Live Intentionally

     Happy Tuesday, lovelies! Summer has been going for just over a week now in the Northern Hemisphere and in rebellion, I'm drinking hot tea and wearing a sweater with many regrets. It's hot and I hate it. My mum always talks about how people complain when it's hot and then again when it gets cold so we need to learn to appreciate the natural seasons, which is fair, but I cannot love the heat. The only redemption is the fruit. Honestly, I don't think I would go outside much if not for our abundant blueberry bushes. I do like the length of the day too, I will admit, but otherwise there isn't much that makes up for summer. Give me autumn leaves, the bare trees of winter. Give me frost and thick sweaters and steaming cups of tea.

    In my young adults group last night, we had a quarterly check up. This was my first, as I haven't been going for too long now, but it was definitely interesting. It has me thinking about a lot. In my life, it feels like I've reached a plateau. Everything is stable, to an extent, and I'm comfortable, but it's so easy to feel stuck here. Work was crazy for a long time, it didn't feel like I had the space to do the things that I loved anymore. Things have changed as far as how we do things and we have new hires so, my hours are down and I'm no longer working six days a week and not all of my shifts are eight hours long. There are so many sides to this, good and bad, but it feels like I haven't quite adjusted. I don't have a routine for this. Before I started my job, writing was an enormous priority. I was writing new stories and getting other ones ready to pitch and hopefully be published. When work got busy, my free time was rare. I think I mentioned it recently but, outside of my blog, I haven't been writing. I know that this is something I love to do but I was trying to prioritize rest, which everyone tells me is important. And it is, but I don't need as much of it at the moment. That's why I've talked about going after what you want more, doing and not just waiting, because it's a reminder that I desperately need.

    Back to my original point. For the check up (check in?), we were asked a bunch of questions and required to give a number between one and ten. For example, how does your faith look right now? How are your finances? How's your attitude? These are things that I live with but never thought to give myself a number on. I really struggle with the number system because those answers are so dependent on my mood and the day but I believe it's still worth thinking about. When we don't acknowledge our faults or mistakes, we don't make room to grow. Change is inevitable but we can also make changes ourselves. I want to change for the better. I don't want to feel so stuck all the time. That plays a big part in my faith. I want to be a better person, to do things I never thought I could be capable of. I want to love unconditionally, be less judgmental. I want to be selfless. That's who Christians are called to be. That's who Jesus was, how he lived. Christians are called to be salt and light to the earth (Matthew 5:13-16). Aside from this blog, I'm not living like that. I don't even know if I have the faith for that right now but that's the foundation of what I believe. God sent His son because we're a mess. If we were perfect, we wouldn't need salvation. Love wouldn't really hold any weight. Christian or not, I think we could all be softer and kinder and I desperately want to be. It's not a lot but it's a place to start and I like to think that my heart is in the right place. 

    Over the next couple of weeks, I'm thinking of bringing up the topics listed last night and going into more depth. Calling it a series sounds really formal but it's an adequate description. Firstly, it would help me wrap my brain around things a bit more and secondly, I hope that I can encourage you too. Last of all, I'm hoping it will give me accountability. If I focus on one topic a week, there's bound to be at least a little improvement in those areas. Life is so much bigger than we realize sometimes. I want to be intentional in the ways that I live the life I've been given. We were not created to get through each day, to stay in the same places. Seasons are supposed to change and we were made for so much more. I'll have to outline a plan to make things concise, maybe come up with a couple challenges. I'll think about it but I'm excited. It'll be easier for me to have set topics each week and hopefully less obscurity then what I have been writing of late. 

    As always, thank you for making it this far!    

Yours Truly,

Rey