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Happy Go Stuckey

Tethering Grace & Togetherness

Sisterhood of the Traveling SWAG and What This Girl Learned about Difference-Making.

October 19, 2015 by HappyGoStuckey 6 Comments

IMG_6351

I am still reveling in the glittery glow of a whirlwind Allume. I am also still avoiding my packed suitcase and hoping I don’t trip over it while I stumble around in yoga pants, drinking coffee, and smiling to remember the worship, the words, and those macarons.

The Allume conference is a generous one and we walked away with these amazing SWAG bags from Persimmon Prints, brimming over with sponsor goodies, books and a whole lotta love. Incidentally, the bags all happened to look the same this year— annnddd…. segue, if you please.

Ten minutes after my tires crunched over leaves in my driveway, I noticed my awesome SWAG bag held my roommate’s journal, marked with a pen and partially open to reveal her copious note-taking skills. Seriously, if you ever find yourself needing explicit instructions about how to dismantle an explosive device, Amanda is the one who you want writing down the directions. This girl makes thorough look easy and she’s pretty rad. Then I saw a few other items that weren’t mine —clearly we had swapped bags.

No problem, she and I could just mail each other our stuff.
Except that our other roommate Taylor, who also happens to be one of those people you always hope you will be with in a crisis because she makes you snort-laugh in the very best way, well she had MY bag…. and Amanda had hers. We’re pretty much a hot mess of mixed up stuff.

smilebooth

For the first few hours, it was all texts and photos of what we have, what we’re missing and oh by the way— who does this thing belong to— and can you mail it to me? And a couple “How on earth did we do this??”
So funny. We are basically that movie with Alexis Bledel and Blake Lively with the teenage angst and the traveling pants… except without the pants and the angst. Ok, not really even a little like that.

Clearly when you live with other people for a couple of days, your stuff gets mixed up with theirs.

allume

Beyond the roommate antics, gracious swag, delicious food, and mind-bendingly-remarkable speakers, there is one major thing that we shared– Questions with hard answers. 

We questioned our influence…
what we could do to change our culture. To make a big difference to the people inside our homes and outside of them. To change lives… those with our eyes & same last name and also those who look, talk, and act nothing like us.

We had hard conversations…
and shared parts of our story that we often keep hidden. The messy ugly parts that point only to our need for Christ. The dark corners, the places where the seeds of doubt and discouragement seek to sprout to the surface and grow roots deep enough to remain.

We struggled…
through elements of our faith and belief that we know to be truth, but that often keep us distanced from others.

At the end of all our questions we found very few answers— except that God is good and we get to be His hands and feet. That we have to keep trying to right the wrongs and that it is worth it. People are worth it. The Gospel is worth it.

to change our world.
to be a light.
to swing the door wide.
to speak words of life.
to be different.
and to keep. humbly. asking. God. to. use. our. influence.

I can tell you one thing about my Allume. It was not at all what I thought it would be. And I LOVE that. 

This message, the message of “together” was not one I knew I needed until I heard it, but oh– how I need it.

I need it again and again and again. I applaud the Allume Team, and my sweet friend Logan for making this year a time for us to stop and be filled. To stop and look at all we can do to change this world when we do it together. 

Stitch Fix Reviews #4 and #5
Lessons from a Tea Cup

Comments

  1. Mary Geisen says

    October 19, 2015 at 4:30 pm

    Love this!!! It will probably take all week to unpack as well as process. So glad I saw you at the beginning and the end.

    Reply
    • HappyGoStuckey says

      October 20, 2015 at 12:09 pm

      Yes Mary!! Your face was such a sweet sight!

      Reply
  2. Holly Paulette says

    October 19, 2015 at 5:26 pm

    So, so, so fun to meet you girls. This post encapsulates it all so well–hard questions with hard answers…while simultaneously being beautiful questions and beautiful answers. Ohhh the highs of a conference that hits deep at the heart!!! Looking forward to walking out all we learned 🙂

    Reply
  3. Wendy says

    October 19, 2015 at 8:24 pm

    Loved getting to spend time “together” with you, Cynthia!

    Reply
    • HappyGoStuckey says

      October 20, 2015 at 12:10 pm

      I loved it as well, Wendy! It was a weekend full of information and it helps to have others to sift through it all with. <3

      Reply
  4. Taylor York says

    October 20, 2015 at 12:11 am

    You articulated the events of my first Allume adventure this past weekend in ways that I would have never been able to. This post is lovingly wrapped up, similarly to the sweet “welcome” gift you gave me upon our first in-person greeting. What a blessing of a woman and friend you are, Cynthia.

    Reply

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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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Joy is the courage of people who don’t have all Joy is the courage of people who don’t have all the answers, yet.

While you sit in a season of waiting,
the calendar can often be a cruel companion, reminding you that days go by, weeks, months— with what feels like very little change in the right direction.

Perhaps you can easily assent to: 
“Hope deferred makes the heart sick,

but you strain to see just how it will be when: “...a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.” (Proverbs 13:12)

Wherever you and I are today— whether we wander, wait, stand firmly planted, or some pressed together combination of all three — we can take heart.

We are not alone.
And this will not be wasted.
What seems to be an unending blank space, an indefinite pause, is a space for new things.

Long before all is made right, and whether or not it all is tied up neatly with a perfectly crafted bow— we can know this:

We do not have to know the outcome to be faithful today.

✨Joy is not disregard for reality as much as it is obstinacy against despair.✨
Hi 👋🏻 I’m Cynthia and I’m a bit weary. T Hi 👋🏻 I’m Cynthia and I’m a bit weary. There. I said it. These days I’m gravitating to the true & the beautiful as rest for my weary self... and I wonder if you are too.

So much so, that I’m starting a new little offering, it’s called “The Feast: Wonder for the Weary” and the first issue goes out this weekend. It’s a bit more personal (okay this first one is WAY more personal. 🤭) It will be a little bit of everything, all with the goal of offering REST to both the feasters & foragers alike. If you’re already a subscriber— no need to do anything, if not— click through my bio to “keep in touch” and join the feast.✨
We are a people of both lament and praise. We hol We are a people of both lament and praise.

We hold questions without answers— yet we hold them in hands already full of good things.

We hold our daily bread, our daily gifts, and we hold the daily closeness of the God Who Sees.

The God who is no stranger to our lament, and Who Is the reason for our every hope.
He does not grow weary of our asking. Of our need to be told again, He will. 

You friend, are not invisible.
You are seen and cared for by the God who does all things well. (Even when they feel anything but.)
Married love ambition: making the kids roll their Married love ambition: making the kids roll their eyes at our “gushy-ness” as often as possible. 

President & CEO of the Lance Stuckey Fan Club— in every season, but especially on days like today.
Rainy day Mocha date, courtesy of our own toasty k Rainy day Mocha date, courtesy of our own toasty kitchen.😍🌧📚

On this chilly Saturday, we spent entirely too long browsing for books at our library and then all came home to a fire, mochas, and cocoa, respectively. Of all the things we do not know at this very moment, we know the gifts abound, and are worth counting.

PS, if you haven’t spread whipped cream on a foil-lined baking sheet to freeze, and then cut out cute shapes with cookie cutters to top your coffee or hot cocoa, may I suggest you get thee on that at once.
“If God sends us on strong paths, we are provide “If God sends us on strong paths, we are provided strong shoes.” — Corrie Ten Boom

✨File under, things to save in a fire.✨

The prayer journal pictured here contains six months of the hard & the sweet.
Six months of prayers asked & answered for ourselves and for others.
Six months of seeing through prayer, not how it changed our circumstances necessarily but how it changed us.

I always appreciate a record like this— being able to clearly see the paths we are led down, rocky though they may be? Priceless.

The ways God has come near us & drawn us to Himself again and again are written on these pages and I’ll treasure it forever.

Also pictured: Psalms Illuminated Scripture Journal. Highly recommend. Thank you always, @allifarnell
“The world is indeed full of peril, and in it th “The world is indeed full of peril, and in it there are many dark places; but still there is much that is fair, and though in all lands love is now mingled with grief, it grows perhaps the greater.”
J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

While scrolling through my photos today, my heart was heavy to realize how far back “before” was.

Before masks and distancing, before loss, before other, more personal bits of hard. Multitudinous change, neither all bad nor all good.

With our free time, we’ve introduced our girls to Tolkien, Bilbo, Frodo, and especially Samwise the Brave. They are officially hooked and we are delighted to watch them discover another world where evil doesn’t win, and the courage of the small matters much. {they close their eyes at the Orcs and we haven’t had a nightmare yet!}🤞🏻😂😬
I’m leaning increasingly more into the analog th I’m leaning increasingly more into the analog these days.

It started with the Sourdough and a dozen different kinds of jam last year.
I suddenly find great calm in activities that stand in direction opposition to hurry, the textbook definition of ✨work in progress.✨ And really, if you could see the other side of this piece, you would believe me. 🙃

Thank you to @thebarmyfox for making embroidery so accessible!
@thenester says, “It doesn’t have to be perfec @thenester says, “It doesn’t have to be perfect to be beautiful,” and I believe that the weeknight meal equivalent is, “Just because it’s easy— doesn’t make it a second-tier supper!”

Thank you, Spaghetti with Meat sauce for being both a ministry to mom AND a crowd pleaser. Especially on a dreary January-ish day. It is ✨quite alright✨ to make something we’ve made a million times just because we know it makes the people happy.🍝
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