the journey to here + now

                                                      (photo taken by Tara and edited by proud mamma!!)
  "Faith includes noticing the mess, the emptiness and discomfort and letting it be there until the light returns." -Anne Lamott

My 2 words for the year are faith and surrender...it felt right to me when I picked them out...but the journey to the here + now has been perilous and fraught with fears and inadequacies. Not so long ago, these words would have sent me running for the woods!! They would have made me cringe, become filled with anxiety and, quite frankly, just a little bit neurotic!!!! But now these words resonate with me in a powerful way that is only possible because of the long road I've traveled. I had to experience that faith meant accepting and claiming all of it...the ugliness + pain, the vulnerabilities and shame...guilt, joy, love... mistakes and all. Faith didn't mean flowery perfection but rather, the acceptance of life...as is. And rather than the externals changing...it was I who changed.

“I do not understand the mystery of grace -- only that it meets us where we are and does not leave us where it found us.” _Anne Lamott
I've got some great news that I can't wait to share with you guys!!! And the best part is...that whether this blessing had come into my life or not...I had the utmost faith I am exactly where I am supposed to be; here + now. xxx