seeking joy

heidi/30/western ma/wife & mama ig: heidishartrandnewell

[taylorswift]

Polling Place Locator - Vote.org

Wondering where you vote on Election Day? Use our polling place locator to find out.

[heidishartrandnewell]

Hilltowns, western Massachusetts. 10.14.2020

[heidishartrandnewell]

Full Moon & Lavender. 1 October 2020.

[sjmattson]

Signs you’re not a Christian nation: When it’s a a crime to damage a wall but not a crime to kill a person of color.

[archae-heart-deactivated2021012]

While y’all continue to spread the plague in celebration of “Independence Day”, remember that you’re tacitly condoning the white supremacy that is literally written into the founding documents of this shithole country. Anyway, here is my dad and favorite Merciless Indian Savage™. P.S. We’re still here. 🦅

[teddy-stonehill]

This month I’ve decided to participate in an event called “October,” where for every day in October I’m going to experience a day in October.

Here’s the prompt list I’m using in case anyone wants to join me in this challenge:

Next month I’m thinking of trying out the “No November November” challenge, where I’ll refrain from experiencing November for the whole month of November.

[heidishartrandnewell]

I’ve been unlearning and remaking. ✨🖤

Fall is here and my soul is ready. Autumn has always been a time of upheaval and unrest for me. My deep down reaches out for something new as the world begins to shed itself.

This year my something new isn’t chaotic or uneasy or unrest, but a steady assurance that I’ve been building in myself. The deep pieces and parts moving towards one another.

As the fruit comes to fruition, so too is my soul coming into abundance. As the leaves change and fall, so too does my soul let go of the old growth that tethers me to the past. As the trees and squirrels prepare for changes, so too do I seek to prepare for what is to come. As the day and night are balanced, so do I seek to balance myself. ✨🍂

[anetteva]

By sereinside

[heidishartrandnewell]

Found a cute lil autumnal equinox ritual to do ✨🍂

1. Review what is out of balance

2. Spend 5 minutes on what you’re grateful for

3. A meditation

4. Create an autumn symbols list

5. Release ritual - write down things that no longer serve you, have a small fire and burn them.

I have some lavender and thyme that I’m going to muddle? grind? Mush? 😂 and burn the list in the mortar I think.

[qqquixote]

*isolates myself* perfect! but why am i sad

[prettyonionbread]

*socializes* perfect! how do I get out of here

[mysharona1987]

[heidishartrandnewell]

Went to brunch today.

[archae-heart-deactivated2021012]

autumn in Vermont

[heidishartrandnewell]

The last time I shared was Thanksgiving 2018.

2020 is a dumpster fire and I’m back 😂

Updates!

1. Bought a house

2. Got pregnant

3. Had a pandemic baby

4. There’s more but it’s nuanced.

Here’s a photo of our now almost 6 month old. His name is Atticus. Yes, like the lawyer in HtKaM.

[samxcamargo]

“You often feel tired, not because you’ve done too much, but because you’ve done too little of what sparks a light in you.”

— Alexander den Heijer 

[flipyeahkelly-deactivated202209]

Worhip While Waiting

Last winter, I read a book called “Waiting Here for You: An Advent Journey of Hope”.This book is a daily devotion that starts on November 26th, and it ends on December 25th with the birth of Jesus. When I started this “advent journey”, I had been in a season of waiting for several months, and I often wondered if there was really any point in my waiting. Nothing had happened yet. I wondered if I misunderstood God and was wasting time and energy waiting around for something I didn’t fully understand.

From the first day of this devitonal, I was hooked. Everyday throughout this “journey” I was reminded of the faithfulness of God, and I was constantly humbled as I realized that nothing I have ever waited for in my life has ever been as important as the wait for the birth of Jesus. Regardless of that fact, God still cared about what I was waiting for and the journey I was on.

I am re-reading this devotional this year with my prayer group, and it really has me thinking about the way I see patience and waiting. I am still in the same waiting season I was in last year, and if I am being perfectly transparent, it has only gotten harder. The challenges have gotten bigger, there has been more darkness, and there has been pain that I have no words to describe. But no matter how much pain I am in, I still want to do my best to please The Lord and become who He wants me to be. The best way I know how to do that is to worship while waiting.

“Worship while waiting” has been my mantra through most of this waiting period. This is what I say to myself when my patience has worn much too thin and my attitude is anything but God-honoring. It shifts my focus back to God, and it keeps my attitude in check. But what do I really mean by worshipping while I wait? How do you even do that?

What I realized last night as I was tossing and turning and repeating this mantra to myself is that waiting, and I mean a genuine pusrsuit of patience, is worship. When we do what we are created to do, that is worship. God created us in His image, and if He is patient, then I need to be patient to. And when I am living out that aspect of God’s purpose in my life, I’m not worshipping while I’m waiting. I’m worshipping because I’m waiting.

When God makes a promise, He always follows through. Every time. No exceptions. Even though this waiting season has been one of the hardest things I’ve ever dealt with, I have learned to lean on The Lord and His word so much. There are countless examples in scripture of how God followed through and did what He promised to do, but this advent journey is my most favorite example. It is humbling and encouraging, and it is a great reminder that if God kept a promise to save all of humanity, He’ll keep a promise to me. 

At the end of the day, the waiting isn’t about me or getting what I want. It’s about pursuing God more and more each day and waiting in hopeful expectation to become who God has asked me to be. Waiting is about obedience. That is why we worship by waiting, because it’s what God deserves from us. And after all He’s done for us and all the promises He’s kept, I’m happy to honor Him in that way. 

[heidishartrandnewell]

I'm worshipping because I'm waiting

Such a concise point that lots of us miss!

[spillybun-deactivated20190921]

“The message of the cross is foolish to those who are headed for destruction! But we who are being saved know it is the very power of God. As the Scriptures say, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and discard the intelligence of the intelligent.” So where does this leave the philosophers, the scholars, and the world’s brilliant debaters? God has made the wisdom of this world look foolish. Since God in his wisdom saw to it that the world would never know him through human wisdom, he has used our foolish preaching to save those who believe. It is foolish to the Jews, who ask for signs from heaven. And it is foolish to the Greeks, who seek human wisdom. So when we preach that Christ was crucified, the Jews are offended and the Gentiles say it’s all nonsense.”

‭‭1 Corinthians‬ ‭1:18-23‬ ‭NLT‬‬