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Posts tagged ‘new beginnings’

I CAN Embrace

I can embrace the future.
I can be ready for a fresh start.
I can take time to review
This past year and take heart.

Take heart that new beginnings
Offer us blessings to uncover.
Take heart that compassion’s awakened;
We’ve new opportunities to discover.

I can embrace the promises
That change and growth bestow.
I can be energized by
Welcoming strangers I’ve yet to know.

Photo by rawpixel.com on Pexels.com

I can embrace the reality
Of dreams yet to fulfill,
Knowing God is ever faithful
When I’m living in His will.

As Bob Goff says, “Dream Big!”

I can embrace the coming year
With prayers for those in need –
And reach out to serve the hurting
With generosity – release the greed!

I embrace the coming decade
And hope to live rightly through it.
I embrace the coming vaccine –
It’ll be effective – we always knew it.

We knew that this pandemic
Could not stay with us forever.
There are too many blessed people
Out there who are creative and so clever.

But I am not waiting for the shot
To stop the misery and relieve the pain.
I embrace the fact that LOVE
Is what will make us whole again!

So, PEACE, my dear WP friends,
I send you the best medicine of all
For the end of this misery-filled year:
A smile, a virtual hug, a word of grace, an answer to your call.

Just like Bob Goff, Love Does,
He puts his cell phone number on his book covers.
Call on me … and I will answer every time:
(406) 599-9678

Happy New Year!
Big Embraces to you,
With Love, JanBeek

Category:

contentment, Faith, friendship, God, Gratitude, happiness, health, holidays, life, Life's Challenges, Living in Harmony, Love, mental health, music, peace, Poetry, relationships

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Never Go Back!

No, I don’t want to go back!
I don’t want to revisit the old normal.
Surely as we move from 2020
to a new year, we’ll create a better normal.

This is my prayer this Christmas:
Lord, help us learn what You
have in mind for us to learn
from this rare year we’ve just survived.

Photo by Anna Shvets on Pexels.com

Letter from a Wordsmith

With his permission, I am sharing with you the first part of a Christmas letter I received this week from my former pastor, Rev. Brent Mitchell. He is a master wordsmith! He said what’s in my heart so much better than I could have said it.

“Mark it how you will,
2020 was a year not lost,
but forever to be remembered
for both its absences
and its unexpected gifts.

By the middle of March,
it became apparent that
what we thought as normalcy
had left its predictable confines
for parts unknown,
leaving no forwarding address.

Masked and gloved,
we were left to fend for ourselves
absent even the comfort
of shaking hands
or intimate conversations,
the communion around tables,
camaraderie of birthdays celebrated,
the sacred closeness of hospital visits.

Absent of the humanizing connectivity,
of those familiar and holy intersections,
we were left to laugh alone,
to cry alone,
and hope in seclusion.
It cost us treasures we never knew
were so valuable
and time that cannot be recalled.

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

“But admit it:
There were unexpected gifts.
There were letters we finally wrote,
the books we never touched until now,
the prolonged stillness that allowed us to think again,
and listen to what our hearts were saying.

We talked to God
because the hours got quiet enough
to hear His still small voice.
It happened because we watched enough TV
to realize we had watched TV enough,
and golden silence gave us gifts
that weren’t insipid.

“I think, in short, that if we were paying attention,
not only did we get older,
but almost certainly wiser
because even a painful awareness
of what lurks in our hearts and minds
is worth more than gold.

The gift was rediscovering
at a visceral level
that we really are never alone;
nor in the absence of everyone,
are we left unloved.

“My prayer is that when this is over,
and it will one day be over,
we won’t forget the things we learned
the hard way this year:
that God willing,
we’ll never go back
to the tired normalcy of endless distractions,
of busyness as usual,
and the noise that never ends.”

The Mitchell Musings
December 2020
Peace to you.
Good Night, my friends.
Have a wonderful Christmas Eve Day.

Thanks for visiting JanBeek.
I leave with you my hopes and wishes
for a most Blessed Christmas.

Category:

Belief, books, Christmas, Faith, friendship, God, holidays, learning, Life's Challenges, Living in Christ's Family, Love, mental health, peace, Poetry, prayer, relationships, Sharing, writing

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Where Did It Begin?

The wonderful video above was posted on Facebook – – – and should be viewed around the world (It says it can’t be previewed while I have it scheduled to be posted… but I hope when it actually posts, you can see this). Let’s help it go viral… and work to make it come true!

Another take on when this whole Coronavirus mess began was posted with this quote from CS Lewis “Screwtape Letters” today:

It doesn’t really help to blame Satan or China or Trump or any other place or person for this virus. We know it was not man-made… and blaming won’t make the world a better place. Only love and compassion can do that!

How will it all End?

Photo by Cliford Mervil on Pexels.com

It will take each of us individually
working for a brighter tomorrow …
and each of us acting in concert with others
to create the world we all want to see.
Let’s stand hand in hand!

Hand in hand…

Keep dreaming and working for
a brighter, more compassionate world.
What’s one thing you can do to help?
Make this a Happy Cinco de Mayo
with something positive you do today
to bring a smile to a friend.
What will it be?

You can bring a smile to my face
by sharing your ideas for
how you celebrate the 5th of May today …
and what you’ll do for a brighter tomorrow
in the comments section below.

See you later.
Hugs from JanBeek

Category:

happiness, health, Life's Challenges, Living in Harmony, Love, music, peace, relationships

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Signs of Affection (Haiku x4)

Signs of Affection
Are in life’s every corner
Just know where to look

flowers -VDay2019

Signs that you are loved
Are everywhere your heart is
Open to be seen

photo of teddy bears sitting on wood

Expose your heart’s core
To vulnerability
Your reward is there

d38196ca-6bfb-48e6-9b55-dbc9623e8a08

Congratulations
To Faith & Kyle’s engagement
Love’s new beginning

IMG_2794

When’ s the date, dear granddaughter??

 

midsection of woman making heart shape with hands

 

 

Category:

blessings, children, Faith, Family, flowers, friendship, Gratitude, Haiku, happiness, Love, Promises

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M = Mountains & Mornings

Day #13 in the A – Z series of “What Makes Me Happy?”

Haiku on Mountains & Mornings

Mountains and mornings

Lift me up, help me to rise

Above yesterdays

Category:

Faith, Haiku, happiness, Life's Challenges, Love, Montana, nature

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