos, a journal, or morning prayers of acknowledgement, gratitude is a fundamental part of living life with a daily heart. The physical benefits of practicing gratitude have long been a topic of conversation in the health industry, with all signs pointing to positive results.

2) Perspective. I recently completed a few weeks worth of laundry that piled up from a full holiday season of work, travel, and visitors. While folding what felt like load #5,259, I stepped back from my bed and surveyed the details. I was overcome by the realization of the amount of God's provision that was evident in that laundry: a marriage through which I am refined and blessed every day. A family who loves hard and gives hard, simply because they want to. The opportunity to spend time with individuals - some familiar, some not so familiar - throughout my favorite time of year. The ability to do so. much. laundry. at the touch of a button. Clean water. A warm home. And all that goes in between. Suddenly, that laundry was not a chore. It was a blessing. That "daily" actually illustrated the very depths of my heart.

3) Repetition. What are the routine parts of my day? Where are those moments that pop up so frequently that I barely notice them? In practicing stillness within the repetition, I've found those moments - walking the dog with my husband, my three minute bike ride to work, a catch up call with my sister - to have such richness, intention, and joy. Within the repetition of my day, I find peace. In repetition, there is reflection...of God's hand in the details of my life, especially the daily details.

The above is a practice - not a hard and fast set of guidelines. Quite the opposite in fact. These are the pieces that have naturally come out of my focus on presence. And one truth remains clear: He holds tomorrow.

And so I rest in the provision and relish in the now.