Tag Archives: spiritual journeys

Back to Blogging: Embracing Imperfection and New Beginnings

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Oh my dear readers! How crazy was my holiday?! Did you even notice that I took a two week hiatus and didn’t write anything? Did you even notice that I missed the last week of Advent, didn’t chat about the Love Candle or greet you for Christmas or New Year’s Eve? Not even a social media “hello”. I am a bad, bad blogger. The algorithms have all gone awry. I thought about a “word of the year” but never truly came up with one yet. I have no excuses.

And so we come back to another year flipped on the calendar. Time passes whether I write or not. Honestly, who really cares about our little life here anyway? Okay, Okay, I am hoping someone does. Or at least this little exercise is in my own best interest to “journal” and think and muse and use as my own creative outlet for some sort of ordering space in my own chaotic brain. If you’re reading this, then, congratulations! You get to come along for the ride as I purge my thoughts for my own mental health. Again, I have no excuses.

The weeks went by in a blur. Grand baby was born. Work. Holidays in the middle of an already hectic week. Travelling. Farm chores. Baby kisses and shoveling chicken poop. How exciting a life I lead. What’s the point? Why write anything here in my little corner of the internet? I’m thinking back to my very first blog posts about niches and why I started mittonmusings in the first place. To learn. To try. It didn’t matter that I didn’t fit in to the typical blogger mode. I am terrible at getting a good photo. I’m not the one snapping selfies in the bathrooms or videoing in the thrift stores. I don’t make good “art” documentaries or farm instructional videos. I’ve never written a book. I don’t even have Tiktok. I can use a filter, but I still need help editing a reel. I am very, very far from perfect.

Sigh. Maybe that’s the point. In this fast paced world of A.I. technology and rapidly changing fads, my {cough} fifty {cough} something person is on the way back down the hill. I am beginning to see the dark side of the mountain and watching the next generation climb to great heights on the other side. My babies are having babies. We are starting to look at retirement funds. I know, age is just a number, and if you’ve been here any length of time, you will know that I am a firm believer in the “never stop learning” motto. An old dog CAN learn new tricks. God never told us we get to retire from life. Jesus had a plan and left a legacy. He made a path for those coming behind to follow. Perhaps it is the same for us in 2025.

I’m a bit sad that I didn’t have the time to sit down over the holidays and reflect properly. I’m a bit disappointed that we didn’t (okay at least I didn’t) have a whole lot of time to “chill” and look introspectively on the past year and the one to come. I should have. The youngest asked if I had a resolution. I don’t. I have a few goals set in mind, but have I come up with a true, real focus for the year, as I have had in the past? No, not yet. My mind is already racing forward to the 17 things that need to get done in the next few days. My new work schedule requires some getting used to, and we are once again, balancing home and the rest of life. Oh no, my friend, time stands still for no one. Every day is a marching on to the next day.

Perhaps that’s what time is teaching me. Perhaps that’s what God wants me to learn. Patience. A life journey is a march onward. Up (and down) the hill. Things gotta get done. Bills get paid, the dishes get done, the babies grow up, and the dog still gets fed. This is where I am. And it is okay.

Come join me on this adventure! (Photo: Pexels)

Welcome to the blog, dear reader. Welcome to the chaos, the times I go AWOL for no apparent reason other than “I didn’t get to it”. Welcome to the journey. I guarantee that we will learn together. We’ll think and muse and become the master of nothing. It’ll be fun. We’ll question verses and try to apply them to life. There will be bad photos, my crazy chicken stories and lots of grand baby gushing. The hubby will likely be the focus of some #itsnottafarm project and will be there for a few laughs, I am sure. HAPPY 2025!

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Joy. Unspeakable Joy.

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Joy. Unspeakable Joy. I don’t know why that song popped into my head for this, the third week of Advent. I’m not even going to look it up for you. If you know it, you know it. Anyway, it’s been a good week. A good week filled with good things. And so it won’t be hard to chat about Joy.

We had the privilege of lighting the Advent candle at our new church this week. True to form, the hubby ad-libbed a little bit. And me? Well, I got a little over zealous and lit four candles instead of three. Oops! Why isn’t joy the fourth week just before Christmas anyway? Love can come before Joy and after Hope and Peace. In fact, I think it should come after Love. You love something or someone and then the joy comes, right? Do you choose that feeling or is it a result of loving? Hmmn. That’s a thought for reflection.

For example, when our little grand baby was born we loved him before we met him. His extended family anticipated with Hope his impending arrival… But the Joy when he arrived… that was different. Perhaps Mary felt the same. She knew her baby was something special. She knew He was going to do great things. But to feel the joy deep down in her heart? I think that only came when she got to meet Him face to face.

In fact, I think that is still true: I don’t think anyone who ever experienced Jesus face to face was ever the same. Good or bad, coming face to face with God will forever change you. In 2024, we don’t have the chance to meet Jesus face to face, on this side of Heaven, but encounters with God are no less powerful. Experiences give us a concrete foundation for the actions that are the result of those experiences. It’s one thing to say “I know how you feel, I will pray”. It’s another thing to say “I’ve been there… I got you”.

Joy. Unspeakable joy. I’m trying to think of how to share or describe it. They say Joy is one of those emotions that is beyond happiness. A feeling that has supernatural roots. You can feel joy despite the human experience…. It is “unspeakable” in a way. You must experience it to understand it. And when you do, you think to yourself, yup, that was a God thing because I could not have done that by myself.

The kids tease me because most weeks I end up crying at church. A worship song hits just so – and tears come. I’m not even a big crier. It’s also been known to happen during a proud moment when I watch my kids perform. A race. A school play. An overwhelming emotion that spills out through my eyelids. Am I alone? I know I am not… I have seen some of you. You gushing emotional wrecks you!

Joy. Unspeakable Joy. In past years, mittonmusings has asked you what brings you joy? I’ve posted photographs. It’s a tough one to write about. Perhaps we all feel it differently. Perhaps that’s why it’s such a deep and indescribable emotion. In the popular movie Inside Out, Joy and Sadness have to work together. Like light and darkness, to experience and understand one, you need to experience and understand the opposite. And then you can truly help another – because you’ve been there.

And so, my friends, time is passing quickly. Perhaps, like me, you were a little zealous and lit one too many candles this week and are now burning them at both ends. It’s crunch time, single digits before Christmas and there is still a lot to do. I wish you peace, hope and now joy. Unspeakable Joy that you must take time to truly experience to understand. May your sadness make your joy complete. And then together, we’ll come back to celebrate Love! Blessings, my readers!

Hope: A Strong Foundation

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Welcome back, my friends. It has come. The Christmas season is upon us again and Sunday past was the first Sunday of Advent. Traditionally, here at mittonmusings.com we celebrate the advent season with muses each week based on the theme of advent. And so, we are here again. As we mark the first week of preparation for the Christmas season, we look at HOPE. “I hope this… ” “I hope that….” “Hoping you do this or that…” Common phrases we hear all the time. Hope is familiar to us. Personally, I think hope is one of those emotions that has quite a wide range. Tiny, insignificant hopes to big life and death hopes. We “hope” for a good parking spot. Some “hope” for medical miracles. Others “hope” for a meal to fill their bellies. Hope is based on circumstance. Or is it?

Photo by Saad Chaudhry on Unsplash

Our circumstance is fleeting. Basing our hopes on dreams and desires can lead to disappointment and discouragement. Perhaps, hope needs to be concrete. Substantial. Tangible. Who gives us that tangible gift to cling to? Napoleon Bonaparte once said that “Leaders are dealers in hope.” Let’s muse there for awhile. What does a good leader give us? Motivation? A cause to rally for? We recently watched the first Gladiator movie with Russell Crowe. One of its themes is a leader is valuable and can woo the masses. I was struck by the similarities between the colosseum’s crowd and the mob at Jesus’ crucifixion. How we are easily swayed by group mentality and can be roused by others. Hope or destruction: it doesn’t matter. A good leader filters hope through his or her crew. An evil one breeds destruction and chaos.

The hope a leader feeds, however, must have a genuine substance. It must have a firm foundation. A solid belief that will propel the follower forward no matter what the circumstance. This is the advent Hope we celebrate. It is not a theory or philosophy or dream. It is a person. This is a vital and very distinct difference we see between believers and non-believers. Our hope is not based on circumstance or adaptable. It is a constant… through any circumstance, because we believe in God who is secure and stable through the uncertainty. He is faithful through it all. Certainly, we grieve. We travel through hills and valleys. Yet, our journey can be surrounded with hope because of the One who knows the future.

“The hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil.”

Hebrews 6:19

The Hebrew word for Hope is tikvah meaning “expectation” or “cord”. The root word meaning “to wait for” or “bind”. We are awaiting the birth of our first grand baby. We ponder about will it be a boy or a girl? Will the baby be big or little? Will he or she have a full head of hair? How will the parents survive? (How did we get old enough to be grandparents?!) Most of us understand the concept of expectation as it relates to babies. We see where that hope is related. We hope in a bright future for our little one. Still, what about “bind” and the idea of cordage? To bind tight means stability. A hope, that when tested in circumstance, is unwavering. A necessary foundation to cling to when the going gets tough. An anchor in times of uncertainty. This is our Hope in Christ.

And so, my friends, as we enter another season of Christmas, I encourage you to put your Hope in the One who counts. The One who anchors our valleys and circumstances with a strong cordage. May the next few weeks of advent reflection start with Hope because it needs to be our foundation for the season. See you next week, my beloveds!

Want some more Hope? Here’s a few previous posts to put you in the advent mood:

The Ultimate Toolbox

The Advent Candle of Hope

How to Predict the Future