We had an aMAZing day as a family this weekend😉💝 Yet within minutes of entering the corn maze we were lost. We couldn’t figure out where we were in the maze map🙃 After trial and error we...okay, actually it was Stephen...figured out where we were.
He said, “once you know where you are, it’s easier to get where you want to go.”
Isn’t that true about life?
If we don’t know where we are, how do we know how to move forward to where we hope to be?
If you are feeling a little lost today in any area of your life, I invite you to join me to...
Pause. Breathe. Pray.
May we stop moving around and around and choose to be still. Let’s establish where we are today, in our personal and/or professional lives. Once we know where we are, coupled with where we hope to be, we can better determine what our next step forward is.
With love and hope,
Shawn
Say and Do What is Ours To Say and Do
As you are well aware, there are a lot of struggling hearts in the world, near and far, mine and yours.
Everyday I have been waking up reminding myself that I have a choice of who holds my heart. I can give it to the hurt, the pain, the frustration, the anger...OR...I can give it to God.
I choose to give it to God.
Why?
Because it’s the only way I have found I can live more fully in this world full of dis-ease.
So what do I do?
Daily I ask God, “what is mine to say or do today that will help me bridge hearts with someone else and let them know they are seen and heard, known and loved?”
Yes, I read the news and yes I am disheartened often by it. Yet I can’t live in that space. It doesn’t serve me and doesn’t help me serve others. Just as I can’t live my days thinking of a possible reoccurrence of cancer, I can’t live my days weighted by the bad news out there. If I live there, I will get stuck and not move forward in my day, or life. Instead, I choose to live by figuring out what I can say, what I can do, today, from where I am to walk beside others in life and help them rise up into the best version of themselves.
I invite you to join me to...
Pause. Breathe. Pray.
What we say and do will look and sound different for all of us . May we start our day and week giving our hearts to God. May we each ask what is ours to say and do today so we can scatter seeds of love into the hearts of others, and be a part of the change needed in our homes, communities and society.
Let’s not get stuck in the dis-ease that is out there. Instead let’s take one step forward by living out love today and bridging hearts with others.
With love and hope,
Shawn
P.S. Thank you @valleysimsbury for having me scatter seeds of love to your community last night
Be Present In the Season We Are In
The leaves are falling🍂 There is such beauty in this season.
No matter what season of life we are in, time continues to move forward. Inevitably the landscape in our lives will change. I invite you to join me to...
Pause. Breathe. Pray.
May we be present in the season we are in. May we look at how this season is helping us grow deeper in to the person we were made to be. And may we see the beauty this season has to offer before it passes by.
With love and hope,
Shawn
Purposefully Productive
In case you’ve ever wondered what the creative process looks like for an author/speaker, here you go🙃
So many thought, so many ideas...so messy! Lol
I am excited to be back out speaking for another MOPS group this morning. The hope is to take this messy, creative process and turn it into an inspirational message that will plant seeds of hope and encouragement into these Moms hearts.
I share this with you this morning in case you too have numerous thoughts/ideas/things to do floating in your mind right now.
I invite you to join me to...
Pause. Breathe. Pray.
Let’s quiet the mind. Invite God in to the process. Ask questions like, what is mine to say? What is mine to do?
Let’s be still and listen.
May our ears be inclined to wisdom this morning to help us be purposefully productive in our words and actions so we may encourage and lift others up today💕🙏💕
With love and hope,
Shawn
Watch What Matters
Yesterday we went to watch David Wright’s last game at Citifield⚾️ Being married to, and raising, life long Mets fans, it was a bittersweet day to watch David Wright, who demonstrates integrity, respect, hard work, perseverance, determination and loyalty, leave the game due to an injury.
As much as the day was about him, I found myself watching my family yesterday.
I did the same thing watching a movie on the couch on Friday night.
There is something to watching others experience life. I receive such joy watching my loved ones absorb life’s experiences. Yet too have felt their pain and sorrow. It really doesn’t matter where we are or what we do, whether I am beside them on the couch or at the ball field, it is a gift to connect with them in this way.
I share this with you today because no matter what you are doing today, I invite you to join me to...
Pause. Breathe. Pray.
May we choose to step back wherever we are today and take it all in. May we watch those we with and experience life through their eyes. Let’s watch their expressions and connect with their emotions. It is powerful and helps us get out of ourselves and bridge hearts deeper with those we are with.
And as David Wright left the field last night, I watched my husband wrap his arm around our son, as together they said goodbye to a man who brought so much joy to their lives, and the game, for so many years.
With gratitude and hope,
Shawn
Keep Doing What You've Been Doing
I invite you to join me to...
Pause. Breathe. Pray.
Whatever it ours to say and do today, let’s choose to do it. Let’s not be the ones at the end of our lives who look back wishing we had said or done this or that. Let’s be the ones who get to the end who have a heart full of gratitude for the seeds of love we were able to spread while we had the chance to. May we each use our unique gifts tohelp be the change we hope to see in the world.
With love and hope,
Shawn
🎵Ain't It Funny How Life Changes🎵
🎵”Ain't it funny how life changes
You wake up, ain't nothing the same and life changes You can't stop it, just hop on the train and You never know what's gonna happen You make your plans and you hear God laughing Life changes, and I wouldn't change it for the world,”🎵 - Thomas Rhett
Yep, the good, the, bad, the ugly...the anxiety, depression, cancer I have had to experience in life...has brought me to this moment today where I am able to love others more deeply, I live more fully (like taking our kids to a concert where we get home at midnight🙃), and have deeper roots of faith.
I wouldn’t change it for the world💕🙏💕
I share this with you in case your life has taken an unexpected 180, for the good, the bad or the ugly. I invite you to join me to...
Pause. Breathe. Pray.
May you keep moving forward, step by step. May you look at the heart of the change, trusting you are meant to experience this so you may love deeper, live more fully and have deeper roots of faith.
With love and hope,
Shawn
Look Up and Around
On my morning walk I saw this unexpected beautiful animal.
Zoom in to see ‘who’?😉🦉
I share with you because many of us walk the same path every day in life, going through the motions of our routines.
I invite you to join me to...
Pause. Breathe. Pray.
May we remember to look up and around us on our paths, because although the path may look the same, there are beautiful gifts waiting for us along the way.
With love and hope,
Shawn
Go Deep
My 6-year-old: “Mom, want to play dinosaur battle with me?
Me: “Sure.”
And so we had a dinosaur battle this morning on our kitchen table before school.
Why am I sharing this?
Because there is a lot happening in my world, as I know it is in your world right now. This week I found out a loved one lost their father, I spoke with a dear friend whose loved one came in minutes of dying of an overdose, another friend is new to sobriety, another friend’s mom is battling cancer, and another shared of her recent miscarriage, a couple of friends are in the process of moving, we have family and friends who are being impacted by the hurricane, and of course the anniversary of 9/11…to name a few things on my heart.
Yes, this is a lot…
Yet I sit and play dinosaurs.
What I have recognized on this side of cancer is every day there are struggles, there is suffering, there is pain, and there is hurt. And truthfully, I am drawn to go close to the pain because I believe that is where we can be transformed into the best version of ourselves and live with greater purpose.
Yet I am unable to carry these on my shoulders as they are not broad, or strong, enough to carry this load.
I need to lay these down somewhere. But where?
Recently when I was feeling overwhelmed by life’s struggles, I asked God, “how was I so peaceful throughout cancer yet am not in that place today?”
The visual that came to me was of me sitting with God in my prayer chair in Boston.
With that visual I knew I needed to get below the surface of the waves of these struggles and go deeper with God.
I envisioned myself being on the top of choppy waters in an ocean trying to stay afloat. But then I purposefully went under the waves. There was a quiet, a calm, a surrender under the waves. This is where I lived last year. Not in the waves but in the calm, where God is.
I share this with you if you too have a lot coming your way. And please don’t ladder the struggles. I know I named some heavy ones above but I too am a stay at home Mom who is navigating life with my children, schedules, activities, work, etc.
So please, whatever is heavy on our heart, I invite you to join me to...
Pause. Breathe. Pray.
No really.
Pause from what you are doing.
Take a deep breath...or two.
And remove yourself from the surface and the choppy waves of these struggles. Go deeper, grounding yourself where things are calm and quiet.
And pray (aka talk with God).
May we give God all that is on our hearts so we don’t have to carry the weight of load. May we ask for wisdom and strength so we may continue to show up and meet this day and walk beside others along their journey. Also, by laying these struggles down and giving them to God, may we trust God has these struggles in His hands so we may not feel weighted in this day and still experience joy, like having a dinosaur battle after breakfast with a loved one💕🙏💕
With love and hope,
Shawn
Building Blocks of Faith
I received this gift from a dear friend today for my new cloffice😉💝
I am sharing because the words are so potent I thought someone else may too need to hear them today.
I invite you to join me to...
Pause. Breathe. Pray.
And no matter the challenge in front of us, may we choose not to let it trip us up. Instead may we use this challenge to grow our faith and trust that our struggles have a deeper purpose than what we see on the surface.
With love and hope,
Shawn