High Places

"Discovering our personal stories is a spiritual quest."
                                                       ~ Sue Monk Kidd

     In her book, Firstlight, Sue Monk Kidd, tells of her love for the quote by the French Nobel laureate, Albert Camus: “ A person’s life purpose is nothing more than to rediscover, through the detours of art, or love, or passionate work, those one or two images in the presence of which his heart first opened.”   She continues: “Where did your heart first open?  And how shall you find your way back to that dawning?”

  In November 2010, I began to realize the card designs and photographs on my blog were nothing more than a vehicle for my story.   I began to pray about a change.  Never one to keep a journal, afraid of putting my thoughts and ideas to paper; writing about something other than how I made cards left me frozen.  Besides, what in the world would I write about?  I was pretty sure most card makers could look at my designs and know how to put them together without written directions.  And, I am a mere novice when it comes to photography.  So then, what did I really have to offer?   Should I even be entertaining this idea?  Was it time well spent?   Although I liked the quote from Albert Camus, I knew my life’s purpose was not defined by detours of art, or love, or passionate work.   So then, what?  What is the purpose of this blog?

  Thoughts and memories of my spiritual journey began to drift in and out as I continued to read Firstlight.   I remembered my decision to follow Christ many years ago.   Not long after that decision, my paternal grandmother passed away.  My heart broken, I looked for comfort.   While I was in town for her funeral service, I read the book, Hinds Feet on High Places by Hannah Hurnard.    A beautiful allegory dramatizing the yearning of God's children to be led to new heights of love, joy, and victory.   The story of Little Much Afraid.   Suddenly, I realized I was that person - in every sense of the word.   My heart began to open to understanding that day.  Clearly if I were ever to experience freedom, I would have to climb to the High Places just like Much Afraid.   As I brought my thoughts back to the present, I wondered: have I been doing something I’d always been afraid of?  Was the purpose of my blog emerging with Finding the Balance, Once Upon a Springtime, In the Desert of the Heart, The Incredible Journey, and When you come to a Dead End as I wrote about things of the heart?  Sharing my memories and journey publicly is about as frightening as it gets - and yet, it felt right.   I laid the book down and looked upward to the mountain.   This is my dawning.   I believe this is where the path is leading.  A place to share my memories and journey in story form as I climb to the High Places where ‘perfect love casteth out fear.’

In closing

  “Much-Afraid thought of the things which she had seen...Somehow the answer of the little golden flower which grew all alone in the waste of the desert stole into her heart and echoed there faintly and sweetly, filling her with comfort.  She said to herself, “He (the Shepherd) has brought me here when I did not want to come, for His own purpose.  I, too, will look up into His face and say, ‘Behold me! I am your little handmaiden, Acceptance-with-Joy.’”

It is my hearts desire to inspire, encourage, and to leave a little piece of me.

Until next time,

Blessings