All posts by Crystal

Grateful

Gratitude
  1. Taking the less-reactive path
  2. Another long day of hard work
  3. Leaning in instead of avoiding
  4. Strong hands
  5. Like minds
  6. Deep breaths of happy satisfaction
  7. The joy of work
  8. Twyla Tharp’s The Creative Habit
  9.  Great neighbors
  10. “Creativity is a habit, and the best creativity is a result of good work habits. That’s it in a nutshell.” -Twyla Tharp

Nighttime Gratitude

Gratitude
  1. Poynter’s free ethics course, which I’m grateful to be able to work through
  2. A long, full day
  3. Journalling all through it, saving little moments forever
  4. Rolling with it
  5. Being less reactive
  6. Letting go and smiling more
  7. All the amazing people who surround us
  8. Abundance in so many forms
  9. The frogs and perhaps katydids? of nighttime in Ohio
  10. Well-earned fatigue

Work

Gratitude
  1. Apple trees
  2. Journalism ethics
  3. Saying thank you to those who’ve given me so much wisdom
  4. Turning toward influences that come from God
  5. Poetry
  6. A community of amazing friends
  7. Journalling
  8.   Trying each day
  9.  Hard work, consistently
  10. “We must have ideals and try to live up to them, even if we never quite succeed. Life would be a sorry business without them. With them it’s grand and great. Hold fast to your ideals, Anne.” L. M. Montgomery, Anne of Avonlea

Sunday

Gratitude
  1. Baking- flour in the bowl, heat radiating from the oven, and that crisp, just-browned scent the moment they’re done
  2. Sunday with my family
  3. Inspiration
  4. Big, white, fluffy flakes dancing over the green almost-April grass
  5. My bosom friends
  6. The natural expanding and contracting of life as it heats and freezes under our emotional atmosphere
  7. Direct questions (friends know these are the only ones I know how to ask, and thank God and my mom, because why ask any other way?)
  8. Grief, for it shows up when we love
  9. And the further pain and joy is that life continues
  10. Love

Morning Quiet

Gratitude
  1. Morning quiet
  2. Sharing another’s burden, which oddly never feels like a burden but a blessing of friendship
  3. Celebrating a dear friend who will have her first baby soon
  4. A bit of time with my notebook
  5. When things align
  6. Flowers
  7. Taking a moment to think and understand
  8. Offering it all to God
  9. His unfailing wisdom
  10. And mercy

Thanks to God

Gratitude
  1. “And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” Colossians 3:17
  2. A massive gift from God, that I may change and become more like Him
  3. Clarity
  4. Hard things
  5. Character building, as unfortunately I am still in gross want of character even as an adult
  6. Repenting
  7. Grace
  8. Gratitude
  9. Praying for continued change
  10. This

Fresh

Gratitude
  1. When others would step outside and call it cold, freezing, or even an expletive, my dad would call it “fresh,” which always made me giggle, and gave it a new perspective
  2. Wrestling with a question
  3. When your soul leads the way
  4. Morning quiet
  5. This beautiful community of loveliness
  6. Remnants around the house of a day of fun and peace
  7. Tackling projects one micro-step each
  8. Being needed
  9. Being loved
  10. Loving