I'm glad you are here to celebrate! Share a link to your blog post below and/or use #celebratelu to share celebrations on Twitter. Check out the details here. Celebrate This Week goes live on Friday night around 10(ish). Consider it as a weekend celebration. Whenever it fits in your life, add your link. Please leave a little comment love for the person who links before you.
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I turned my Instagram account public. I've been using it to collect & document celebrations. I love it. Please follow me there: @ruth_ayres to find celebrations throughout the week.
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Someone sent me a thank you note. The old-fashioned kind, where it's blank inside and you use your own handwriting to fill it up. I didn't do anything to deserve this thank you. I didn't take a meal or give a gift or help with a project. The return address wasn't from a close friend or family member.
The thank you was simple, but loud to my soul. I've had the privilege to invite the whole town to be part of a bible study. In the process, it's becoming a network for women of faith in our community.
It was a natural step, but one that felt risky. It was a step waaaaaay out of my comfort zone. It's been a step where I've battled the the voices in my head that tell me I'm ridiculous.
Recently, I've been wondering if maybe all this working-up of my soul, stepping into new writing territories and chasing down a dream I never expected, but makes a lot of sense, is totally smoke and mirrors.
At the same time, I've been flooded and nourished by messages and scripture and teachings to never give up.
Never
Never
Never
Never
Never
Give Up.
I thought maybe I was just making it all up -- these steps I keep taking are maybe on the wrong path. Maybe I have it all wrong. Maybe I shouldn't be writing. Or studying. Or teaching.
I look down at that handwritten thank you note and I realize it's more than an off-handed note. It's sustenance. It's evidence. It's the grit that I need.
I will stay the course. Dreams are only accomplished when we don't let go when things get a little rocky.
I celebrate staying strong, even when it feels like it doesn't matter.
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We have been celebrating for 81 weeks. I. Love. This. 81 times we've been coming together to find the joy in the midst of life. 81 times we've dug to find magic in the muddle. 81 times we chose to celebrate rather than wallow. 81 is significant enough to change a life.
It has changed mine. Thank you for investing in this corner of cyberspace. It comes as no small thing that you chose to celebrate here.
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