Friday, June 27, 2014

Pure Joy from the Heart

Like a child, I sat on the swing in the backyard and had a contest with my kids of who could reach the branches first with their feet. I  tossed my head back and laughed, as the tickle of the up and down touched me in my tummy.  Pure joy. From head to toe. It was a moment to capture in time- both with my kids and even a moment for me to pause and realize yet again the new found lessons I am discovering about joy.
    When true joy is found, words cannot express it and pictures can't quite paint it and songs can't sing it. But it flows and it shows because it is felt from within. True joy starts in the heart. True joy shines beautifully and  shows in the laughter, in the smiles, and it even shows in the strength when times are hard.
 

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 When feeling the best and beautiful things in the heart, that pushes outwards onto others. 
  This is a season I am discovering all new lessons, new aspects of life, new things about myself, new dreams. To capture it in words is extremely difficult some days because it runs very deep. 
    I have been in my new career with the marathon office for a month now. When I set out to begin this post, I started with wanting to give a simple update on my job, my new home, my new "family".  I set out to write about it because people ask me about it all the time. My answer is continually the same: I  LOVE IT. I don't know how else to word it because the journey on which it is taking me is one hard to form into words. I believe that is because the journey of moving into this job is about such a plethora of unique aspects of life that the journey is creating a new stirring in my heart- one which cannot be seen or touched or, in this case, described.  
 However, I have been asked enough times by enough people that I am trying to formulate it a little better here.
   I really do love my new job. I am taking in so much information about the Marathon that I feel like a sponge which can't get enough water in it. I am soaking it up. I am learning all new aspects of the racing industry. I have to ask a lot of questions, but I have the feeling the next few months will be that way as I work through this event as part of the staff (and not a runner of the event this time) for this first year. I am not lying when I say that processing registrations and talking to runners who call is very fun for me. I truly enjoy that. And it's a great way to learn about how the event takes place. 
   I very much enjoy my co workers. They are fantastic- supportive, fun, encouraging, helpful, knowledgable, and hard working. A great mixture of having a fun time and getting the job done. They have treated me as family from the beginning. I have never felt like an outsider or even really like the "newbie".  
  I wrote a blog a couple months back called "It's like going home...." , that going to the marathon office was like going home. And the transition of moving from the coffee world to this job has been truly like going home. I truly love what I get to do now. And there is no dollar that can be placed on that.
  God always has amazing plans, when we let Him work. They form in His timing, not ours. And as I walk this journey of a transition between careers, His plan unfolds all the time to me. I see Him in all new ways, which causes me to see myself in all new ways. Discovering new depths I did not know existed. Seeing Him work His ways in all new avenues. I am excited to feel and experience these things. Few people know, but I actually tried to get in with the Marathon office a few years ago, when I was ready to leave the Starbucks world. At that point, there wasn't a place for me, and so I moved into my previous barista position. All part of His plan . I am confident that my years there taught me many lessons, brought new people my way, and brought about a preparing for this point in life. When that didn't work out 3 years ago, I didn't really believe I'd ever be there, but God has a way of working things out differently, and here I am today. And the timing of it all has been perfect.
   As Helen Keller said, "The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or touched.They must be felt within the heart." 
   I am experiencing that truth in this season, which is why I am often at a lack of words. Yes, some of it has to do with my job. But more of it has to do with all that I am learning and growing into about myself as a woman during this time of transition and learning.  Eventually I hope to have more adequate words. 
  The laughter I can feel when I arrive home and play out through swinging with the kids (or jumping on the trampoline in the rain, or sitting quietly with the family on the porch reading...) is part of the true beauty I am finding within. 
 One day at a time.
  
Our swinging contest...
Pure joy shining through what is beginning to fill the heart....
 (L, Elizabeth, Top, me, bottom, Joseph. ) And by the way...I totally won:) 


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