Sacred Collaboration | living the life you were created to live

I see you if when you hear the word home and the family table it doesn’t bring back any warm fuzzy feelings for you… 

 

Home wasn’t a place you felt safe or seen…

 

And for that I am sorry. 

 

I’m sorry because I know that has shaped your life and your thoughts around family and belonging. And I hope you have or are moving towards healing in your life.

 

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Intro & Outro Music Credit:

Music: https://www.purple-planet.com - License Free 

Background Music Credit: Alexander Bluhttps://www.facebook.com/AlexanderBluMusic/

How can living a life of prayer enable us to live a life of thankfulness?

 

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 says

Let joy be your continual feast. Make your life a prayer. And in the midst of everything be always giving thanks, for this is God’s perfect plan for you in Christ Jesus.

 

We can read this scripture and acknowledge that is a beautiful thought especially when life is feeling pretty chill. We can read this and feel all warm inside and give a big amen.

 

But what about the days when life doesn’t feel so chill? And warm and cozy is far from any feeling we are experiencing.

 

Let’s take a closer look…

 

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Intro & Outro Music Credit:

Music: https://www.purple-planet.com - License Free 

Background Music Credit: Alexander Bluhttps://www.facebook.com/AlexanderBluMusic/

Susan sits down with her eldest daughter, Erica Morris-Diaz to discuss the unexpected transition from full-time business owner to full-time "stay-at-home mom" incorporating her skills and talents into a new season.  All of this is in learning to be still to see what God might be doing in the change.

 

Autumn Journal - https://amzn.to/3LewEvj

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Intro & Outro Music Credit:

Music: https://www.purple-planet.com - License Free 

Background Music Credit: Alexander Bluhttps://www.facebook.com/AlexanderBluMusic/

Happy new week friend.  How are you?? We welcomed a new month this week and we are pretty much in the middle of this season. And our weather here matched up with the fall season this week even though it looks like it’s warming back up this week. But here in North Florida we just have to enjoy cooler temps when we can. HA!

 

The weekly focus for this week is Thankfulness. 

 

You don’t have to look very far for the evidence that we are in the season of Thankfulness. Actually, I just had the thought as I said that,  that you might actually have to do some digging as we are at the start of November, and Thanksgiving and Fall stuff has already been replaced with Christmas decor at many stores  Just so you know this is a pet peeve of mine. I” 'm well aware that many of you are not like me and you like being ahead of the season and nailing down your fall decor scheme in the middle of Summer but my brain does not function like that so when I’m looking for the fall stuff and it’s already sold out and replace with Christmas stuff by the end of October that doesn’t make sense to me.  But I digress …back to focusing on Thankfulness. Ha! And I’ll be thankful for what I can find haha

 

The point is fall is the season for all the decor and plates and dishtowels and cups displaying declarations of being thankful. And as commercialized as most seasons have become in our culture. I do want to be intentional about celebrating and entering into a special time of thanksgiving. 

 

I love how Psalm 100:4 reads in the Message

“ Enter with the password “Thank you!”

Make yourselves at home. Talking praise.”

 

I love that!

Enter with the password thank you! Having a spirit of thankfulness opens our hearts to recognize and see all that we have to be thankful for in our lives.

 

Living in thankfulness can feel challenging when you find yourself walking through an Autumn season in your life.  Our first instinct when things are falling away in our lives typically isn’t to say thank you!

 

So here’s a question in this week's focus from the Autumn Journal that I want to invite you to think about…

 

What are you afraid of losing that you need to exchange with ‘Thank you”?

 

Who we are in the spring and summer seasons of our life is an overflow of what has been cultivated in the secret spaces of an Autumn season.  

 

The one who holds all of our seasons in his hand never wastes a moment in working all things for good and forming our lives to reflect and image him in a deeper and more beautiful way.

 

I'm thankful for you and pray you have a beautiful week friend.

 

Autumn Journal - https://amzn.to/3LewEvj

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Intro & Outro Music Credit:

Music: https://www.purple-planet.com - License Free 

Background Music Credit: Alexander Bluhttps://www.facebook.com/AlexanderBluMusic/

11 Things to be intentional about in November 

 

Happy November! I’m so glad you are here. If you’re moving through the seasonal journal with the calendar weeks of Autumn. Then you know we Started week 6 and you might have like me, had the realization that we are almost halfway through the season of Autumn!!

 

So I thought it would be fun to kick off the Month of November by setting some intention.  and since it’s the 11th month of the year I thought I’d throw out 11 ideas that maybe you’d like to be intentional about as well as we move through this next month.

1) Your expectations. I’ve mentioned before how expectations were something I realized years ago and were really something I needed to adjust my thinking on.  

2) take care of yourself, make healthy choices, and move your body

3) being present

4) breathing

5) pray

6) Do something that you’ve thought about starting the start of a new year

7) taking tech breaks

8) about living your life and not living in comparison to others

9) seeing those around you

10) say the thing

11) being thankful

 

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Intro & Outro Music Credit:

Music: https://www.purple-planet.com - License Free 

Background Music Credit: Alexander Bluhttps://www.facebook.com/AlexanderBluMusic/

Even though change is often needed and a necessary part of life it isn’t always an easy process.

 

There is a comfort we experience with the familiar. We fight to hang on to life choices and circumstances… even when the season has run its course because it’s what we know.

 

I think many of us can relate to a relationship ending that we knew needed to end and yet we found ourselves reaching back out because we were in that unfamiliar space of in-between and it can feel uncomfortable. And the crazy thing is we felt discomfort in the relationship and that’s why it ended but we were comfortable with that discomfort. And the in-between space of not knowing what’s next can cause us to reach back and try and hang on to something that doesn't belong in our future season.

 

One of the journal prompts for this week asks the question “What are you clinging to out of comfort and familiarity?

 

I want to invite you to take some time to think about and pray about this question. Ask God to bring to your mind anything you are holding on to that is no longer meant for you.

 

This doesn’t mean that what is no longer meant for you is something bad. It could be something that has brought you great joy. But for whatever reason the season has run its course and is keeping you from having room for what’s next.

 

Oftentimes we can equate letting go, or something no longer being part of our life, as a negative thing and that’s just not always the case. But when we frame it that way in our mind then it causes us to feel resistance because our feelings around letting go are negative and we view it as a loss.

 

So what if we intentionally have a reframe and step into the belief that change is part of the natural cycle of life?  And that when things naturally fall away it opens up space physically as well as emotionally, spiritually, and energetically.  

 

Just like clutter around our house and in our vehicles drains us even when we are unaware that is because our senses are taking it in every time we see all the “stuff” taking up space. So just as we can clear up some of that in our physical spaces and feel lighter it’s the same way in all the other areas of our life. 

Everything we take in and allow to take up space in our lives is affecting how we live. We are being weighed down by things that we are not called to carry.

 

So take some time to ask yourself the question. “What am I clinging to out of comfort and familiarity? They keep your heart and mind open and expect the spirit of God to speak to you.

 

The season of Autumn is a powerful reminder that there is beauty in letting things fall away. Trusting that “the letting” go opens up our hearts and hands for new growth.

 

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Intro & Outro Music Credit:

Music: https://www.purple-planet.com - License Free 

Background Music Credit: Alexander Bluhttps://www.facebook.com/AlexanderBluMusic/

I can remember sitting at a coffee shop with someone and her talking to me about me singing and leading worship which I had done most of my life. And I said out loud something I had felt in my heart for a long time… I had a fear of really letting go of control and leading in worship in a greater way because I was afraid of where it might take me.

 

Autumn Journal - https://amzn.to/3LewEvj

Instagram - https://bit.ly/SusanBethInstagram

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The SHE IS Podcast - https://bit.ly/thesheispodcast

 

 

Intro & Outro Music Credit:

Music: https://www.purple-planet.com - License Free 

Background Music Credit: Alexander Bluhttps://www.facebook.com/AlexanderBluMusic/

The season of Fall is layered with lovely texture and colorful leaves.

And even though at times the change might appear to have happened suddenly the reality is that what is now becoming visible to our eyes has been happening for a while.

 

I remember several years ago when I entered a new season of spending more time creating art I had many people in my life ask me “Where did this come from”?!  And it wasn’t just a question in passing a lot of times…it was someone looking me dead in the eye waiting for an answer…so it got me thinking about this question… I mean I could see why many were asking…creating art in a few different ways was definitely where a lot of my energy was going. And I do think in the world we live in with social media when we share our life online people have a glimpse of things that in the past unless you did life on a daily weekly basis …they had no clue.

 

So as I looked back at my life I could see creativity sprinkled all through it. Did it look exactly like what I was putting my hand to in this season? No, but I could see that creativity looked different in almost every season and layer of my life. I could see that when my children were younger and my days were filled with feeding children and homeschooling my creativity was in full force around my everyday life.  As a family, we lived out the seasons of life creatively. Sometimes it felt like creativity in the midst of complete chaos, but I think we are all hard-wired divinely from our creator with the desire and gifts that wherever we find ourselves we are designed and gifted to bring order and beauty in the midst of chaos.  

 

I mentioned how I could see how creativity looked different in different seasons and looking back I could see that it was life inviting me into another layer of learning and living. My circumstances in my family or my work in the church offered me new experiences to learn and grow. And as is the case for most of us…we are so caught up in the moment of the season we are in that oftentimes we aren’t even aware of all that the layer is holding for us. It’s sometimes only in looking back that we see how we were being formed layer by layer.

 

And it’s in the looking back for me I become well aware that God has always been faithfully answering the true desires of my heart.  I see that what I sometimes thought was part of the plan actually wasn’t or it was for a season.

 

It was a layer.

A layer to be built on.

A layer to stand on and continuing building on

 

The thing about layers is that sometimes we think a particular layer is our life forever…

Or we can believe a layer in our past was the best ever and life is all downhill from here.

 

Why would we ever believe that lie?! 

It reminds me of how when you have a break up with someone you’ve been in a relationship with and you’re in that in-between time of feeling the loss and not fully moved on and experiencing the next…

 

So you text or reach back out (knowing it needed to end)

But all you are focused on and remembering are all the good times.

The beautiful moments

The special memories.

 

Let’s not do that with the layers in our lives.

Let’s be people who remember to honor and celebrate 

But also let's be people of hope 

That believe and trust a God

That grows us from glory to glory 

And invites us to an abundant life.

 

The layers of life are a delicate ebb and flow of dying and rebirth and growth.

 

Layers of letting go and growing.

 

I’ll end with a thought from the Autumn journal

The layers of life

Layers of dying and rebirth

A falling away + a growing

Woven together into our journey

The layers of life

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Intro & Outro Music Credit:

Music: https://www.purple-planet.com - License Free 

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Hi you! Thanks for being here!

 

I asked a question in my Instagram stories this week after sharing a quote from the Autumn Journal which said

 

“Like autumn leaves changing around me 

May I stop resisting change 

Allowing a miraculous transformation

Bringing forth brilliant beauty.”

 

and the question I asked was “Do you tend to surrender or resist change in your life?

 

And overwhelmingly the answer was that most of us tend to resist change

 

Why is that???

 

What are we so afraid of what’s on the other side of change?

 

I really think it’s the uncertainty of not knowing what to expect because there is usually beauty on the other side even in the midst of hard.

And if we’re honest there’s hard on the front side of change.

 

But somehow we are comfortable with the hard we are familiar with.

 

That’s what’s so interesting …I’m not even talking about change we might not want…I’m talking about any kind of change.

 

What is it that for so many of us in our humanity rises up and resists change?

 

Resistance is a real thing.

 

Autumn Journal - https://amzn.to/3LewEvj

Instagram - https://bit.ly/SusanBethInstagram

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The SHE IS Podcast - https://bit.ly/thesheispodcast

 

 

Intro & Outro Music Credit:

Music: https://www.purple-planet.com - License Free 

Background Music Credit: Alexander Bluhttps://www.facebook.com/AlexanderBluMusic/

Here we are at the start of a new week…

 

I’m starting to see glimpses from some of your posts on Instagram that the season of Autumn is revving up visually. And that’s what we’re talking about today.

 

Colors hold such power for our senses.

 

And I love how we are so uniquely drawn to different colors and shades.

 

There are particular colors that aren’t necessarily my favorite but when I see the joy and confidence it brings to someone wearing the color. It’s as if I can sense and experience their love for the color and it is beautiful to me in a new and fresh way.  

 

I love a range of colors colors but if I was forced to choose a favorite to the horror of some I would choose the color of black.  I’ve actually had people tell me that black isn’t even truly a color…

 

I love deep black furniture, black blouses, and pants and there’s absolutely nothing like a pair of black boots. Ha!

And I’ve always loved black.  I know it’s more common now but back in the 80’s when I chose black velvet for my Bridesmaids I really confused a lot of people haha

 

I guess for many it is a basic solid base color …bland and not exciting and I feel the exact opposite of that…

It’s rich and deep and interesting...

I love it.

 

But I also like hot pink and I love orange.  The colors are interesting. And we tend to gravitate toward certain colors because of how they make us feel. We want to surround ourselves with them. With our clothing choices and the things we have in our homes. Like wall colors and blankets…

 

Colors not only speak to our senses but they speak to our souls so we find comfort in surrounding ourselves with colors that bring us joy.

 

The season of Autumn is a color wonder of transformation. There is something so magnificent and magical as we see the leaves change colors and transition through a season right before our eyes.

 

There is visually so much change in this season…change that even though parts of the process hold such beauty ultimately it leads to the falling away and death of something beautiful. We’ll talk more about that in Winter but for now, we will just on accepting that change is part of life.

 

And that change will often be visibility noticeable. This is always the case. But in the seasons that change is obvious it brings a level of vulnerability.

Things are changing and that change can’t be denied by anyone in view of your life.

 

But the Autumn seasons in our lives aren’t the whole story. They are an essential transformative part of our journey but they are only a part of the larger story.

 

When you are in the middle of the change it’s hard to focus or see anything else but the parts of your life falling away. Resist the urge to allow this season to define who you are. Because you are just passing through this season and your next season will appear differently.

 

You were created to grow and change and bring forth healthy new growth in your life. Don’t resist the season you find yourself in. Take a deep breath Unclench your fist and allow the dead things in your life to fall away knowing that in time you will enjoy the beauty of new life and growth.

 

Have a color-filled week friend :)

 

Autumn Journal - https://amzn.to/3LewEvj

Instagram - https://bit.ly/SusanBethInstagram

Pinterest - https://bit.ly/SusanBethPinterest

The SHE IS Podcast - https://bit.ly/thesheispodcast

 

 

Intro & Outro Music Credit:

Music: https://www.purple-planet.com - License Free 

Background Music Credit: Alexander Bluhttps://www.facebook.com/AlexanderBluMusic/