Remember to breathe. To plant your feet in the sunshine, letting its warmth bring life as it begins to erase the scars that have been etched into your skin.
Remember to pause. To take a moment to reflect on the battles you’ve won and to remind yourself of the strength with which your heart beats.
This journey can often times be tiresome, but if you look around you’ll see that love always finds a way to bring a glimpse of the beauty and goodness that is present.
In some seasons that looks like frost, a reflection and reminder that the sun still rises every morning. A promise that even amidst loss and pain your heart will never stop fighting to show up.
In some seasons it is perhaps found in the letting go of the burdens you’ve always carried upon your shoulders. A fall leaf falling to the ground, its time has come to no longer add its weight to your heart. It lets go so that you can stand a little lighter as freedoms breeze blows through your soul.
Perhaps it is a spring thunderstorm that is followed by the soft and illuminating light of the promise of the summer days to come. For all that chaos and the thunder booming within you is simply a preparation for the rain to wash away all the depression and anxiety as sunshine fills your heart once again.
For me, it has been a season of uprooting and waiting as I patiently remind myself of the beauty that is still present amongst the heartache and confusion that often fights to grow roots. I am learning that things take time to grow and to bloom and that there is so much beauty to be found in simply showing up.
The process and the journey is what is beautiful and that is where I want to be found, fully present and expectant. For anyone can see a flower and appreciate the beauty that it radiates, but I often times find myself thinking about the fact that it was once a small seed lost amongst a world of darkness and despair.
That is when I start to remind myself of the road I have travelled and I begin to see that right here, right now is where I want to be. I begin to breathe a little deeper, to dig a little deeper, and to love a little more freely. My heart begins to return to a place of rest and safety, knowing the growth will come. It isn’t my job to try and sort out the pieces of the puzzle, but to let the process happen as I trust that God knows what is best for me and that He will faithfully create something beautiful.
The best things in life aren’t waiting around the corner, they are here and now. So don’t forget to take a moment to breathe in the love and purpose that is right in front of you.
“ Return to rest my soul, for the Lord has been good to you” – Psalm 116:8
Rose and Thorn 