Welcome to the Friday Recliner friends.

Anyone else feel like the week just flew by.  I keep thinking of that line in Finding Nemo  “That’s the fastest green light I’ve ever seen”.   Last time I looked up it was Monday  and suddenly here we are at Friday again. Whooosh!

So tell me what are you most looking forward too this weekend?  A sleep in? An outing? Time to yourself? Catching up with a friend?  Would love to hear.  I’m taking my learner driver son for a jaunt down the coast tomorrow to get his driving hours up. No hardship there with the fresh air and ocean scenery to enjoy.  Chance of a swim as well!

First things first though  – – –

A Good Word

Just in case your trying to leap tall buildings in a single bound.

Katy Epling

A Good Look

Here’s to you friend xx

Find  more of this gorgeousness at  Suculentasscoloridass

A Good Idea 

from Katy Epling

Permission to Feel More than One Thing at a Time

2021 is the year of hope, the year of change?

Of course, it’s also year 2 of the pandemic, a time of continuing unrest, and (still) mired in uncertainty.

We want to feel better and be hopeful, but we are still grieving and worried. Our hearts tell us to cling to hope, our eyes tell us that our circumstances are still hard. The tension pulls at us until we think we just can’t take it anymore!

I DON’T KNOW HOW TO FEEL!

Lean in, friend, because I need to tell you something important…

You are allowed to feel more than one thing at a time.

It’s OK to feel both frustrated and hopeful, to be simultaneously discouraged and confident. Because that’s the reality we live in. It is both good and hard, broken and beautiful.

Of course, this applies to the happenings in our world today—the pandemic, the political unrest, and all that goes along with them. But this is true of our everyday lives as well.

It’s OK to have moments of joy in the middle of grief. It doesn’t dishonor or invalidate the hard. It’s OK to be laughing with friends and suddenly struck by the sadness of a struggle you’re going through. Your grief doesn’t undermine your joy.

In fact, friend, our ability to feel complex—and even conflicting—emotions is part of what makes life so wonderful. Because we can see the beauty in the brokenness, we can find joy amid grief. We don’t have to be just one thing. God doesn’t call us to ignore the brokenness in and around us, but to cling to the hope that He is with us in the middle of it.

And when we can really accept that, when we can lean into it instead of fighting against it, it is incredibly freeing. We don’t have the added weight of false guilt piled on top of our already muddled feelings.

“Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep” (Romans 12:15). And sometimes, we do both in the same conversation!

So today if you are feeling both weary and expectant… if sorrow and joy are at war in your heart… call a truce. Let them both have their say.

A Good Read

Writing a Rule of Life: A Timeless Tool for Decision-Making

I was exhausted from four months of nonstop backpacking in Asia with my three children and husband when I first entertained the idea of getting my priorities down on paper. We were a third of the way into our long-planned family project of circumnavigating the globe for a school year. Both our jobs allowed for location independence and we homeschooled our young children, and we had a hunch this freedom wouldn’t last indefinitely. We wanted to take advantage of our unique situation.

After five years of saving and strategizing, we left Texas for China on a humid September afternoon, long-haul and puddle-jump flights booked through the end of the calendar year. We’d travel through Asia during the fall, land in Australia for the holidays (where we’d lined up a housesitting gig for another family, who were traveling through North America at the time), then evaluate whether we wanted to keep going. December would be its own chapter in a Choose Your Own Adventure novel: we’d either cross back over the Pacific and return home, disappointed that we didn’t follow the full width of the earth but still earning a badge of honor, or we’d continue westbound, onward to Africa. In booking only our first third of our travels the summer before, we gave our future selves the permission to make choices with more wisdom and experience than we could possibly yet have – – – – keep reading

A reminder small changes can make big differences

MY 5 FAVORITE DECOR CHANGES OF 2020

from Emily A Clarke

Although 2020 feels like a wash in many ways, I was thinking about the things I actually did accomplish in all of my time at home and I made some small changes that made a big difference (to me). Big improvements don’t always mean knocking down a wall or even spending a large amount of money. A few thoughtful changes can improve the way you feel about your home. I’ve shared some of these quickly on Instagram but here are a few more thoughts on my 5 favorite décor changes of 2020 – – – keep reading

And this one because its beautiful

These aerial images, stunning in their abstraction, evoke a powerful sense of transcendence and tranquility.

That’s it for this week friends. Thanks so much for being here and remember you can browse through the previous articles and posts linked to in The Friday Recliner right  HERE.