Celebrating Jesus, love, girl power and the moon this Easter

I love Easter for so many reasons, it demonstrates the intense love God has for us and it represents forgiveness and hope like nothing else I have every experienced.

I love the 'Journey to the cross', it is deeply powerful. Starting with Shrove Tuesday and Ash Wednesday followed by six weeks of readings that focus on the vital ministry of Jesus while he walked this earth. Then Palm Sunday, the Last Supper all as we move closer and closer to the profound moment of the resurrection. Each individual celebration having its own meaning but together they culminate to a crescendo-building occurrence, when it is announced "He has risen".

Secondly, I love that women feature significantly in the Bible at Easter. In our culture the women’s stories in the Bible have taken second place to the interests and needs of male biblical writers and male leaders in Christian churches, but at Easter women feature prominently and that makes me really happy.

The Gospels agree that at the most difficult moment in the Christian story, when Jesus hung on the cross exposed and suffering, it was his women followers who remained with him when everybody else had left. Then they helped Joseph of Arimathea take down his body and lay it in the tomb before dusk fell. The Gospels agree that, at the cross, there was a collection of women who had followed Jesus, some who had followed him all the way from Galilee.

It was women who came to the tomb first, the angel spoke to Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Salome, and said "Do not be alarmed.  You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen".

Then in Mark 16:9 "When Jesus rose early on the first day of the week, he appeared to Mary Magdalene". God does nothing by accident, so the fact that women played such a vital part in this world and life changing moment in history is very pertinent and profound.

I also love how the date of Easter each year is based on the first full moon after Equinox. Perfect balance between heaven and earth, a beautiful unison between spirituality, nature and mankind and a sign of respect for the astrology elements. It is wonderful, everybody can look up at the sky each night for the week leading up to Easter, seeing the moon get bigger, creating anticipation for Easter Sunday. It is all inclusive and just magnificent.

I love listening to the beautiful and powerful songs of Worship about the Cross, Calvary and forgiveness, I adore having an excuse to eat chocolate and it makes me smile big as I watch our children excitedly hunt for Easter Eggs.

My prayer is that each one of us, no matter where we are, how we celebrate, or who we are with, that we will all experience the transforming love of Jesus Christ this Easter.

It's the vibe ... no that's it ... it's the vibe

You can relax, sit down, take a breath and seriously don't worry ... be happy.

Take time to smell the roses, slow down and look at rainbows, stop and hear the birds singing. 
Laugh, smile, let the tension be released from your shoulders.

Rest assured all is well.

When Dennis Denuto says in The Castle "it’s the vibe, and…no that’s it…it’s the vibe. I rest my case".  This one statement "it's the vibe" was a profound insight about the meaning of life.

Life ... it's the vibe, I rest my case.

Recently I have attended the funerals of two beautiful women who lived long loving and fruitful lives.  At both funerals the thoughts and memories shared by their relatives focused on what the women loved doing, the funny and quirky, the loving and kind, the exciting and fun, the memorable moments of their life.

The people who attended were a reflection of the kind of relationships they had nurtured and treasured in their lives.

Neither funeral focused on the mundane tasks of life, nobody mentioned the things these ladies couldn't do, nobody talked about the people who didn't love them.

Nobody mentioned the size of their house, or the type of car they drove, nobody mentioned how much money they had in the bank. At both funerals the careers of the women was mentioned but in relation to how their healing and teaching qualities featured in all aspects of their life, not how many hours they spent earning money. The Committees both these women served on were mentioned, but not the hours they spent at meetings or fundraising but rather the valuable contribution they helped make to their community.

Nobody mentioned the lawn mowing, the dishes, the washing, the vacuuming, the bill paying, the crying, the worrying, the days nothing got done, the bad fashion choices or the bad hair days ... nobody.  

It gave me great hope that on that day, when our friends and relatives gather to celebrate our life and share their memories of us, it is all about 'the vibe' of our life.  The guiding principals we use to make choices, the way we treat people, the way we love and what we do for fun and the trips we take and adventures we have.

People remember us when we are happy, doing the things we love, being with the people we love and when we are being our most authentic self, this is memorable.  

It is our hobbies, our creative pursuits, what we do with our free time, how we speak to people, the kind and generous things we randomly do, these things are what are remembered.

So if we want our funeral, and ultimately our life, to be good we need to spend time investing in the things that matter.  Do more of what makes us smile, do more of what makes our heart sing, spend more time with the people we love.  

Use our time on earth to plant seeds of love.

In the Bible, Jesus says "I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly", John 10:10. 

So there you have it, live your life abundantly, love deeply, have fun, be silly, dream, imagine, do all you can to enjoy the gift of life, for it is a gift.

It's the vibe that matters, everything else is subaltern, inferior, lesser, petty. I rest my case.

A life well lived

Today our family mourns the loss of a wise, loving Grandma and Great Grandma, a beautiful lady who loved her family and lived her life well.

Kindness, love, gentleness, patience and peace were her trademark traits and the seeds she has planted live on, not only in the hearts of her decedents living now, but those not born yet, those who will follow us.  Is there anything more beautiful or meaningful than to pass down such worthy attributes to those who are yet to come.

It raises the question of what does it mean to live a life well?

I have been blessed with a depth of amazing role models, so I have witnessed lives lived well.

For me a life lived well means to live in loving peaceful relationship with God, my family, my friends, my community and my world.

For me, the fruits of a life lived well are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Gifts bestowed upon us by God and lived out, little by little, each and every day.

Knowing what it means and looks like to live a life well does not mean it is easy to do.

No siree.

It takes every day bravery and courage to live a life well.

It means not quitting, it requires staying in the arena even when you want to run. It means you need to keep dancing even when the music changes, and it changes regularly without warning.

Little by little, step by step, building strength, gaining wisdom and increasing faithfulness is what creates a life well lived with eternal worth and lasting contributions that benefit future generations.

In my life the people who have lived a life well have all had a profound relationship with Jesus Christ. This faith has meant they have walked through pain, joy, tragedy, triumph, heartbreak, terrible mistakes and wise choices, soul penetrating love and despairing loss and the whole gamut of ups and downs that life on earth gives us.

It means that at times they celebrated and other times they just survived, but they did it and they did it well.

Step by step, little by little they did it.  They lived life well.

I am proud to love, and be loved, by amazing people, who I admire and respect and who I know have prayed for me, and my family, in the dark of night when everybody else is asleep, so thank you, thank you, thank you.

Today our minds rest on Grandma, on all the wonderful times we shared, the cups of teas, the biscuits, the unconditional love bestowed upon each one of us.

We give thanks that her soul will rest in peace, she is reunited with Cec, and she no longer feels pain or sheds tears but rejoices knowing that she will share eternity with Jesus.

To a life well lived, in loving memory of Granny xoxo

That in itself is a tremendous thing

Friendship, I am blessed to have known it and I treasure my friends. To me the value of my friends is far above rubies.

I grew up loving Anne of Green Gables.

In real life, our beloved dogs are named Gilbert and Minnie Mae as a testimony to my love and devotion to Anne and one of my all time bucket list wishes is to visit Prince Edward Island.

An aspect of the early Anne of Green Gables stories that I adore is Anne's loyal friendship to Diana Barry.  She loves Diana with her whole heart, she is her bosom friend. "A bosom friend" Anne explains to Marilla is "an intimate friend, you know - a really kindred spirit to whom I can confide my inmost soul".

I never thought Diana was good enough for our Anne, but after Diana is invited to tea with tragic results and the girls are forced to say an eternal farewell there is no denying their love for each other.

 ----

"Ten minutes isn't very long to say an eternal farewell" said Anne tearfully. "Oh, Diana, will you promise faithfully never to forget me, the friend of your youth, no matter what dearer friends may caress thee?"

"Indeed I will," sobbed Diana, "and I'll never have another bosom friend--I don't want to have. I couldn't love anybody as I love you."

"Oh, Diana," cried Anne, clasping her hands, "do you love me?"

"Why, of course I do. Didn't you know that?"

"No." Anne drew a long breath. "I thought you liked me of course but I never hoped you loved me. Why, Diana, I didn't think anybody could love me. Nobody ever has loved me since I can remember. Oh, this is wonderful! It's a ray of light which will forever shine on the darkness of a path severed from thee, Diana. Oh, just say it once again."

"I love you devotedly, Anne," said Diana staunchly, "and I always will, you may be sure of that."

"And I will always love thee, Diana," said Anne, solemnly extending her hand.

-----

Are you crying .... oh my goodness I am!!  The point I was trying to make, before getting deliriously swept away in the beauty and romance of Anne of Green Gables, is friendship is such an important aspects of life.

Sometimes I find my life quite repetitive, very similar tasks over and over.

Also my life feels quite mundane, I am committed to loving my God, husband, family and planet but there is nothing headline grabbing about this, it takes a lot of small acts of kindness that I hope will one day add up to a life lived with love.

However, if I were able to line up and parade before you MY friends well .... I know you, and in fact the world, would be impressed.

My goodness, the people I get to call friends are the finest folk you could ever hope to meet.  They have strength of character and determination of iron,  their hearts are as big as the ocean and they love beyond belief.  They are passionate and caring and kind and funny and hard working and beautiful and I love them so.

Yes, I am bragging!!

My friends include my husband and children, my Mum and my sister, my nieces and the crazy people that choose to love me even though they really do not have to ...mwah xx

There was a time in my life when I was reckless with friendships but no more.  My friends do truly mean the world to me.  They shine bright sparkly glitter on even the dullest day and I feel truly blessed and to know and love them.

I do not want to give the impression that there are hundreds of people in this clan I talk of, probably be lucky to be pushing twenty and some friends I see daily or weekly or monthly or annually, but this does not have any effect on the depth or importance of our friendship.

So I would like to make a toast to all the Anne and Diana friendships out there, may your friendship live long and prosper.

Your friends should
motivate and inspire you.
Your circle should
be well rounded and supportive.
Keep it tight.
Quality over quantity,
always.
- simplereminders.com -

Come, sit a while, and listen to your soul speak

Hello sweet souls

“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth ... And the spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters” (Genesis 1:1-2). 

This is how the Bible starts. God spoke everything into existence ... 'and God said' ... from animals to oceans, from stars to humans, and the moon and the sun. Then on the very last page of the Bible Jesus says “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end” (Revelations 22:13). 

This, to me, demonstrates that there has always been, and will continue to be, a spirit element to absolutely everything. The Spirit of God is in every single thing and every single person, from the very start until the very end.

This spiritual wisdom is ours for the taking, it is free for us to receive, if we quiet ourselves enough to hear it.

I absolutely love the spiritual aspect of life. 

In my Applied Science studies I had the opportunity to learn about Indigenous cultures, and I found the spiritual aspects of cultural studies fascinating.   

Indigenous people across the globe believed that animals, plants and everything else possessed a spiritual essence, and this belief was so fundamental to every day existence it was taken for granted and so they often didn’t even have a word to describe it.  

In Hawaiian Mysticism mana is a life energy that flows through all things and is highly individual and the Arapaho Indians believed all plants are our brothers and sisters and they talk to us and if we listen, we can hear them.

Today at Church I witnessed the Holy Spirit working as members of our congregation were incredibly encouraging towards each other.  There was a lot of ‘Great work’, ‘I really love how you...’, ‘Thank you’ and this isn’t really a common occurrence in our small country Church and it was beautiful and uplifting to witness.

I witness the Holy Spirit whenever I see somebody doing what they truly love, whether it is teaching or preaching, creating or growing, encouraging or loving, nurturing or providing.  When anything is being done with great generosity and kindness and love you know it is the Holy Spirit, because the fruits of the Spirit are ‘love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control’ (Galatians 5:22-23), without the Spirit these things are incredibly hard if not impossible for us humans.

I feel the presence of the Spirit in many ordinary moment, whether I  am in nature, when my bare feet or hands are in direct contact with earth, sand or sea;  or when I am with those I love most or at Church or when I pray, meditate, or when I am smudging our home or at any time at all really.  Yet when I am stressed, worried, fearful, scared, angry or tired the Spirit seems much harder to hear.

My hope is that increasingly more of us will open our hearts and minds to the power of the Spirit, more of us will take the time to be quiet and listen to our souls, that more of us will be able to live our abundance and all of this will soon come to influence the way we manage our environment; the way we love, raise and educate our children; the way we build our economy and the way we interact and exist together locally and globally.

Poet nayyirah waheed writes:

do not disrespect your heart, by

hearing what it needs, and

giving it the opposite.

I have much hope for the future, I hope this era of denying the Spirit is coming to an end, and my prayer is that we listen more closely to our heart, and have the courage to acknowledge the power of the Spirit in our lives. 

Written with much love

Justine xx

Love the one you're with

Hello sweet angels of the earth

My mind is all higgledy-piggledy so I go outside and walk on the earth .... and unexpectedly the thunder rumbles and the rain falls ... a passing thunderstorm and I run in the rain and stretch my arms up to the heavens and I let the fresh sweet smell of rain on hot earth fill my senses and it is a beautiful unexpected gift.

My heart is filled to the brim with the message of love the one you're with.  Love the earth you are standing on, love your body, your skin, your thoughts and love your partner and your children and your friends and your community and your Church and unreservedly love this time right here right now.  Love the one you're with, cross the line, reach out, open up and love where you are right now.

I don't think this means settle for where you are, I don't think this message equates to this is as good as it gets,i t doesn't mean don't question the status quo absolutely not.

Be thankful today so you can appreciate all that is still to come.  It means if your heart is filled with love you can appreciate all the good in your life, you can make good choices and sound decisions.  It means you will feel good and people you meet along the way will feel good for spending time with you.  It means the world will be a better place.

Our time on earth is a passing gift, a time to live and grow and love and enjoy.  So many people have trodden on the earth before me and they will continue to after me and I don't know how long I have, nobody does.  I want to spend my time planting seeds of love and joy, because I know these seeds will grow and the harvest will be reaped for generations to come.  Galatians 6:7 "Don't be misled -- you cannot mock the justice of God.  You will always harvest what you plant".

Every time I watch an episode of Who Do You Think You Are? an Australian television documentary series on SBS I am astounded at the effect the experience has on all involved.  All of the celebrities are deeply moved when they uncover the actions and life experiences of their ancestors, many of whom lived hundreds of years ago, still impacts on the everyday life of people today.  Not only do we reap what we sow, so will our future descendants, what you think, say and do really does have long lasting consequences.

Feelings of inadequacy still creep in for me, I feel like I should do more, my house should be tidier, I should work more hours and earn more money.  Sometimes I get filled with fear about silly things like superannuation and university fees for our children and needing more clothes or shoes or a new car but this is just the message large corporations and the government are compelled to relentlessly repeat so they can make money - it is not a message coming from love rather it comes from greed and fear.

So on this beautiful Friday can I encourage you to catch your thoughts and words, and take time to love the ones you are with today, tomorrow and every day there after.  If you are in a place where this seems excruciatingly impossible call on the Lord as Psalm 34:18 says "The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit".

May you experience an avalanche of ordinary moments this weekend that fill you with love, and may you take the time to appreciate and treasure each one.

Written with much love
Justine xx

The beat of angel wings

I love!!  I love love.  I love to surround myself with love, people I love, places I love, I feel incredibly blessed, and sometimes deeply drained, because I regularly feel overpowered by feelings of love. I love!!  I also get furiously mad, I get filled with such anger and frustration.  Sometimes I want to yell or push or smash or retaliate or hurt but thankfully mostly I don't because love triumphs, mostly.

I genuinely believe we can live a life overflowing with love, God chose to create us out of his great love "I have loved you with an everlasting love" (Jeremiah 31:3). Love can hurt, badly, when we have it, when we give it completely and it gets snatched away, and out of fear of loss or hurt or pain or of the unknown or of rejection we simply withhold our love, we try to keep it on a tight tether, maybe try to keep the upper hand, try and stay in control, maybe we hold back as a survival mechanism.

Love to me is soft and gentle and good, and should not need to be withheld ever.  It brings with it joy and sadness, it brings with it triumph and loss, it brings with it a myriad of feelings I am unable to articulate but each one worthy of being felt and treasured.  I have witnessed the deepest heartache and pain the loss of a child has caused, but would that parent ever wish they never loved with their whole heart, never.  I have seen a devastated spouse bury their true love, on bended knee crying and wishing for just one more day.  Do they regret one ounce of the love they shared, I doubt it.

Has anybody ever said "My greatest regret is that I loved too much"?

I try and imagine love as soft and gentle as a butterfly, it can not be captured or held against its will, it can not be manipulated or bought or sold, love is in the rhythm of our bodies, it is the beat of angel wings, it is not of this earth, and it is magnificently gloriously wonderful and bold and ever present.

I am loving the poetry of Nayyirah Waheed and one of her poems reads
if you are softer
than before
they came
you
have been loved.

We are loved, it is infinite, we are surrounded by pure loving energy, each one of us can access and live in this love we just have to want to feel it.  To be vulnerable, to open our hearts to it, to speak it out over our homes, lives, family and friends, it is free for us to share and give and gracefully receive, it is in words and deeds, and in places and things, it is abundant.  It is a choice, love is a choice.

So my prayer today is that all of us choose love, set it as our highest goal, our most revered ambition, that we let go and fall into the loving arms of our Creator, that we see love swirling around each one of us, being breathed in and out, opening out our chest and letting love flood in to fill every part of our physical being and to just be a little bit softer, on ourselves, on those around us and on our planet.

Go softly my love xo