stillness

When people ask me to describe Julia, it is difficult to capture her personality without meeting her.  One of her funniest qualities is her curiousity.  In a 10 minute span she will spend 8 minutes attempting to figure out where she is, who is involved, and what she wants to do and the next 2 minutes jumping in with both feet.  She notices things that I would never take a second look at and gives me a whole different perspective on the day to day events in my life.

While we were on vacation in Maine we had a few wonderful days of doing absolutely nothing (which was a breath of fresh air with our busy schedules).  On one of the days we walked through the town of Freeport, which is a cute little town with a whole lot of great shopping.  As we walked along Julia held her daddy's hand and very intentionally stopped at the flower pots, leaned over and smelled each one.  The irony of parenting just makes me laugh.  From the moment that I became a mother everything occurs on an altered timeframe.  Most of the time it a heart racing pace, which explains why I am often walking out the door with various garments out of place, shoveling something quick into my mouth, and/or having to hang up the phone mid-conversation to respond to a potential crisis.  This same child that has thrust me into fast forward has also taught me to stop. 

In our world today stillness isn't valued, but I believe that the desire for is innately within each of us. Despite the fact that Julia runs from one task to the next, says no one moment and then changes her mind the next and wants to rip off her clothing because it holds her back, I believe that she's got it right.  She appreciates the beauty in each and every part of God's creation.  Today she was blowing kisses at a stink bug, yesterday she was examining an acorn like a doctor- dissecting each of its features.  The greatest gift in all of this is that I get to share it with her.  She teaches me so much about the world around us and the way we were created to experience it.

"Be still and know that I am God" - Psalm 46:10

Side note - These pictures were taken when we were out for a walk by the water.  I didn't realize that my camera was on a manual setting from the day before.  I shot these few and then fixed the setting, but I keep coming back to these photos.  There is way to much light exposure, but that is the fun of them.  I actually edited them in a sepia tone and ordered a few for our walls.