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Happy Go Stuckey

Tethering Grace & Togetherness

Missing the Sunset

August 14, 2013 by HappyGoStuckey Leave a Comment

Last night I was afforded the rare blessing of a little time by myself with a book at Starbucks. Not finding a place inside that looked cozy, I went outside and chose a table facing the parking lot. I sat and read and was refreshed in record time. As I neared the end of my time there, I noticed the sun setting beautifully and it occurred to me how little I see the sun set.

I’m awake for the sun rising every morning, usually even outside when it begins to fill out street with light. 

But most days our afternoons melt quickly into dinner times and then into busy “do the next thing” times.

Between the rushing and hurrying–

The bathing and the feeding,

The cleaning up to clean it again,

The packing the lunches…

The readying ourselves for rest-

I often miss the sunset. 

Having little ones means we are usually indoors at this time of day. We quickly transition from the dinner hour to the Jammie and Book Reading hour. We are brushing little teeth and finding little dolls and tucking in tight and giving one more kiss. Before we know it, the sun is long gone, they are tucked safely in their beds and we collapse on the couch in an exhale and often really look at each other for the first time all evening. Even when it’s necessary, it feels like too much rush. 

I remember when both my girls were newborn babies and how much mixed joy I would feel at that time of day. In their first few months, I found myself in the odd throes of post-partum depression. Sunset was both depressing and heartening for me. Depressing because I was so tired and I knew the night would be no more restful than the day had been. Heartening because, we had made it–through another day!!!

In the sunset we are reminded that God has sustained us for another day yet again. He has given us all that we need today. He has blessed beyond what we deserve and unfortunately beyond what we often even notice.  Last night when I paused long enough, I saw gorgeous colors, pinks and purples that my Lucy would love in her coloring box. The beautiful colors of the sunset, He, being the Creator of Creativity that He is, dreamed up. Some might say it’s a scientific process of light and clouds. I know that it’s a gracious blessing that God bestows on us. Every. Single. Day. That is love. To paint that for us.

Life being what it is, we simply cannot always move slow enough to take in every aspect of beauty of life surrounding us. Perhaps that’s what is so startling when God allows us to slow down for a moment or two. But when He does bless us with a moment of peace or an hour of quiet, even if it’s at the end of the day, we must remember that HE is our sustainer. When we barely stagger through the last few hours of the day and point ourselves toward bed, let us take note of His FAITHFULNESS. Yes, His mercies are new every morning. But, Praise God they last throughout the day and into the night. He alone provides the strength we cannot manufacture. 

“It is good to give thanks to the Lord, to sing praises to Your name, O Most High;

to declare your steadfast love in the morning, and your faithfulness by night,”

Psalm 92: 1-2

Tomorrow is the Last Night to enter the Book Giveaway!!

Green Jacket Salad
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Comments

  1. Linda Blythe says

    August 15, 2013 at 2:12 pm

    Beautifully said!

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Friday Photo Dump | Happy Go Stuckey says:
    August 16, 2013 at 4:08 pm

    […] left me with a little time to myself Tuesday night, Perfect timing. I finished a great book and watched a beautiful Sunset. Yes, the sunset was over Target. Ha. Poetic Bliss in Material […]

    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

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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