o come, o come Emmanuel

and ransom captive Israel

that mourns in lonely exile here

until the Son of God appear

rejoice! rejoice! Emmanuel

shall come to thee, o Israel

o come, thou rod of jesse, free

thine own from satan's tyranny

from depths of hell thy people save 

and give them victory o'er the grave

rejoice! rejoice! Emmanuel 

shall come to thee, o Israel

o come, thou day-spring, come and cheer

our spirits by thine advent here

disperse the gloomy clouds of night

and death's dark shadows put to flight

rejoice! rejoice! Emmanuel

shall come to thee, o Israel

.... rejoice! rejoice!

"i wish people could just say how they feel like 'hey i really don't like when you do that to me' or 'hey i'm in love with you' or 'hi i really miss you and think about you all the time' without sounding desperate. why can't everyone be painfully honest and just save people the trouble."
-thekhoolhaus

cinnamon candle burning, favorite Christmas songs playing, getting ready to decorate. wishing you a (week late) very happy December and advent season!

home inspirations: frame it.

yet another reason why i want to be best friends with mindy kaling, i feel ya girl...

"i'm not married, i frequently use my debit card to buy things that cost less than three dollars, and my bedroom is so untidy it looks like vandals ransacked the anthropologie sale section. i'm kind of a mess"

i'm not really the raise my hands in worship type, i tend to close my eyes and sing it out with a smile upon my face, maybe i'm not brave enough to raise my hands or maybe i've just found my own way to feel this joy deep within me without doing so. but i love that people are so moved by the spirit of God they lift their hands in praise. really enjoyed singing this song tonight at vintage. thought i'd share. hope everyone has a great start to their week!

to make your monday a little brighter.

"my mission, should i choose to accept it, is to find peace with exactly who and what i am. to take pride in my thoughts, my appearance, my talents, my flaws and to stop this incessant worrying that i can't be loved as i am" -anais nin

i haven't had the opportunity to enjoy fall the same as last year, partly because of the clouds and partly because i'm working later. but today i was able to fall back in love with my favorite season all over again, as i do most times when i walk outside and the sun is shining and the leaves reflect the light in a way God could have only created. perfect just for our eyes. its hard to not be filled with an overwhelming sense of joy, like everything is going to be ok. so autumn, please don't make a short visit, i would love to spend more time with you and i promise to be more loyal. peep through the clouds a little bit longer please.

saw the head and the heart perform at southern ground music festival this past weekend in charleston, they're my new listening crush. enjoy.

happy almost hump day from some joyful little people. 

i dare you not to smile.

"i choose to believe that there is nothing more sacred or profound than this day. i choose to believe that there may be a thousand big moments embedded in this day, waiting to be discovered like tiny shards of gold. the big moments are the daily, tiny moments of courage and forgiveness and hope that we grad on to and extend to one another... the big moments are in every hour, every conversation, every meal, every meeting." -shauna neiquist

"i hope that someday, somebody wants to hold you for twenty minutes straight, and that's all they do. they don't pull away. they don't look at your face. they don't try to kiss you. all they do is wrap you up in their arms, without an ounce of selfishness in it" -jenna waitress

we're eight days into my very most favorite month of all time!

enjoy it. because it's happening.

-stephen chbosky

"that is why it is so important to let certain things go.
to release them, to cut loose.
people need to understand that no one is playing marked cards;
sometimes we win and sometimes we lose.

don't expect to get anything back.
don't expect recognition for your efforts.
don't expect your genius to be discovered or your love to be understood.

complete the circle.
not out of pride, inability, or arrogance,
but simply because whatever it is no longer fits in your life.

close the door,
change the record,
clean the house, get rid of the dust.

stop being who you were
and become who you are."

-paulo coelho

via ignitelight.

"that old September feeling, left over from school days, of summer passing, vacation nearly done, obligations gathering, books and football in the air... another fall, another turned page: there was something of jubilee in that annual autumnal beginning, as if last year's mistakes had been wiped clean by summer." 

wallace stegner (angle of respose)

"don't get up just to get another; you can drink from mine. we can't leave each other, we can dance with the dead. you can rest your head on my shoulder if you want to. get older with me 'cause a little bit of summer makes a lot of history. you look fine, fine, fine. put your feet up next to mine; we can watch that water line get higher and higher. say, say, say; ain't it been some kind of day? you and me been catchin' on like a wildfire." -john mayer

happy monday. 

"I let  it go.  It's like swimming against  the current,  it exhausts you.  After  awhile,  whoever  you are,  you just  have to let go,  and the  river brings  you home" -- Joanna Harris

because its sunday...

summer's ending... we're entering my all time favorite time of year, so happy september all!

i know i've been full of words lately, but let me share with you part of the last chapter of one of the best books i have ever read: cold tangerines (by shauna niequist)

"i believe in a life of celebration. i believe that the world we wake up to every day is filled to the brim with deep, aching love, and also with hatred and sadness. and i know which on of these i want to win in the end. i want to celebrate in the face of despair, dance when all we see on the horizon is doom. i know that death knocks at our doors and comes far too early for far too many of us, but when he comes for me, i want to full-tilt, wide-open, caught in the very act of life. i think that's what we're here for, not for a passive, peaceful life, but to stand up in the face of all that lacks peace and demand more...

that's what i want my life to be, like a well-loved gift. i think life, just life, just breathing in and out, is a great gift. God gives us something amazing when he gives us life, and i want to live with gratitude. i want to live in a way that shows how much i appreciate the gift. if life were a sweater, i would wear it every day. i wouldn't save it or keep it for a special occasion. i would find every opportunity to wear that sweater, and i'd wear it proudly, shamelessly, for days on end...

it's rebellious, in a way, to choose joy, to choose to dance, to choose to love your life. it's much easier and much more common to be miserable. but i choose to do what i can do to create hope, to celebrate life, and the act of celebrating connects me back to that life i love. we could just live our normal, day-today lives, saving all the good living up for someday, but i think today, just plain today is worth it. i think it's our job, each of us, to live each day like it's a special occasion, because we've been given a gift. we get to live in this beautiful world. when i live purposefully and well, when i dance instead of sitting it out, when i let myself laugh hard, when i wear my favorite shoes on a regular tuesday, that regular tuesday is better..."

i probably could've posted the whole chapter, but geez she just knows , she just knows whats up. praying to live my life full of celebration and take on everyday with this kind of mentality.

"the shock of the twenties is how narrow  that window of experience  really is, and how inevitable it seems both at the time and  afterward. at some point, it is late, too late, and you are  standing on the sidewalk outside somewhere very loud. a wind is  blowing. it's the same cool, restless late-night breeze that blew on trampled  nineteen-twenties lawns, dazed sixties  streets, and anywhere young  people gather. nearby, someone who doesn't smoke is smoking. an attractive  stranger with a lightning  laugh jaywalks between cars  with a friend, making eye contact before scurrying inside. you're far from home. it's  quiet. all at once, you have a thrilling  sense of nowness, of the sheer potential  of a verdant night with all these unmet  people in it. for a long time after that, you think you'll never  lose this life, those dreams. but that  was, as they say, then." -- Nathan Heller's  "Semi Charmed Life: The Twentysomethings are all right"  (the new yorker)

thursday night thoughts.

committing to more reading and reflecting this fall.

ps. its wednesday (so happy hump day! and some happy thoughts, also all of these reminded me of camp)

hey there i'm back from my 11 week run at camp seafarer, maybe i'll get to that later if not i'll leave it in my memories and be content knowing i could never put into words the sheer magic of that wonderful place... last night we went for homemade ice cream at our best family friends' house, i won't get into the connections of how our parents have been lifelong friends and now the second generation is joining in. we were all just sitting around the table chatting, laughing enjoying each other's company and i almost wanted to burst into tears. i was feeling so extremely thankful for these people in my life. for those second parents who love me unconditionally, for best friends who seem like brothers and sisters and have been through everything with me, for grandparents who seemed like my own and have given me a glimpse of what it means to have grandparents since i never had the opportunity to experience mine, for extended family that pulls you in and treats you as their own. its those moments, sitting around the kitchen table on a humid but cool summer evening that date back to my childhood and that i look forward to carrying me through the rest of my summers and falls and winters, because its these people that love me that continue to bring so much happiness and joy to my heart. i was reading about our definitions of "family" today, and how they change as we grow up, and that could not be more spot on. my family extends beyond the people with whom i live, and i need to thank God more for blessing me with the greatest family i could ever have imagined.

"people need to be encouraged, people need to be reminded of how wonderful they are. people need to be believed in - told that they are brave and smart and capable of accomplishing all the dreams they dream and more. remind each other of this" -stacey jean speer

thankful for the fact that this is one of the many things camp seafarer is best at. its been a great summer, looking forward to making it a great last week here on the crystal coast.

38 signs you're from north carolina, i love this wonderful state!

http://www.buzzfeed.com/jamisond/38-signs-youre-from-north-carolina-7fxd

"all of these soft, warm nights going to waste when i ought to be lying in your arms under the moon - the dearest arms in all the world- darling arms that i love so to feel around me - how much longer before they'll be here to stay? when i do get home again, you'll certainly have a most awful time ever moving one inch from me" -zelda to scott, 1919

hope you all had a fabulous monday. isn't it great when it thunderstorms during the day and then is absolutely gorgeous around 4:30? i think i would have at least one day a week like this if i could. a great start to the week.

sending smiles your way...

it's just been a happy day!

friday night of bubble bath followed by red wine and the great gatsby because its a chilly may night and i've had a busy week. also a very special moment with belle who may not have much time left with me, i sat and pet her as she slept and cried with her because i just can't imagine walking through the door and not seeing her laying in her bed. sometimes i forget how important dogs are in our lives, how she sees me through everything whether or not she knows it. and it kind of hit me just how old and tired she really is. and maybe the whole year is starting to hit me, the year thats been a good year, but a hard year. and maybe i just needed to let it all go on her, because she just listens, thats what shes always done since she was mine as a puppy. forever thankful for dogs and the love they give.

ponder that.

if you have not seen this, go watch it now. amazing.

http://realbeautysketches.dove.us/

"it's spring fever. that is what the name of it is. and when you've got it, you want- oh, you don't quite know what it is you do want, but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so!" -mark twain

thankful for this wonderful weather arriving, and absolutely amazing friendships. remembering to soak it all in.

i feel like i have so many things i want to blog about, but can't seem to find the time (or i'm just prioritizing better). so for now, thanks patty for always being there.

"'it is finished.' may  those  words  land  on  your bones  for the  nights when  fear  tells you  that the  cross  was a  beginning  and you must  finish grace."  -jon  acuff

powerful.

with easter comes new life, and spring could hopefully really be here to stay. so happy happy april everyone! hope you got some good april fools tricks today!

"sin is what you do when your heart is not satisfied with God... no one sins out of duty. we sin because it holds out some promise of happiness. that promise enslaves us until we believe God is more to be desired than life itself." -john piper

anyone watch any of the history channel's The Bible? i've followed a few episodes with my parents but watched the final one last night which covered Jesus being put on trial and crucified through acts in which his disciples go and spread the word. i was thinking, while watching the horrifying torture that Jesus endured, about how i take for granted what he did for me every single day. the tv portrayal obviously does it no justice, but i could hardly watch what was happening. and he did it all, willingly and peacefully, because he knew he had to take on my sins and save the world. its crazy and so real and so full of love and grace i get overwhelmed thinking about it sometimes, but its something i need to be overwhelmed about every day. because he didn't just rise on easter once, he rose that day and he is still risen and alive in me today. so as i move on from lent and easter, i hope to be less like doubting thomas... i hope to believe, even though i do not see, i hope to be overwhelmed by God's promise every single day. and i hope to remember that nothing here is as important as my relationship with him. 

ah! also, cheers to the first day of spring. yes, yes, yes its finally here!

last minute, happy hump day. hope its been great.