“Beautiful in my surrender…”

So, let me tell you a secret. 
I’ve been praying for inspiration. 
School is out. 
Summer is here.
I’m feeling void of…
ideas.
What used to come natural to me is now feeling forced.
What to write about? 
Well, prayers have been answered. 
Ten fold. 
(stay tuned for more later this week)
My first inspiration came from Writing My Way Sober. 
Enjoy her words of wisdom.
 
 
The above image is from Writing My Way Sober, who described these sticks found on an Oregon coast as, “drift wood, perfectly smoothed and sanded by the elements. Beaten by life – the waves, wind, rocks, sun.  I love them.”
 
She goes on to say, “What I am realizing is that my struggles during the past few weeks are all gifts: events trying to smooth, polish and humble me. Purify me.

‘When we are born our hearts are all shiny and new.  As human beings we come into the world with pure hearts.  We are created in the image of God.  The unabashed wonder and innocence of a child reflects our divine inner nature.  Yet, over time the process of life changes the pristine nature of our hearts.  Our innocence evaporates.  We learn negativity.  We say and do things that move us away from our creator’s image.  Slowly over time our hearts become filled with things other than God. 

We call this process veiling the heart.  It is how we begin to feel lost or disconnected.  The pain and suffering that troubles our hearts is a direct result of veiling. It has been written that 70,000 veils of both light and dark separate us from the divine light.’
–Kirk Habib Laman
 
So…when I stumble, I need to remember that each “bad” event can be an opportunity to lift another veil. To smooth another edge. 

So I suppose I’ll let the water tumble me, the rocks sand me, the sun bleach me. I’ll become a perfect stick.

And I will be beautiful in my surrender.”
 
That last line is haunting. 
And I love it. 
 
It reminds me of the mud balls
  “We polish on own lives, creating landscapes and canyons and peaks with the very silt we try to avoid, the dirt we disavow or hide or deny. It is the dirt of our lives–the depressions, the losses, the inequities, the failing grades in trigonometry, the e-mails sent in fear or hate or haste, the ways in which we encounter people different from us–that shape us, polish us to a heady sheen, make us in fact more beautiful, more elemental, more artful, more lasting.” –Patti Digh

and the process of learning that the dirt of our lives can be smoothed, polished and shined into something beautiful. 

 
Thank you, thank you, for your inspiration. 

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