I Live In The Enchanted Forest...

no really.  I'd tell you the lot and plot number, but then you might show up at our door...and whether we are acquainted or not, I would have to fight you with a nerf sword...and you do not want that.  (because I'd win)

We live in an Enchanted Forest.  and we have nerf swords. 

 (Husband Dion and me nerf sword fighting.  Sister-in-law Krystal created this for us using bitstrips.)

 for now we do. We moved from our first little cottage to this home eight months ago. There are multiple, lengthy stories that would have to be told all together in order to truly communicate the extent of how this dream, to live in a story book cottage located in a development named something with such amazingness as the enchanted forest, came true...but for now I will just say this. 

It took work and time, but the timing worked. 

 There were tears.  many many tears.There were incredible lessons learned, now treasured.  
It is beautiful.  and,

it is for now.

What does that mean? for now? Welllll, it means our family will appreciate this place...this season, this miracle for as long as it is ours (we do hope it is ours for quite some time).  And yet I acknowledge that just as hardships must pass by, beautiful passes by too.  It's part of this life of beauty and ashes.  And so,

all the more reason to love 

beauty when it is ours to love.

Dreams so large take sacrifice...thinking and acting differently.  In this story, for me, it required exposing unthinkable vulnerabilities like after being a stay-at-home, homeschooling mom with our first daughter Sara, choosing to re-enter the workforce in a job that I would have previously considered myself inadequate.  This was also after adopting our second daughter, Siri, who has severe special needs (did you know children with special needs need houses with special things like wheel chair modifications, room equipment, special bathrooms, main rooms on the main floor, etc...who would have thought?  ...all a part of our family's story).

a beautiful staircase by Michelle Allen and quote by John Maxwell that has inspired me...see her work here at http://www.close2myart.com

I also believe in Divine interruption and intervention...when something (or someone) lines up so well for us silly, limited (but still fantastic) human beings, we cannot take credit, leaving few other explanations beyond it simply being Divine.  

 (these lilacs are divine, yes?)

Our storybook cottage story, the story of how we came to live in the Enchanted Forest is this kind of story.  One of sweat and determination, and still every bit, one of Divine intervention.

...and so it is all that we need and all of our dreams. It is what I wake up to and where I dream from...where I call home, love on my family, and create. 

But you and I know that even in dark places there is beauty to be discovered...to be created.  We've been given these powerful gifts.  Amazing gifts of imagination, discovery, and creation.  

 In the most unexpected of places, 

there is beauty to be found.  

And so we don't have to live in an enchanted forest to experience it.  Simple pleasures like smelling lemon thyme while walking through the garden center, lighting a candle and having some tea, turning over a smooth stone in our pocket, watching chickadees fly to food hung from a city window (bird food...well, or you could hang a cheeseburger from a city window if you want to, I guess, and attract rats)...these  can make our surroundings turn magical. (not rats) for a moment. (not rats ever)  when we stop.  when we are still enough to sense it. and appreciate the beauty right there.  

 right here.

I have always admired how the sun shines all shades of green through leaves, especially in the woods when there's a light breeze through the trees.

...a glimpse into my daughter Sara's beautiful place of imagination.  It's her castle.  She sits here.  She hides things here. She will probably get poison ivy here.  She's nine.

 These are her royal scepters. According to her imagination, she is the Queen of the Forest.  Another is for kitty.  He is the King of the River (we don't have a river), and the last is for our babysitter.   She is also something of something, but I don't remember what.

 

How are you making your today world beautiful?