Happy Easter!!!

This is one of the first Easters I won't get to spend with my family. AND I have to work. But at least the Pacific Northwest is giving us sunshine and 70 degrees this weekend! Maybe I'll hide some Easter eggs for Quincy.

Here's a few Easter pictures from past years. Love and miss you, mom and dad! Happy Easter!! Christ is Risen!!

Whimsy.

I've lately been obsessed with the word whimsy.

Well, no...not just the word. The idea of it. The expression of it. The art of it.

The life of it.

I wish my life had more whimsy in it.
Whimsy is playful. It's fun. It's sometimes odd and even daring. Daring...and not caring. It's going against the grain, skipping along with a smile on your face and therefore--maybe even unintentionally--inviting others to come with you.

And they will probably want to, deep down. But most people will play it safe and default to their original plans. Whimsy isn't always practical.

Yes, plans are good. Goals are even better. We need them both to drive us forward.

But don't forget, this life is short. Life is also meant to be a little whimsical.

Whimsy is spontaneity. Whimsy is being free. Whimsy is colorful. Whimsy is creative. Whimsy is inviting others to "enjoy" with us.

Whimsy is artsy. But you don't have to be a painter, graphic designer, or fashionista to be artfully whimsy. Art has infinite mediums. Art can be humor. It can be sports. It can be personality. It can be love.

I've been reading Love Does by Bob Goff, and I think he mentions whimsy in every chapter.

"I get the invitation every morning when I wake up to actually live a life of complete engagement, a life of whimsy, a life where love does. It doesn't come in an envelope. It's ushered in by a sunrise, the sound of a bird, or the smell of coffee drifting lazily from the kitchen. It's the invitation to actually live, to fully participate in this life for one more day." --Love Does.

So this is my new challenge to myself: Get out of "autopilot" mode and into a little bit of whimsy.

And I dare YOU to come along :)

P.s. Guess who is coming to visit me soon :)

Joy.

Where do you get your joy? 

No, not the dish soap.  The joy, joy, joy, joy...down in your heart! [::Where?!::]

Completely unrelated, but Gum Wall in Seattle! 

Do you try to get it from your circumstance? You can find happiness in certain circumstances, but once things stop going your way...then what? I'm not going to get into the whole joy vs. happiness thing... but joy isn't as fleeting as happiness.  Joy sustains the ups and downs.

So, where do you get your joy?

From your friends and family? Yes, they are awesome. But people will always let you down -- and if you haven't experienced that yet, you're lying.  We are all broken and although we do our best to care for and support "our favorites", you just might get ditched by a friend once in awhile when someone else offers them Seahawks tickets.

Completely unrelated again, but...Hedgie burrito!

And PLEASE don't hope to get all your joy from a marriage or relationship.  That is way too much pressure on one person to try do that for you.

I follow Graham Cooke on Facebook and one of his quotes has stuck with me all week:

"Be of good cheer! You are the living embodiment of Glad Tidings of Great Joy.  You must find your happiness from Christ within."

Of course, at first all I could think about was Christmas. We always hear about joy at Christmas.  Because Christ IS joy.  And because of that, joy is an everyday experience that if you don't have....you're missing out.  Big time.

I've had to do a serious attitude and joy check recently.  I was relying on getting joy too much through my circumstance.  (More specifically my current job situations). But that just caused me to be disappointed. And complain. And carry around a spirit of negativity.  No one likes that. So I stopped.

And really I don't know why I was like that.  I am blessed to have an income!! I live in an INCREDIBLY beautiful state with an insanely awesome boyfriend and new friends. Also, my friend Emily just came to visit....which I think was the turning point for me.  Because showing her my new city/state made me realize how blessed I am to be living here in the first place.

I like the beginning of Cooke's quote.  "Be of good cheer!" You can have joy even if you're not necessarily happy. But being happy always helps.  And like they say, happiness is a choice! Be friendly to everyone you come in contact with.  Not just nice.  Try being almost overly friendly and engaged with people.  Get your eyes up and away from your phone.  Contribute to real life conversations going on around you.

Also, take time to be by yourself.  Some people are honestly afraid to spend time alone in the quiet.  But just try it.  (Hey, that rhymes...) See what happens. And like I said before, Christ IS joy.  You can't have true joy without Him.  So take out that Bible and read a verse or two or thirty and ask Him to teach you something.

Break out of your normal routine every once in awhile.  Take a drive out in the country or into the city. With a friend or by yourself! See what the Lord shows you.

That's what I've been telling and forcing myself to do lately.  Because for me personally, I know I need to spend more time in the Bible and less time on my phone.  More time in prayer and less time complaining or worrying.

By doing that, the joy is already coming back (and to be honest I don't believe I ever really lost it, I just wasn't living in to it).  And actually this post was inspired by a customer at work just yesterday because after some simple typical hardware store small talk he said to me with a smirk on his face, "You have the Joy, don't you?" and I said, "Why yes, I do!" and he said, "I can tell. Because I have the joy of the Lord, and I'm guessing that's what you have, too!" as he winked and walked out the door.

It's evident. And contagious.

So go on, and be of good cheer!

It's way more fun.  I promise.

Finding my Solid Ground.

It happened while I was looking for iPhone covers, of all things.

Frustration, confusion, and oddly enough even a bit of panic.

What's my "thing"?!

Everyone has their thing. And everyone else knows that about them. Their obsession. Cars, a sports team, photography, dogs, cats, crafts, tattoos, cooking, stamp collecting, figurine painting, lawn gnome collecting, etc.

I was bothered that I couldn't think of anything that I identified with in that context. [Except....collecting gnomes could be fun...] But a gnome iPhone cover just didn't seem to suit me either.

They say that your passion is that thing that you cant go a day without thinking about. That thing that makes you feel like you shouldn't be doing anything else when you're in it.

What's my thing!? The only thing I've strongly identified with lately...is moving alot. But that cant be my thing anymore or else ALL of my mail (instead of just most of it) will be lost forever in the sea of Kirsten Melvie's mail forwarding history.

I don't have hardly anything in my daily life that is familiar in that it has been with me for years. I still only have the very few of my possessions that could fit in my Subaru for the move from Denver. All of my old friends are in different states. My jobs are new and not-so-fulfilling. Everything in my life lately is just still so new and so different.

Except running and writing.

I guess those are my things. No matter where I am, those are familiar to me. They are mine. I can take them anywhere I go.

Running makes me feel the most myself. It clears my head and keeps my emotions in check.

When I remembered that, I realized I've totally been slacking on running, so I signed up for my 3rd half marathon in May. I guess I just needed the motivation--because I've ran 9 miles this week and it's only Tuesday. And I already feel more myself.

And I also know that writing is my way of processing and expressing things. Otherwise it's just a jumbled mess of ideas floating around in my head--not really meaning anything until it's typed out.

Those are my familiars.

And yes, my faith is my familiar too, but even my faith is somehow different, which in this case is good--it is changing and growing. Same God, but new churches, perspectives, and situations.

(Kirsten analogy coming up now...ready for it?!)

Sometimes when you're in those parts of life that are filled with newness and mostly void of the familiar---it feels like you're standing still in the middle of a shaken up snow globe.

You become disoriented. Confused.  Maybe even progressively more and more lost.

People keep telling you it will get better and everything will fall into place and become familiar again. And it probably will. But here's the choice we can make. We can sit back and hope that things settle again on their own, or we can be proactive and DO something to orient ourselves instead of just wallowing in our frustrating confusion.

I'm finally realizing I need to do the latter.

Plan of attack:

Grab onto the solidness of a familiar routine.
Run! My favorite love-hate relationship!

Intentionally and consistently spend time with my familiar God.
The tried and true solid rock in my life.

Give myself time and space to processes it all.
Pray! Talk! Think! Blog! 

I'm hoping this will help me realize that my situation isn't really as chaotic and overwhelming as it sometimes seems.

Because really, that's just life. It gets shaken up. Things get messy. It might get a little blurry at times. But we will figure it all out and it will settle again. And then we wait for the next big shake up.

Because what ultimately makes a snow globe beautiful and interesting?

Shaking it up.