Like sea glass on the sand…..thank you notes
Heart thumping grateful for the light bouncing potent off of these shards of beauty
like hard-buffed sea glass on the sand:
As the storm storms on….
~ Thank you farmers and makers and artists and shakers
for collaborating with God to keep us nourished body and soul.
~ Thank you, creation, for being beautiful in complexity and paradox.
You can be gorgeous beyond belief and also mean and merciless
and still
the realer reality
of strong Compassion
sweeps over you a healing tide
and restoration can happen like the morning
~ Thank you for “I wonder where the storm will take us.”
For those who can sit with the unknown.
I appreciate more than ever you who will hold space for uncertainty.
~For the stars and moon so talkative some nights that it’s hard to sleep
and for brand new days for our tired old ways,
~ For heart-claps and joy that gives mad strength,
joy that isn’t pissed away by “what about this.”
Joy that trusts defiant,
that prays brave and surrenders it fierce,
whatever can’t be fixed or found.
~For the just right blend of beauty and bounty and broken and wisdom and whiskey and weird
for my cup of tea.
~ Thank you, those who release life-giving prayers into the heavens,
how those prayers rise the way the wind kisses dunes with salty breath,
or like the birds who seem to be born out of mist
and fly into the burning sun.
~ Thank you, pain and pressure and perplexities.
For how “we never know the wine we are becoming while being crushed like grapes.”
(thanks, Henri Nouwen)
~ Thank you paypal and Vinmo and all of the things;
you do make the clockwork run a little smoother.
~Thank you flowers and Spring bloomers for how ya’ll keep talking up a hopeful storm,
making music like the birds who just keep singing.
~ Thank you, steep and slippery technical learning curves, for being just barely do-able.
Eventually. Like climbing a greased pole. Or a violently swinging rope.
You’ve brought my jagged edges to the surface for some needed polishing.
And brought me to Pepcid AC. And an entire box of cherry blow pops. Thank and #@*~ you.
But mostly thank you. Really.
~ Thank you, fluff on TV, for not satisfying.
For leaving me feeling “meh” and hungry for the pure raw presence of realer things.
~ Thank you, Amazon, for bringing the supplies,
for helping makers make the things we’re making.
I’m thinking you were born for such a time as this.
~Thank you, biased journalism, for playing so openly the political blame game;
you’ve goaded us to deep-dive for wisdom and discernment
because sanity can’t thrive in the confusion you’re selling;
thanks for overplaying your hand.
~ thank you also to the orchestrators of conspiracy theories
for making the media’s agenda look, well, less crazy than the one you’re hocking.
For oversimplifying the complex by trying to sell us a house made of tinker toys
when we need to build safe shelter.
(You both make me appreciate the beauty in the gray – the strength of both wings spread strong)
~ Thank you to the builders to the ones who know they see only in part.
Who know that their knowledge is incomplete.
Thanks to you, humble ones, who get that their perspective may be off,
who listen deep and long and well.
Cheers to the listeners – I celebrate you.
You are bright beings in dark places
and we need you big.
~ And thanks to all the servant-leaders doing awesome jobs
in homes and communities, taking initiative in beautiful and creative ways
– for listening and leading in Love,
for being stability
in this thing we’re all doing for the first. time. ever.
( whoever and wherever you are…in whatever capacity,
your influence is light).
To you, gracious ones,
Thanks for the space you’re holding for our differing levels of fear and uncertainty,
for not being terrified into verbal violence.
Like one of my favorite hearts wrote,
“Moral outrage is the opposite of God.”
(Gregory Boyle)
Thank you for not demonizing human beings.
You help keep our sails mended so that when the wind rises
we all rise and meet the waves together.
You are our ticket for safe passage.
Healing balm for broken hearts.
And you make it safe to step into the arena
where solution gets born.
~ Thank you, dear Comforter, for drawing near to anyone who asks,
that your response to tragedy and loss is always to share the pain,
to offer deep friendship.
Tearful thanks for your sweet presence;
that we are held.
“What good is a half-lit life?
You can burn me to ashes as long as I know
we lived a life alight.”
– Tyler Knott Gregson
Thanks for reading my thank you notes – it’s been a soothing way to process the
weight of the weeks. And to draw out the bits I want to save forever
up against the warm thump of my heart.
Another giveaway again this week!
One of the art journals from my etsy shop on sidebar.
Whoever wins the drawing can choose:)
Next Thursday, May22. Leave a comment and you’re in the hat!
And thank you for the complex, strong, beautiful, damaged, triumphant, doubting, questioning being that you are. Thank you for all your shining facets.
Thanks for holding space for all of it, Sue:)
We’re such a complex collection of moving parts – I love your generosity
with it all:)
Big warm hugs,
Jennifer
Thank YOU, dear Jennifer, for your beauty and your artful generosity. This one is so Whitmanesque. ♥️♥️♥️
Whitmanesque….I love that!:) And you already know how much your feedback means to me
in an always kind of way:) Grateful beyond words for you!
Big warm hugs,
Jennifer
Lifts my soul above the fray. Gentles my runaway concerns into a slow cradled rock. Bless your lyrical talent for the gift that it is to we readers!
So good to hear from you, Lisa – thanks for sharing your loveliness over here.
The beauty you make and put out into this world feels exactly the same for me;
I’m grateful for seeing ways. Lifts my vision higher and always inspires.
Big warm hugs,
Jennifer
Thank you, Jennifer, for the beauty you bring to this blog and the thoughts you present that stick deep in our hearts and souls to muddle about long after we have turned off the machine and go on our way — whether it is a lovely walk or meditations while waiting for sleep.
Thank you, Jennifer, for all the beautiful images you share, images that reach deep into our fantasies, our own dreams.
Thank you, Jennifer, for your big huge heart that knows how to take seeds and plants and things so tiny they are barely seen and turn them into glorious blooms.
And thank you, Jennifer, for having these wonderful drawings, the last of which I was the fortunate winner! I love my journal dearly (I posted it and linked on my blog) and the cards are wonderful. I look at them all and see hours of work and even greater inspiration and creativity. I am late to the thank you party, my friend, for a number of reasons I’ll hold close, but I am no less grateful for the joy they bring. Biggest safe hugs!
I love your heartshares and appreciate your kind and generous words here.
Gosh, thank you, Jeanie.
Safe hugs back to you with my whole grinning heart – you’re pure gold:)
-Jennifer
You have such a potent way of deep diving into soul matters and shining a light on what is at the heart of where I’m at even when I’m not sure ‘where I’m at’ is even the place I want to be.
Thank you for your light, your gifts, your way with words and your way with creative expression. Thank you for being you in this crazy, sometimes messed up always beautiful even in its ugly places, world.
Oh I love those words:) I appreciate you so hard:)
Thanks for encouraging my heart in a big way – you’re golden, friend.
Big hugs,
Jennifer
Once again you show up at just the right time, when I am staring to spin into the crazy places of fear, doubt and anger and you gently steer me back on a better course with your heart and words and images and wisdom … thank you deeply, my dear friend.
xo
Thanks for saying your heart words here; holding them tenderly with big love
and appreciation for who you are:) So much love:)
Gratefully,
Jennifer
I really love your thank you notes!
Thank you thank you thank YOU:)
So many thank you’s through the years
to you I can’t even say them all:)
Big love,
Jennifer
Thank YOU, Jennifer, for re-minding us that Jesus has given us hinds feet so we can always dance back up to the Highest Place there is~at anytime of the day or night. Where we can sit and share in HIS view, mind and heart about all things scary and confusing and ugly and frustrating and also the beautiful and true and good and comforting. Thank God He has given us His mind and heart so we don’t have to rely on the worlds guesses, prophesies and opinions to see clear and find our way. Your wordsmithing always delights my soul with its truelove~motivated beauty and insight.
“….we have the mind of Christ (the Messiah) and do hold the thoughts (feelings and purposes) of His heart.” 1st Corinthians 2
Hinds Feet on High Places – I remember Hannah Hurnards book:) That was a sweet spot in some long ago years.
Thanks for sharing your lovely heart….hey, you won the giveaway! Go on over to my etsy store and pick out
a journal. Shoot me a line and say which one. I’ll send it on the way to you:)
Big love,
Jennifer
I love how you found something to be grateful for even in those circumstances where you don’t expect to find anything. I’ve found if you twist something around enough, you’ll find it. And it’s usually in something it has taught us, when that may not have been its intention. It’s the reason I keep my ‘sweet’ journal, to pull light out of even the darkest days. I am grateful for you – you always have a gift for that!
Like looking at a precious gem – turning until the light refracts on something unexpected lovely:)
Yes – I love that:) Keep sharing your sweets – they inspire!
Big love,
Jennifer