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Happy Go Stuckey

Tethering Grace & Togetherness

Longing for Paris (among other things.)

November 6, 2015 by HappyGoStuckey Leave a Comment

For eight years, Lance and I have casually discussed taking a trip to Europe. We’ve dreamed of croissants in France and coffee on the sidewalks of Italy. I can nearly smell the rainy fog of London and feel the biting chill in the air as we make our way in and out of tiny book shops, finding rare books and pretending we are expats on holiday.

It may very well happen. One day. One day when our children are old enough to be without both of us and things stop going wrong in our quirky Blue House long enough for us to build a little trip fund– we might just make it.

I have always been a pretender. As a middle schooler I bought Celine Dion’s French album and danced around my bedroom to On ne change pas, pretending I knew that the words meant. I like to dream that we will one day look back over years of marriage with a few more laugh lines and a few more stamps in our passports.  But until then, there are pieces of countries I’ve never visited swimming around in my head. And until I read this book, all those pieces seemed just a little bit silly.

LONGING FOR-3

Sarah Mae and her lovely book, Longing for Paris gave me permission to dream about the silly, the maybe-it-will-never-happen, the over the top wonderful and to enjoy the dreaming almost as much as the reality of those things. She showed me that dreaming is not a last resort. It’s not just the thing we do when the reality is rough. Sarah Mae gently opens the door for our longings, helps us find the true source of them, and then allows the truth of scripture to weave with loving creativity to ENJOY THE NOW.

To not discount the desires of one’s heart but to allow them to point to Christ– and to still find ways to bring our dreams into today? That is a gift.

One thing I held in my hands after reading Longing for Paris was the remembrance that not having instant gratification is an insurmountable gift. NOT having all that we would choose immediately when we would choose it brings us so much more than gratefulness. Delayed answers, difficult seasons, and dreams of one day are all the building blocks of our true selves. Both our longing for tomorrow and our loving the today speak volumes about who we are as created ones. Both the beautiful life we have been given in Christ and the knowledge that tomorrow, the REAL tomorrow– when we are no longer longing for ANYTHING– and we find ourselves FINALLY HOME— preach to our souls about that which we are made for. Our longings for beauty, completeness, love, and community are all homesickness. The kind of Homesickness that makes you love your future home all the more.

[Tweet “Our longings for beauty, completeness, love, and community are all homesickness. The kind of Homesickness that makes you love your future home all the more.”]

I read this book alongside Julia Child’s My Life in France and they were a perfect Frenchy, bookish, couple. If you enjoy dreaming, if you love the “maybe one day…” conversations, if you sit in Starbucks with a croissant and a latte and wish you were 2,000 miles away– If you find yourself wanting a vacation from the every day and also wanting to find yourself freshly LOVING the everyday–  I highly recommend Longing for Paris by Sarah Mae. It’s a good one.

*I received a complimentary copy of Longing for Paris from the Tyndale Blog Network in exchange for my honest opinion. If you’ve visited before, you know that you always find honesty here.
Also, some affiliate links included. This helps me keep down the cost of this blog– X0X0! 

 

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Hey There!

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

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. 🎄❤️✨
Merry Christmas from the Fam! { 👉🏻 swipe for Merry Christmas from the Fam! { 👉🏻 swipe for Stuckeys in their natural habitat.) 🎄🕯❤️✨
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