Liebster Award Nomination

  
It’s always encouraging when someone appreciates what you’re doing, and sometimes that appreciation comes in a special form. I’m honoured to announce that fellow blogger Tammy from faithhopelovefood has nominated me for the Liebster Award. I have less than 3000 followers which makes me eligible for this award.

The Liebster Award

The Liebster Award is given by bloggers to fellow bloggers in order to support and encourage them in their blogging. The guidelines for receiving the award varies, however, the general rules are as follows:

• Post your award to your blog in a blog post
• Answer the 10 questions that were given to you by the fellow blogger who nominated you
• Nominate 3-10 other bloggers you have discovered with less than 3,000 followers
• Create 10 questions for your nominees to answer

Here are my answers to the questions I was given:

1. Who has been most influential in your decision to write? It may sound clichéd but it has to be God. He just won’t let me off the hook. Even when writing feels too scary or too hard, he keeps gently nudging me to persevere. Encouragement from good friends and family that I have something worthwhile to say, also helps tremendously.
2. What led you to choose the focus of your blog? Reading John Ortberg’s book The Me I Want to Be. He writes about flourishing and that really resonated with me.
3. Where do you find your inspiration for your blog posts? It’s really a mixture of my own experiences and observations, thinking about something I’ve read or seen, and the occasional insight that’s like a light-bulb moment. Sometimes I have no idea what I’m going to say or what I think until I’ve written it. I’m learning to just keep writing, whether I’m feeling inspired or not.
4. Who is your favourite author? Tough question. Since I have to choose, I’ll say that it’s currently Emily P. Freeman. I’ve been reading her blog and books for several years now, and I appreciate her perspectives and insights. Sometimes it feels like she’s holding up a mirror in which I see myself.
5. What are your writing aspirations? To be a better, more consistent blogger for a start. To walk beside people as they explore their own faith journey. Whether my writing will extend beyond blogging is part of the journey of discovery.
6. What is your favourite scripture or quote? Psalm 37:4 Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart.
7. What does a perfect day look like for you? Spending time enjoying nature, reading a good book, journaling in one of my favourite cafes, watching a good movie, getting a massage, enjoying good food with good friends and family. Hmm, I might need a week.
8. Coffee, tea or neither? I’m a hot chocolate girl. However I am partial to an iced coffee or an iced tea. Go figure.
9. Favourite childhood memory. There are many, but one is picking wild blackberries in summer. I’m sure we ate far more than we brought home.
10. Advice you would give to someone who wants to be a writer. Some good advice that was given to me: be prepared to keep working on your craft. Keep learning and improving your writing skills. On the flip side, don’t wait until your writing is perfect before you release it into the world, because that day will never come, and there are people waiting to read your words.

The blogs I’m nominating are:

Charis at Charis: Subject to Change
Alicia at Alicia’s Roses: Renewal, restoration, refreshment, rest
Judi at It’s not really about me…  …it’s about a creative journey of faith

And here are my questions for them:

1. What does writing / blogging mean to you?
2. What’s a significant lesson you’ve learned from life experience?
3. What’s your favourite way of being with God?
4. What are you thankful for?
5. In what ways has God blessed you this year?
6. What books, films or music have impacted you, and how?
7. What is you favourite place to just be?
8. What advice would you give to someone asking you how to flourish?
9. Do you have a favourite topic or theme that keeps showing up in your life or your writing?
10. How do you integrate rest into your rhythm of daily life, and what does that look like for you?

Monthly Musings: October reflections

It’s time again for monthly musings, and this time I just wanted to reflect for a few minutes on writing through the month of October. This isn’t new, other writers have been here before. But this my path, and these are the things I’ve discovered for myself.

1. Letting go of perfectionism. When you have to post every day, there isn’t enough time to write and rewrite to get it perfect. At some point you have to decide it’s good enough and press Publish.
2. Writing to deadline. Lots and lots of short deadlines means you have to keep showing up and putting pen to paper and fingers to the keyboard. Even when you don’t have any great ideas and aren’t feeling inspired.
3. Writing on the same topic every day. Writing and posting on the same topic every day for a month makes it easier and harder. Easier because you have a frame to work within. Harder because you have to keep finding new elements, new perspectives to keep the topic interesting.
4. I still don’t have a solution for procrastination. Deadlines help, but they can also mean that you just get less sleep so you can hit Publish before midnight. Ironic when you’re writing about rest – but then I knew that was a risk from the beginning.
5. Uncovering insights. Sometimes I don’t realise what ideas or insights I have on a topic until I’ve started writing. I might think I have nothing to say, until I start to say it. Sometimes it just unfolds in the process of writing. That’s a weird feeling, but also good.
6. But wait, there’s more. Even though the series has ended I know that there’s a lot more about rest to be discovered and practised. This is really just the beginning of finding the rhythm of rest, and I fully expect to be writing about it more in the future. As they say, watch this space.

What did you discover in October?

Image credit: morguefile.com

Monthly Musings: September

Is it just me or is this year travelling at warp speed? It’s the end of September and here are a few thoughts for the month.

Spring – The blossoms on my ornamental plum tree are long gone, but the crabapple tree is just starting to bud. A few more days and it should be a cloud of pink.

Friends – I’ve been reminded of the pleasure of time spent with friends. This month I helped friends and family celebrate their birthdays, enjoyed dinner and conversation with a close friend, and began to make a new friend over lunch. Good food with good friends – one of my favourite things.

Books – Do you love books? Choosing books? Reading books? Talking about  books? It wasn’t until I read Emily P. Freeman’s latest blog post asking for book recommendations that I realised that I don’t have enough book conversations in my life. Coincidentally the only book I’ve actually finished this month is Emily’s new book Simply Tuesday: small-moment living in a fast-moving world. September has been an inconsistent reading month for me. I’ve added a number of new books to the reading list but they’re all still works in reading progress.

Here are a couple of quotes from Emily’s book that resonated with me as someone who needs time to process things. Maybe they will resonate with you too.

Productivity skills have helped me meet important deadlines and release unnecessary perfectionism.
The problems come when I foolishly try to apply these same skills to my inner life.
The soul and the schedule don’t follow the same rules.

and

Many people are in a season of speed, a time of movement, of action, and go. But that is not where I usually am. And I cannot wait for the world to stop to embrace my permission for slow.
What part of your personality seems to fight against your own perceived ability to succeed? What might happen if your stopped bullying your personality into submission and instead began to welcome it as a kind friend?
So here’s to you, my fellow slow-processors. Take the long way home. Embrace the silence to consider. Give yourself permission to think, to listen, to be sure.

Writing – And as October is waiting in the wings you may remember that last year I joined the Write 31 Days challenge to write on one topic every day in October. This year I’ve decided to take on the challenge again, and I’ve chosen a topic that’s particularly relevant for me at the moment. Check out the first post of the series tomorrow.

 

Finding my rhythm

We were chatting about morning routines, and the things that are essential at the start of the day. One friend’s family members have learned not to ask any questions or expect any help from her before she’s had her first coffee. They know she’s not really conscious until she’s had coffee.

I don’t really have much in the way of consistent daily or weekly routines. You may have noticed that since I’m so sporadic with my writing and posts on Flourish! Having a routine seems somehow kind of boring, static and inflexible, as if that would characterise me if I kept to a routine. Computer programs have routines. (My apologies to those of you who function well precisely because you do have a routine.)

So, because words affect how I think and feel about something, and therefore how I act, I’ve been thinking that perhaps I need a different word.

Not so much a routine, as a rhythm, like a piece of music, a dance or a poem.

In her book, A million little ways^⁠1, Emily P. Freeman explains how the words workmanship or masterpiece are often used to translate the Greek word poiema in Ephesians 2:10, and that our English word poem has its origins in this word poiema. 

If I am a living poem, what might the rhythm of my life look like?

I like the idea of rhythm; pattern, flow, tempo. It feels more life-giving than routine.

There’s a lot to think about there, but I want to start here with you, with this blog. I want to experiment with establishing a rhythm to my offerings at Flourish!

Here are a few ideas I’m tossing about at present. I’d like to know if they resonate with you, or just make you feel like you’re travelling on a corrugated dirt road in a car with a dodgy suspension.

• Monthly Musings – thoughts on what I’ve discovered, experienced, learned in the last month
• OneWord365 – regular posts on my one word for this year (which is “trust” in case you were wondering)
• The Book Tour – thoughts / notes from the books I’m reading (monthly?)
• Themed series – and yes, I will get back to the series on Waiting.

If you have any ideas about what you’d like to see on Flourish! in 2015, I’m all ears. Join the conversation in the Comments section.

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¹ Emily P. Freeman, A million little ways: uncover the art you were made to live (Grand Rapids: Revell, 2013), 25.

Image source: morguefile.com

31 Days to Listen

If you’ve been reading Flourish! for a while you might remember that I started the year reflecting on God’s whispered invitation to listen. In October I’m joining other bloggers taking on The Nester‘s 31 Day challenge to write every day of the month on the same topic. I want to learn how to listen well, so I’ll be writing every day about listening. I’d also love to hear about your experience and perspective on listening, so I hope you’ll join me on this listening journey.

I’ll be adding a link here for each day, so there’s one place to find all the month’s writing together. And if I can sort out the technology there will also be a button on the home page so you can check back here any time during the month.

Day 1: He listens
Day 2: The Why of Listening
Day 3: In the Silence of the Heart
Day 4: Are you willing to listen?
Day 5: Go near to listen …
Day 6: Listening to nature
Day 7: Alone with God
Day 8: When Listening means Waiting
Day 9: Be still and Listen
Day 10: Trusting enough to listen
Day 11: Listening to His Word
Day 12: Listening for the Invitation
Day 13: Listening and Doing
Day 14: A prayer for listening
Day 15: Listening with others
Day 16: Listen and Follow
Day 17: When a bench is an invitation to listen
Day 18: Longing for those who would listen
Day 19: The Journey to Listen
Day 20: Listen and stay a little longer
Day 21: Listen in Solitude
Day 22: The Gift of Listening
Day 23: Listening – the gift of paying attention
Day 24: Listening to the still small voice
Day 25: Who would we rather listen to?
Day 26: Listening to Lessons from The Wrong Book
Day 27: What if you listened?
Day 28: Listening to God speak through Others
Day 29: Listening – choosing what is better
Day 30: Listening to Jesus the Son
Day 31: It’s only the Beginning of Listening