Beautiful...

How I come to merit such a sweet gesture from two dear friends is beyond me as I seem to have fallen off the blogging bandwagon during this current season of life, but maybe this is just the incentive I needed to get my butt back on here and share a little something with y'all.  It's not that I've lost the desire to write, or that I don't miss the beauty of connecting, just that I am seeking to keep my eyes in tune with the beauty around me in real time, and real life.  This place will remain a haven for me to slip away to when nothing else beckons and as the Spirit leads.

Thank you Berry Girl and Chris, for the gesture of affection.  I love you girls.

I am to list seven things about me and pass it along.  I find the seven things about me really hard... I mean, there are seven million things about me to be found in any one of the many entries in this little cyber place of mine, but I guess I can come up with seven more.  I think in honor of the "Beautiful" Blogger Award I will choose seven things that I find beautiful in my everyday existence.

One.  Silence.  Surreal moments like this one where I sit alone, in a gently lit room, with only the hum of appliances and the knowledge that the people I love are lying still and quiet and warm in their beds.  Nearby, but not in my face. 

Two.  Chaos.  Seven people around an oval table, laughing, talking, making animal noises, banging utensils, yes, even crying.  How sad it would be to eat alone.

Three.  Order.  A place for everything and everything in its place.  When this is accomplished, I feel I can breathe, relax... enjoy my home and family to the utmost.

Four.  Cleanliness.  Seeing light spill across a freshly mopped floor.  Knowing my laundry is all clean and put away.  Walking into a room that is CLEAN and orderly.  Then sings my soul.

Five.  Friendship.  A phone call from a friend "just because".   Believe it or not I don't get many.  Not that I'm complaining, because I don't make many.  I know that it is part of this season of life, but feeling warm and loved and "thought about" is a gift I want to give to my friends as well.

Six.  Renewal.  Impromptu invitations to do something out of the ordinary.  At this point in my life it seems to be a pretty predictable "day in, day out" grind where I have my hand to the mill and turn, turn, turn.... and I like the steady pace and the familiar gait, but the odd invitation to escape and let my hair down are precious and lovely.

Seven.  Community.  Sitting in a padded pew with six other squirming bodies (my husband is as bad as the kids) surrounded by one hundred other breathing souls who live and love and worship as family not just within those four walls on Sunday morning, but out here, all week long, on these wide open grasslands under this glorious prairie sky.  God is good.

And seven people and places that I find beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, from the inside out....

Miss Jen at Blessed Femina
Jennifer at Getting Down with Jesus
Ann at A Holy Experience.
Emily at Imperfect Prose
Aimee at Living, Loving and Learning Simply
Heidi at Mt. Hope Chronicles
Andrea at The Flourishing Mother