Amazed and Appreciative

Lately I've come to find myself just being amazed and appreciative by everything.

Which is no coincidence, because God is opening up my eyes to see the true beauty there is in life. The more I'm allowing myself to open up and let any bad thoughts or habits go, the more I notice. The more I stand in awe to take a picture or just breathe it in. The more I smile. The more I want to shout it out to the world about whatever caught my eye. I think life has a lot to do with perspective. In my communications class my teacher said "perception is reality" and I couldn't agree more. If you perceive the world is out to get you and nothing good comes out of anything you do, that will be your reality because that is the way you choose to view the world. My perception on life has changed in turn, my perception of reality has changed. Allowing myself to simply be amazed and to be appreciative of everything has truly made an impact on my life recently. This adventure of my year of "doing" is starting off great, God is giving me the tools I need to truly make the most of it. So I will continue to be thankful to the Creator of all the beautiful things and people that amaze me.

Here is a challenge, if your having a day that seems to be more black than white, take a deep breath, open your eyes and just allow yourself to see. You can be driving and notice a sunset or just the beauty in the clouds, you can be walking and notice a flower growing up through the concrete or see two old people holding hands. Life doesn't have to be filled with extravagant trips and gifts, it is the simplicity in life that makes it beautiful. Appreciate what you do have surrounding you and who you have surrounding you...I can only hope that it will help you as much as it has helped me:)

Ready For It

I known in my blogs I have talked about timing, and especially about God's timing but while on Pinterest I saw a pin that stuck out to me that Ashley Martin Posted.

Reading it connected everything I've been thinking about the last month. I had wrote a blog about my year of "doing" and last year being the year of "learning" well the reason why it took me a year to learn is because I needed to be ready to learn how to do. I needed to learn how to let myself be open again. I needed to allow myself to laugh, really laugh. I needed to talk to people in my classes. I needed to just do more than be at home or work. Those were all things I so badly wanted and thought I needed to happen. The craziest part about it all was that I knew I needed them but I didn't realize when I did I wasn't ready to receive them yet. When my heart broke along with my trust it took me some time. I wanted to be okay, I wanted to allow myself to be happy and to go enjoy the world and explore. I knew that God wouldn't keep me out of this wonderful life and keep the great things in life away from me, and times when my faith seemed low felt like nothing good was going to happen, but I wasn't ready to get it. I wasn't ready to appreciate it and put it to good use. I was unmotivated and lacking drive and passion. Once I turned 22 it was rather strange the spark that flew inside of me. I truly thought that this is my time. That there was no better time to start living life than at that very moment. And it seemed like in that very instant I was ready. I'm ready for adventure, risks, meeting new people, getting involved, going out on weekends and just being my age! God does truly have the perfect timing because I feel like the past month so many great things have been falling into place. I have already made some nice friends at school and I have been doing things on weekends and I've been laughing! Laughing so much and it feels so good, and my laughter is that kind of laugh that is felt inside the soul. I'm smiling more and appreciating everything more. I'm trying to be a better friend and family member. So you might be stuck in a dark place and it seems like you can't get out of it and you think you never will shake the sadness or pain that you feel, but that doesn't mean it will never happen like the quote says, it just means you aren't ready for it. I think we all need our time to cope, to reflect and to let go. In order to move on in life I think we must forgive, stop dwelling, stop blaming, and start living the life God has planned for us. Don't lose faith, one day you will realize you are stronger than you think and your past will no longer be the black cloud over your head, you will see the sunshine and feel the warmth of life!