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Happy Go Stuckey

Tethering Grace & Togetherness

The View. (#Write31Days)

October 2, 2014 by HappyGoStuckey 6 Comments

Day 2 of 31–

I have been called both emotional and an idealist.

(All three of the women in this house are, a bit– shall we say, passionate.)

I love Instagram. Mainly because of the filters. Now, before you gasp and question my sense of being “real.” You should know something.

My propensity to be an idealist, sees certain things… as good as they could possibly be. And frankly, I think I have a better understanding of what things “look” like to me than my iPhone camera does.

Therefore, I edit. I edit till my heart’s content. Well, I edit until it looks like what I saw from this side of the camera.

Sometimes that little camera doesn’t quite SEE what I see. The steam that was rising from that latte I enjoyed at my favorite spot on the porch of that coffee shop. The warmth of the sun on their hair, the boldness of the blue of the sky against the kelly green of the grass beneath their feet.  Sometimes even the very real rosiness in their cheeks gets lost in the time in takes to snap a photo. But it was there. And I saw it. I was witness to that moment of beauty and that’s how I want to remember it. And so I open instagram and I put it back. Because they are my photos, which become my memories and I can do that.

So in “filtering” the days, it is not always that we are filtering out the very real bad and filtering in the good that is not there.

Sometimes we are putting back the feeling that was there all along, that you would miss if you weren’t present in the moment.

There is much to be said about this very unfinished topic–

but sometimes we should put the camera down altogether and as the great John Mayer once said, “see the world through both our eyes..”

And then other times, we should snap away. Snap away and catch the moments that are so fleeting.

“When words become unclear, I shall focus with photographs. When images become inadequate, I shall be content with silence.”
― Ansel Adams

I love this one: Wise Abe said it so well— HA!

“There are no bad pictures; that’s just how your face looks sometimes.”
― Abraham Lincoln

“Taking pictures is savoring life intensely, every hundredth of a second.”
― Marc Riboud

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IMG_2637
catching leaves

2-31DAYSMEDIUM

Move. (#Write31Days)
Something New. (#Write31Days)

Comments

  1. Caitlin L. says

    October 2, 2014 at 1:44 pm

    I love this!

    Reply
  2. our3strandcord says

    October 2, 2014 at 3:55 pm

    Oh cin…. I love your view point in this post. So true and so well said. It’s freeing to be able to “filter in” the good as we experienced it. And those pictures…. They warm my heart.

    Reply
  3. Amber says

    October 3, 2014 at 9:33 am

    What a fabulous picture of your big girl.

    Reply
  4. Cathy says

    October 4, 2014 at 4:05 am

    I loved this! You are right…sometimes the picture just doesnt’ capture, yet other times just being in the moment and living it up in complete freedom gives greater frozen moments in time than any digital ever could. I hope to follow the entire month. This writing challenge is fun!

    Reply
  5. Liz says

    October 4, 2014 at 12:48 pm

    Hahahaha! LOVE the quote from Abraham Lincoln!!

    Reply

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    October 2, 2014 at 11:41 am

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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

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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