It's time for my Friday link up with A Little Bit of Everything and Momfessionals.
Friends, I know we are thrilled with the fact that mask mandates are starting to be lifted just in time for summer heat to cause us to want to throw all of them in a bonfire - even that cute madras plaid one that you thought might make it all seem okay. Of course, the reasons this is such a thrilling development are many: the decreased Covid numbers, the general well-being and safety of our citizens, and of course in the words of Beth Moore:
Grab all your glosses and your balms and your stains and your sticks, friends. Let's celebrate with the first favorite this week!!!
1. All the Lipsticks!!
This Maybelline Super Stay Ink Longwear Crayon Lipstick is a great lipstick that isn't as drying as a lot of longwear lipsticks. There are a bunch of great colors to choose.
The next entry into the "My Sister Told Me To" category of products is the Laneige Lip Sleeping Mask. Let us hope that this will be the only mask we need in the 2nd half of 2021.
2. Dainty Bar Hoop Earrings from The Sanctuary Project
The The Sanctuary Project is a non-profit which employs and trains women who have suffered trafficking, abuse, and addiction. Their jewelry is designed and packaged by survivors. 100% of their sales go to providing more opportunities for these women. I recently purchased these adorable rectangular hoops from them. The earrings came with a sweet note from one of the women employed there and I absolutely love them.
3. All the Pretty Things: The Story of a Southern Girl Who Went Through the Fire to Find Her Way Home by Edie Wadsworth
Edie Wadsworth wrote a very popular blog that I followed years ago, but hadn't read in quite awhile. I recently read her memoir and it was a really compelling story of family dysfunction, loyalty, forgiveness, love, and grit. If you liked Tara Westover's Educated or Jeanette Walls's The Glass Castle, you'll like this one, too.
4. Smyrna Turkish Hand Towels
During the pandemic we had our master bathroom remodeled and just this week had the remodel on our powder room completed. I supposed if we're going to wash our hands ten times a day we're going to be doing it in style. I love everything about our new bathrooms, but I got unreasonably excited about these Turkish hand towels that I ordered this week. There are tons of colors to choose from and they come in sets of two.
5. Some Thoughts on Finding Peace in Uncertainty
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| Image: lean.org |
I have a history of needing to be right and sure. Even about the smallest things. At least before I turned 50, I had a pretty good memory and could recall details of events, birthdates, and bits of useless trivia. When my best friend from high school and I talk about the old days she often says my mind is like a steel trap. As you can imagine, this tendency to have to know all the things can be incredibly annoying. Just ask my family about watching Jeopardy with me.
But somehow lately the phrase "I don't know" comes quickly and often is accompanied by a deep satisfied sigh. Perhaps it's because my parents are getting older and I understand that there is a limit to the ways I can make that easier and less frightening for all of us. Perhaps it's because as I'm rounding the corner with kid #3, I acknowledge more and more each day that my boys are very separate beings from their mother. The idea that there would come a day when I couldn't tell you what their futures held - or even what they were doing in their day to day lives - would have shocked the heck out of me 20 years ago. Perhaps living through a pandemic when we were all completely blindsided with doubt and confusion, finding that truth seemed completely elusive was the final straw to bring me to a very strange conclusion.
I find an illogical, but very real sense of peace in uncertainty.
So I've invited Uncertainty to hang out with me more and more lately. She brings her posse: Ignorance, Confusion, and Doubt. As we sit there together, I find less and less frustration and more and more freedom. And the reason is this: They all direct me to the One certainty I have always known. The more and more uncertain about my life, my family's life, my country, and the future or potential lack of a future for my loved ones I become, the more certain I become of God.
Do not misunderstand. After directing me to God, Uncertainty, Ignorance, Confusion, and Doubt don't pack their bags and leave. Very often I don't find solutions or clarity or specific direction to take from God as He joins us. I just find Him. Nothing more. Nothing less.
Frederick Buechner writes, "God is not an answer man can give. God himself does not give answers."
Those two sentences alarmed me when I first read them. But then, I kept reading.
"It is out of the absence of God that God makes Himself present. [God} gives Himself. Into the midst of the whirlwind of His absence, He gives Himself."
What a relief. The only thing I really have to know is God. And if in the uncertainty and chaos and struggle, I never find answers, but only find Him? Well, that's a darn good deal. And I'm willing to take it.
Have a blessed weekend, Friends.
1 comment:
Comforting words. Thank you from Georgia.
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