Yesterday I talked about being a chicken and part of my "chicken-ness" is being away from home. I am not just a chicken..I am also a "fraydee cat!"
Sometimes for an hour...
Sometimes for a weekend..
and absolutely when I am all the way around the world...
BUT (dang big but) I still do it.
I still go...I push through the anxiety (sorta) wipe away the tears (several hundred times) pull up my boot straps and go...even though I want to turn around and run the opposite way.
Good thing I don't, because 99.9 times out of 100...I am blessed, I feel so good and have learned something that I would have missed, had I run the other way.
I took the photo above almost one year ago today looking out "my window" in my room during my trip to South Africa. As homesick as I get while by myself on the other side of the globe...I really am not "by myself" because in those trees, and down on the lawn are the most wonderful (and loud) birds you would ever hear (only in a zoo here in the states.) I love love love the feeling and the sounds of the morning and it takes all of my anxiety and "fray-dee cat-ness" away.
REMEMBER..
To calm our fears and anxieties, all we have to do is stop, be quiet and listen..
"Shhh!"
No..it might not be birds and you might not be on the other side of the world...but if you would just STOP...and listen...to the quiet yet LOUD message that is there for you...
You will feel better...and remember...it might not be "exactly what you want to hear"..but that is exactly where and when you need to apply your faith, like a thick coat of sunscreen and keep on going.
DO NOT TURN AROUND AND RUN.
Here is a really great excerpt from the "Windows of the Soul" study we are working on and if you have the book, I suggest reading the "Windows of the Wilderness" section...focus on page 111-112.
"..."We don't like risk" said Howard Macy, "and even though the frontiers of spiritual growth require it, we would prefer to avoid it" "...We prefer comfortable safety to risk"
This morning my heart and creative soul really wishes to be right there..standing at that window, on the other side of the globe...listining to what the birds have to tell me (yes, look at the photos, there are not random wild animals roaming through the yards like my boys think)
