Love, Joy and the Search for Peace

I am cheating with this one. Written and sent out as an email last week, but I can copy it and use it as a posting too, I suppose. Wishing you all Love, Joy and Fulfilling Peace....................Annette

Love, Joy and the Search for Peace

Thursday, December 6, 2007 @ 10:30 PM

The following was what God placed upon my heart exactly a year ago tonight........I have experienced great love and numerous joys in the passing year. It has also been perhaps the most difficult year of my entire life in various manners that some of you have prayed diligently with me and for me. Tonight our Bible study sisters shared a devotional centered around the concept of peace. I have missed peace much of this last year. I am not alone. Many if not all of you have struggled with your own issues of peace and what it includes in your daily life; in the walk of faith. I will ask God to give me the words He would like me to share in the coming days at this computer screen. I will send them on to cyberspace for those who feel lead to open up an email from an ordinary girl who often feels way more seasoned and beyond the sweetness and naive understandings of a mere girl. In a couple of weeks I will have journeyed 49 years as a child of God. Seven times seven. My prayer is that the next sequence of seven years (especially my rapidly approaching 50th year!) will look more favorably upon my family and all those I love, and yes, especially more favorably upon me......self compassion, not self pity, right? I am searching for a special peace that withstands all things. I find it sometimes. Sometimes, very joyfully, it sits for a considerable spell. Other times it is as fleeting and momentary as a snowflake on a sunny day. You know exactly what I am trying to write. We have all been there, restless and longing for more. So tonight as I get ready to turn in, I pray for peace. For you, for yours, for me, for mine, for our world. I love you all for the joy you bring to me, especially on those frequently cloudy days. Despite the SC drought, I seem to have had many a cloudy day............truthfully, I've experienced and sought to survive turbulence of grand magnitude the past 365 days.

PEACE......................may we all find our way together!

Merry Christmas with love, hugs, kisses and joy in this moment, Annette

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Annette's Joy

Thursday, December 7, 2006

Merry Christmas Everyone! I've not written for a couple of months and I am sure some of you have delighted in my quietness.........sometimes it becomes necessary to be still and be silent. To say that I have not missed writing and sharing would be false as I feel more 'authentic' when I sit at this screen and let fingers roam freely, not knowing, as now, what will result. Partly my silence has been self imposed for reasons I am not completely certain of, except that all of us have moments that we feel insecure in our words, our actions, and maybe even our motives, and if one, individually, can make a real difference in this life.

I have just returned from our Bible study Christmas gathering and what a difference this incredible assembly of sisters makes in my life. Sometimes I forget the significance when we are apart for a while, and then all it takes is another small segment of time to reconnect and refuel another spirit. Tonight we spoke of JOY. The joy of Jesus' birth and how the shepherds rejoiced. How joy is sometimes small and difficult to find or to comprehend, and at other times, joy is all apparent.

I have had many moments of sheer joy in the last several months....my parents' 60th wedding anniversary, Thanksgiving with my family clustered close around me in our home, sharing with and loving on the fellow residents of Lowman Home where my parents now reside, the beauty of leaves changing from one brilliant color to a different radiant hue, then watching them spiral from treetops and dance with the wind, the smell of wood smoke in the chilly evening air. I could give so many examples, each one special to me and some of the same examples special to you too. There have also been moments of sorrow...........(dare I ponder apathy?).....

the loss of friends to illnesses and accidents, the discouragement of world affairs and how we react to so much negative media, the repetitive efforts to sometimes live life one day at a time with the realities of finances, work, relationships, etc pulling relentlessly in our lives. It seems as if it is often easier to lose joy than to find it. It takes little effort to get lost and to give in to the 'ordinaries' of daily life.

I am so blessed that my spiritual sisters have helped me regain a renewed sense of true joy again. The true joy of this Christmas season. The affirmation of deeply rooted friendships. The quiet moments that are shared with others and that refuel faith when perhaps, segments of our faith have been displaced in some manner that becomes oblivious in our individual lives. I realized tonight, as we shared our love, devotion, and support for one another, that we all have these moments when responsibility and obligation seem to rob our blessing of God given joy. Our commonalities far exceed our differences. I hope in writing this I have sent a small portion of love and joy to you who think of me when I am missing in action. I thank you all for loving and praying for me, my family and my friends. May our coming days be filled with all those things that impart a deep sense of belonging and meaning in life. May we be blessed with grace, forgiveness, and hope................

I love you all! JOY to the World .............

with many hugs,

Annette