The Ramblings of a Redhead

It is hard to believe another Christmas is quickly approaching.  In a year of uncertainties and change I find the familiarity of the holiday more comforting than usual.  Spending time with family putting up decorations has always been one of my biggest joys of the season. Picking out and cutting down the perfect tree, pulling out all the familiar boxes from storage, and smelling all the scents that will forever be the smell of Christmas.  This year, however, it connected within my soul more than ever. As my eyes scanned over the familiar things around the house I realized these are so much more than simply decorations and ornaments.  They are memories.  I stopped to take more time and began actually seeing the years etched on each one. So much began to flood my mind. Pieces of Christmases past.  Memories of snow falling, my brothers and I lying at the top of the stairs trying to sneak a peak at what magic awaited us under our tree. Memories of the warmth of my mom's lau

A dance with echoes. Echoes of memories past dance through my mind as I sat this evening surrounded by nature watching the sun sink below the horizon. Echoes of laughter and adventures, heartache and tears, lessons learned and victories celebrated. Each swirling around the other in an endless dance. I feel it a little more tonight than most - that all too familiar pang of emptiness when it hits you all at once that some of those you held closest are no longer here. The void that is left by each one of them that nothing on this earth can fill again. The ache of wanting to hear their voices one last time squeezes my insides sometimes to the point it hurts to even breathe. To be able to pick up the phone and call them just one more time, or to go back to that last time I saw them just so I could hug them each a little tighter and a little longer before that moment slips forever from my grasp and becomes forever lost to my fragile memory. The strength and truths they instilled in me have b

In a world where people seem content to simply exist dare to dream big and live bigger. Believe in fairy tales. Do something to make someone smile. Don't be afraid to be goofy. Go off the beaten path. Strive to see the good in all situations even when a situation seems too dark to possibly have any light in it. Laugh louder. Forgive always. Give someone a compliment. Be kind. Listen. Believe in happily ever afters. Get lost in the pages of a book. Go for a walk. Find beauty in the everyday. Take a moment to actually see the people around you. Be the spark that ignites a fire and pierces the darkness. The gift you have to offer the world is yourself. So let your light shine!

What an astonishing thing a book is. It is a flat object made from bits of a tree with flexible parts on which are imprinted lots of funny looking dark squiggles.  But just a single glance at it and you're suddenly transported into the mind of another person - maybe someone who has been dead for thousands of years. From across the millennia the author still speaks clearly to you with their silent voice inside your mind. Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions, it spiritually binds people together - two souls who never crossed paths in this physical life, citizens of distant epochs.  Books break the shackles of time and space. Holding within their pages memories and fragments of a million different stories. Books are proof that humans are capable of working magic.

If today is a little bit rough, and you are finding life difficult I want you to take a brief moment. Stop. Close your eyes. Allow your mind to quiet  and then, Think... ...about the smell of brewing coffee and the warmth against your hands as your hold the mug tight. ...how it feels as your heart beats inside you and your lungs as they expand filling with air and then as they contract setting the breath free. ...how the sunlight bounces off the blades of grass, trees, flowers, windows, and clouds and how bright and warm it feels against your skin. ...about the coolness of night and how the stars twinkle in the sky, and then in the warm summer months the lightning bugs in the grass and trees that mimic that gentle twinkling. ...the sound of laughter from those you love most, whether they are still here or gone from this world, let the sound fill your soul along with all the memories and lessons that come with them. ...how it feels when you hear the first few notes of your favorite song

Shadows dance in the green grass reveling in its soft promise of a warm spring day. I feel the cool blades under my feet and between my toes. The cool soil where millions of roots take hold and plants climb upwards towards the glorious sunshine. I sit in the stillness. Yet...it isn't still. I listen to the wind rustling the leaves of the trees I am surrounded by.  I hear my friend the bumblebee as he buzzes by stopping to say a quick hello before flying off on his way to find more flowers. The birds sing back and forth to each other every song unique and beautifully sung. A cardinal couple has joined my little party. I watch as they flit from branch to branch chittering as they gather food to take back to their little ones.  I can smell the herbs and flowers that are growing in the garden nearby. I close my eyes and allow the smell to transport me away, but I stop realizing I dont need to go anywhere to find this amazing enchanted forest. I

The sound of birds singing as they fly from the bird feeder to the trees and back again, the smell of coffee and homemade biscuits and gravy permeate the whole house. That first sip of coffee and the warmth it brings. The world slowly begins to awaken, a new day is dawning, but for now stillness, peace, reflection, quiet, existence. Take a breath, feel that? Life. A new day. Adventures waiting to be had. Dreams waiting to be fulfilled. People waiting to be loved and heard. Go and live. Go and love. Today is your day.

Mother. Mom. Mamacita. A single word that brings with it so many emotions. What comes to mind when I hear that word is more than I think I am capable of conveying, but nonetheless, I will try. Snow gently falls blanketing the world with a soft white cover. A cold north wind whips through the bare trees. I sit curled up with a hot cup of coffee as memories swirl inside my mind. Memories of years long past all the way to those not so long ago. Perhaps it is something in the twinkling snow that makes me feel so much nostalgia, or maybe it is simply this single peaceful moment where I can reflect on how truly blessed I am to have so much more than I could have ever asked for or deserve. I can see these memories in my mind as if they happened only yesterday. I close my eyes, and I am home. The sound of my mom gently calling my name to rouse me from the cavern of sleep. She would come in and sit on the edge of my bed and we would talk. We can always talk about anything and nothing

The steam from my coffee swirls and dances upward until it finally fades away. Such a brief instant, and yet it was so magical in the way it created intricate patterns unlike any that had come before it or that will come after it.  Inspiration, hope, determination, creativity, love, peace, joy, sorrow...  How can something so simple invoke so much by just being what it was created to be?  Think of how much more so WE do that, and most likely we do it without even realizing we are.  Go and be unashamedly you.  Be the person you were created to be because only YOU can be you, and God placed you in this space and in this time for a purpose so much bigger than you can imagine.  Go and be and inspire - bring hope, be creative, love fully, laugh heartily, bring joy, take time to grieve... You never know who you may inspire by simply being your amazing incredible self.

I am sitting in the silence of my kitchen. Contemplating the day. What meals will I cook? What projects should I tackle? My gaze wonders to the trees outside the window. They are becoming greener with each passing day, blooming with the promise of new life.  The bittersweet taste of coffee hits my tongue, and I am pulled from the moment of revelry, but at the same time, I realize how blessed I really am.  I have all my senses to fully experience the world around me - I have my health, I am able to safely stay in my comfortable home, I woke up this morning I am able to enjoy a hot cup of coffee, my muscles are sore from a day of working outside yesterday.  Here's to family and friends.  May we find hope in each day. We are alive; the world is still filled with magic and wonder all around us.  Praises of thankfulness this Sunday.

I close my eyes and let the warm sunlight hit my eyelids. The warm red I see glowing through my eyelids is a familiar one. I feel the warmth from my coffee mug in my hands, and smell the comforting aroma of my favorite coffee drifting up to my nose.  I hear the wind as it gently rustles the trees around me. It seems that they can sense the call to stillness as strongly as I do.  As a cloud passes across the sun, the warmth fades for the moment, and I open my eyes.  There are flowers surrounding me. They open their petals as if trying to reach up to embrace the sky itself. Each individual flower bursts in an array of colors and patterns unique to each tiny petal. They seem to know where their life comes from, and they simply take root and do what they were created to do.  The light around me builds once more. The sunlight returns pulling my attention upward. I sit in silence watching the cloud that had blocked the sun pass on to destinations unknown. Yet... Here

Closed indefinitely. Social distancing. No toilet paper. Sold out. No mask no service. Sanitize everything. Stay home. Wash your hands for twenty seconds. Stay six feet apart.  We are living in a world we never dreamed we would see. We see grief. Grief over loss of normalcy. Grief over the loss of loved ones. Grief over the loss of jobs. Grief over lost opportunities. Grief over being isolated from loved ones. Grief for plans being ruined. Grief is raw. Grief is hard to bare. It gives us a glimpse into the depths of the soul, and shouldn't be rejected, but rather rejoiced in as odd as that may sound. We shouldn't rejoice in the cause of the grief, but grief itself is a powerful thing. It allows us to perceive truth and beauty in ways we may have never seen it before.  We see everyone moving about day by day wondering when and if this will ever end.   We see the best in people come out. We see museums, theatres, and attractions all streaming their content for free