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Happy Go Stuckey

Tethering Grace & Togetherness

Links I Love.

February 5, 2015 by HappyGoStuckey 15 Comments

I’ve read several posts and articles lately that have made me say, “Wow,” out loud.

All of them different in nature– but I wanted to share a few with you. Happy Reading, friends!

Link Love

  • The Surprising Truth About Finding My Calling by Emily P. Freeman. (Ack! She gets it so right on point, every time! She likens stepping into her calling with stepping into parenthood, and yes and Amen I felt and feel that same way.)
  • On Surrendering Envy and Being Enough by Alia Joy. (this post had me wiping at tears one minute and laughing out loud another– really the part about the kale and tofu?!? And I happen to have a laminated key fob somewhere *just like hers. Read it. You won’t be sorry.
  • Stocking The Pond by Shauna Niequist. All you writer friends out there, you should NEED to read this. It’s a happy little piece reminding us of why we need to be “Noticers.” I’m working on this more. Trying to pay attention to every thing is helping me grow in more ways than one. Learning to be IN the moment.
  •  And then also for writers, or really if there is anything at all that you have felt a stirring to just-do-already– Read this-  On Becoming A Writer by Jen Hatmaker. One quote I really enjoyed was this–

“Next, I am devastated to bring this bad news, but writing requires work. Kind of hard, brutal, sanity-threatening work. All the writing dreams in your head have to transition to your ten fingers on a keyboard, and I’m afraid there is no other way. (I’m sorry. Take your time.) Work requires time, which of course, you have none of. This is the writer’s dilemma. You will not miraculously become a writer by carrying on exactly like you are. It’s a whole thing and you have to make room for it.– Jen Hatmaker, On Becoming A Writer. 

She says so many helpful things– and  just because she is Jen and she can rock a messy bun like nobody’s business while making you spit your coffee out all over the keyboard because of her many funny things. (No, Husband I did not actually do that. I know we are still trying to sell our computer and I would never do such a thing. Purely hypothetical. )

 

Ok, So I hope you will at least pick one of those articles and find some encouragement, direction, clarity or perhaps much loud guffawing in reading them.

P.S. I hope at least one of you appreciates that NO WHERE in this entire article did I use the word curate. As in, “I carefully curated these articles for you.” I think that word is currently over used and it makes me what to say, “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means, ” in my best Inigo Montoya voice. I did not curate, I carefully gathered. Curate sounds like something the Sotheby’s go-fer does.

 

What I Learned in January
Keep At It. (Even in the Messy Middle.)

Comments

  1. Alia Joy says

    February 5, 2015 at 1:57 pm

    Thanks so much, Cynthia. I’m honored you’d feature my post. And oh goodness that key fob was bad. If I still had it I’d post a picture. I’ve had bad ones before but that one was so comically unflattering it has been forever etched in my brain.

    Reply
    • happygostuckey says

      February 8, 2015 at 7:29 am

      I’ve decided it should be illegal to have a gym photo taken with a bad camera from a lower angle, showing the most unflattering side of myself. HA!
      I really have gone back and read your post several times Alia, and have heard from several how uplifting it was. Thank you for always showing the parts of you that others shrink back from sharing. You are a beautiful person and writer, especially every time you open the door to the awkward to let someone in.

      Reply
  2. Alia Joy says

    February 5, 2015 at 1:57 pm

    Thanks so much, Cynthia. I’m honored you’d feature my post. And oh goodness that key fob was bad. If I still had it I’d post a picture. I’ve had bad ones before but that one was so comically unflattering it has been forever etched in my brain.

    Reply
    • happygostuckey says

      February 8, 2015 at 7:29 am

      I’ve decided it should be illegal to have a gym photo taken with a bad camera from a lower angle, showing the most unflattering side of myself. HA!
      I really have gone back and read your post several times Alia, and have heard from several how uplifting it was. Thank you for always showing the parts of you that others shrink back from sharing. You are a beautiful person and writer, especially every time you open the door to the awkward to let someone in.

      Reply
  3. Debbie says

    February 5, 2015 at 3:00 pm

    Laughing reading your curate comment. Was just thinking the other day that I’ve seen that word used a ton lately and never seemed to see it used before. Great reads you shared!

    Reply
    • happygostuckey says

      February 8, 2015 at 7:29 am

      Hahah! I’m so glad it wasn’t just me! Thank you for stopping by Debbie! <3

      Reply
  4. Becky Keife says

    February 5, 2015 at 5:41 pm

    Love this, Cynthia! Thanks for gathering these wonderful words so carefully. (NOT curated…though I would LOVE to hear you say that line in your best Inigo voice…while swashbuckling, preferably.) 😉

    I hadn’t caught Alia’s incourage post when it was first published and I am so grateful you pointed us to it. Such a gift.

    Reply
    • happygostuckey says

      February 8, 2015 at 7:30 am

      Wow I love that movie! We watched it so much growing up! Glad you stopped by friend. Hope it’s a wonder-filled week in CA for you! 😉

      Reply
  5. Becky Keife says

    February 5, 2015 at 5:41 pm

    Love this, Cynthia! Thanks for gathering these wonderful words so carefully. (NOT curated…though I would LOVE to hear you say that line in your best Inigo voice…while swashbuckling, preferably.) 😉

    I hadn’t caught Alia’s incourage post when it was first published and I am so grateful you pointed us to it. Such a gift.

    Reply
    • happygostuckey says

      February 8, 2015 at 7:30 am

      Wow I love that movie! We watched it so much growing up! Glad you stopped by friend. Hope it’s a wonder-filled week in CA for you! 😉

      Reply
  6. Teresa says

    February 9, 2015 at 9:53 pm

    Read Emily’s post, will have to check out the others. The word that is bugging me right now is the use of Bespoke – I’m thinking it is becoming the new overused word of the moment as it has shown up several times lately. Not sure why it bugs me, but it does. I think it may be a little pretentious – no offense to anyone who loves the word. 🙂 I’m sure you could find a way to use curate and bespoke in the same sentence. That would probably be just a little too much!

    Reply
    • happygostuckey says

      February 10, 2015 at 6:47 am

      HA! Bespoke. Yes! Thank you for stopping by Teresa. Always happy to have you here. I just read your last post on “not,” and I hope you find refreshing and a new found way in which to write. Perhaps clearing the space around that part of you is just what you need. Blessings.

      Reply
  7. Teresa says

    February 9, 2015 at 9:53 pm

    Read Emily’s post, will have to check out the others. The word that is bugging me right now is the use of Bespoke – I’m thinking it is becoming the new overused word of the moment as it has shown up several times lately. Not sure why it bugs me, but it does. I think it may be a little pretentious – no offense to anyone who loves the word. 🙂 I’m sure you could find a way to use curate and bespoke in the same sentence. That would probably be just a little too much!

    Reply
    • happygostuckey says

      February 10, 2015 at 6:47 am

      HA! Bespoke. Yes! Thank you for stopping by Teresa. Always happy to have you here. I just read your last post on “not,” and I hope you find refreshing and a new found way in which to write. Perhaps clearing the space around that part of you is just what you need. Blessings.

      Reply

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I'm Cynthia and I'm so glad you're here. I am an introvert with an extrovert's love of gathering people together. I love good books and capturing moments. Whether you visit me here or on my own front porch, I'll be the one holding the Iced Coffee for us both.

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happygostuckey

I saw a magazine cover this week advertising the h I saw a magazine cover this week advertising the headline, “Ditch Gratitude!” 

This is my “No thanks,” face.
My grateful face.
My you-can’t-make-me-face.
Because no matter how long the list of things we still don’t know, I know I need gratitude like water.

Questions remain. Uncertainties abound. Reasons for concern greet us with each January dawn.

Hope remains and so do questions. The two have never been enemies, but cozy next door neighbors.
I’ll keep my gratitude, thank you.
Some of the rhythms we took up in ‘20 we will co Some of the rhythms we took up in ‘20 we will continue to sigh into in ‘21.
Baking sourdough, watching it bubble and rise and fill our BlueHouse with the scent of a good, long, posture of patience— I absolutely need a second serving of this.
While we wait, and whatever it is that we wait for— may the space between be made sweeter by the knowledge that we never wait alone.
You can’t tell by their joy, but the day I snapp You can’t tell by their joy, but the day I snapped this photo was somewhat of a regular day.

What looks like a winter beach vacation was actually the tail-end of a masked lunch stop in the middle of a pandemic road trip.

This sparkling moment of sun-splashed fun was sandwiched between brutal conversations about regular life, especially the hard parts.

And this is how it is. 
These bits of life that we never see coming, they are enveloped between all that makes us tired, weary, sighing pilgrims in a world that was never really meant to be hospitable in the first place.

This photo reminds me to look again at our year, our season, our circumstances.

To look a second and third time.
To keep looking as long as it takes to see that the joy of our right now isn’t gone, it just might be hiding in the shadow of all that’s hard.

Brokenness is never vague. And we don’t have to search very long to see it both within ourselves and around us.
Sometimes the weight of that fact is crushing.
And then, sometimes it reminds us even more clearly of the light shining in darkness.

Joy is an act of defiance against despair and I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling rather defiant at the moment.✨✨✨✨

@hopewriters #hopewriterlife 
#feastingandforaging #hopelenses #getaftergrateful
Endurance can feel like standing still. Especially Endurance can feel like standing still. Especially if what we’re called to be about is the same as yesterday and last month. 
It’s difficult to meet each day with the same fervor and joy for what we are called to do, especially when at present, the progress seems small and immeasurable. 
But even then, perhaps especially so — our faithfulness matters.

When we cannot yet see the other side, the light at the end of this particularly long tunnel, we begin again.

Not because we will always wake with fresh energies and bright, sparkling hope for what comes next, friend. But because the God of Endurance (Romans 15:5) dwells within us.

“It is the grace of endurance granted to you by the God of endurance that provides you with everything you need to continue to be what he calls you to be and do what he calls you to do between this moment and the moment when you cross over to the other side. When difficulty exposes the weakness of your resolve and the limits of your strength, you do not have to panic, because He will endure even in this moments when you don’t feel able to do so yourself.” — Paul David Tripp, New Morning Mercies

#hopewriterlife
Stuckey, party of two. Always ready to run out for Stuckey, party of two. Always ready to run out for paper towels... especially if the store is in convenient proximity to a quick date for croissants and dirty chai for two. Love my forever coffee companion even more at the start of this new year. Wherever he’s going, I’m riding shotgun.
We have learned... The inestimable value of a goo We have learned...

The inestimable value of a good camp chair, for they have been used for everything from soccer benches and coffee dates to theatre seats and church pews.

What our neighborhood streets can offer in the way of an outing—from the colors of spring to the sparkle of Christmas.

To hold plans with the loosest hands possible.

To rejoice in things found. Time. Margin. ...and enough toilet paper to share with a neighbor.

To give grace and accept it for ourselves.

The hilarious joy of a group text complete with “have you seen this meme yet?” 

To pivot. And then pivot again.

To find more joy in candlelight closer to home, instead of the bright lights of traveled cities.

To perfect our pizza dough recipe and truly learn to prefer it over dinner out.

To work with yeast and flour again and again— until the message of waiting for something really good dusted our apron fronts and kitchen floors.

And in our house, we learned how to be unexpectedly unemployed. We learned how to honor that new found space with needed grief and desired hope. How to be grateful for true friends who prayed with us, held questions with us, and hoped with us. We were reminded of our true identity and that it will never rest in a job. 

In a year in which we’ve all lost quite a lot, you and I have been given so much as well. Some of what we’ve lost we have learned to be without. Some, we won’t go looking for again.

In 525,600 minutes and in all the things, found and lost and found again— there is far and away more to be grateful for.

And we choose joy.

✨Happy New Year, dear friends!✨
Not rushing too quickly into a new year over here. Not rushing too quickly into a new year over here. Though the one in our rear view window is one we wouldn’t choose to repeat, still it was one full of God’s nearness.

One day I’ll write it all down.
But for now I’ll just say,
we were not alone. 🕯
“Once in our world, a Stable had something in it “Once in our world, a Stable had something in it that was bigger than our whole world.”
C.S.Lewis, The Chronicles of Narnia

Joy to the World, friends.
Behold. The most apropos Christmas Eve 2020 desser Behold. The most apropos Christmas Eve 2020 dessert ever. Made from a wonky gingerbread cake that did not cooperate.
We shall not go quietly into 2021.
We will fight back with beauty and joy and candles... and fresh whipped cream made by an eleven year old with sparkly green eyes. 🎄❤️✨
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