A Still Quiet Place

~ Elizabeth W. Marshall ~ 4 Comments

We live, in fact, in a world starved for solitude, silence, and private and therefore starved for meditation and true friendship.

(from C.S. Lewis)  
   Friends, my Sunday hope for you as you see this day begin its end is that you steal away to a quiet place for peace and friendship…wishing you His grace as you……….                  

                                                    

Take a minute,

Seek the silence,

Search out solitude,

Find a friend,

Grab the good,

Rest in quiet,

Think on blessings,

Knaw on words,

Release worry,

Ponder gratitude,

Curl up in the comfortable seat of Grace

And speak your heart to a precious friend.

,

image

Looking at Life Through A Lense Of Beauty

~ Elizabeth W. Marshall ~ 10 Comments

wishing for you eyes to see

the detail of the day,

in all its wonder,

in all its glory,

with all its elements of surprise,

with eyes that look through a lense of beauty

into a world,

covered by Grace

Designed in Love.

And may you be awake in each moment

 intent on discovery

at every turn, every step, and with every breathe.

And may Love look new and His Grace cover you fresh,

this one glorious day,

Today.

linking with Sandra Heska King today at Still Saturday

For Better, For Worse, Till Death

~ Elizabeth W. Marshall ~ 9 Comments

Today is 5 minute Friday at Lisa-Jo’s where we write for five minutes on a one word prompt; and today it is on risk. Challenged. Scared. Excited. I will write for five minutes and trust. Thank you for being here today. It is a privilege to have you on this journey. (Linking with Lisa-Jo at Lisa Jo Baker dot com) GO

Risk- For Better, For Worse, Till Death

Everyday is a new start. His Mercies define the new. The beginnings begin anew. We love fresh, we love new. And we start our “I do’s” all over again. Every morning of everyday.

We love, broken. We love hurt. We love tired. We love flat out. And extravagantly. With it all on the line.

And when He leaves for a season, only to come back months later, we start over again with Hope, and Love, and forgiveness.

And there they are again. The new Mercies of His. They are there.

Walking beside Trust.

And when we say I do, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, till death, we risk.

We risk a life of two, merged as one. Invested. Investing. Placing the needs, desires and wants of the individual, of the one behind those of the other.

Because Love invests and Love risks.

It risks everything.

And gains the whole world and a life of love.

Love is risky business, but oh the glorious, indescribable, unfathomable reward.

STOP

Off The Beaten Path – PhotoBlogging In The Woods

~ Elizabeth W. Marshall ~ 4 Comments

I can go into the woods.

I can walk the paths before me, wander under a canopy of beauty.

And lose myself in the mountains. Experience long moments of solitutude.

Intentional in my aloneness. Choose to separate self.

Restore my soul. Surround  myself with  a symphony of birdsong. By design.

A canvas of greens and earth-toned brown beauty warm my soul like a woolen blanket.

Beside a stream. Life-giving water gurggles. Soul-restoring haven by the rushing. I can stand.

And like Robert Frost, name them, the woods lovely, dark and deep.

A place to rest in the lovely and the dark.

Where light shines though the Rhododendon blossom like a call, the other side of this refuge holds hope.  A promise in light.

And the water heals, the sound, the smell, the cool, and all that it gives. All of my senses capture the gift of the stream.

But I was meant for relationship. And I was created for community.

He calls me back into the arms of relationship. Into the community that is my world. The intimate one and the larger one of which I am a member.

And there is love.

And there is hurt.

And joy.

And brokenness.

And woundedness.

And disappointment.

And hope.

And healing.

There is every emotion that we were designed and created to experience.

In relationships with each other.

So I draw on the woods. I take from the tree-barked harbor. I leave the sanctuary of the solitutde.

And I live my life in relationships. I seek to build, restore, re-fresh, re-new, and re-love, again.

Each one.

Each precious, tender, sacred one.

And not in my strength alone, but in that of Creator God, maker of Heaven and Earth.

But those woods that Robert Frost knew so well, will call and I will go, again.

Tomorrow.

I lift up my eyes to the mountains-

where does my help come from?

My help comes from the Lord,

The Maker of heaven and earth.- Psalm 121


“The woods are lovely, dark, and deep. But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep.” by Robert Frost “Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening”