I had a full-blown Advent make-over in mind…a complete overhaul of all my bodily, spiritual, mental, financial and house clutter. Of course I fell in the trap of DOING too much instead of focussing on less this Advent period and quickly started to feel an alarming sense of overwhelm.
So this week no tutorial from me of how to declutter your house or track your finances, but a heart felt nudge to keep it simple and just be kind and be grateful this season. Just be.
In honour of just being, and to set my intention on being grateful, I started a little Instagram Advent Gratitude ‘project’ with the hashtags:
I love December, that time of year when we drink hot cocoa, light candles, cuddle together to cocoon inside, turn up the heating and eat more cookies than usual. It’s also that time when I start wearing my Rudolf the reindeer slippers again. Winter depression anyone? Not me!
But, through all the coziness, food and fun, I can easily get distracted and sometimes feel a bit lost, losing sight of life’s basics, and of my relationship with a Power greater than me that I call God.
In my religious practice, the month before Christmas plays an important role in the year. I appreciate the idea of setting aside certain periods of the time (for example Advent and Lent) to practice certain habits and strenghten my relationship with God.
So besides looking forward to the coming (=Advent) of Jesus Christ, I also want to concern myself with the theme of: Back to Basics, and take you guys along on my journey.
Why would I want to go Back to Basics?
Eliminating physical, mental and/or spiritual clutter can be really helpful to focus on the important things in life. For example: creating order in my finances, house or mind can create greater freedom in my whole life. Simplifying leads to enhanced humility, focus and creativity.
In what areas could I go Back to Basics?
finances: creating clarity, being solvent, creating a life of “enough”
house: decluttering
information and social media: decreasing the inflow and establishing mindful use
mind & emotions: decluttering by means of meditation
physical clutter: get moving and eat healthy and simple
spirituality: connect to a Power greater than myself on a daily basis.
The first of December you’ll find the first one in the series on my blog.
As a kid, I used to have several penpals: Wilmie and Anja from Holland, Aurélie and Gwenaëlle from France.
When I was a very young teenager I even had a sweet almost daily love letter correspondence with my boyfriend via snail mail! I even kept all of his letters.
The writing: first in draft, then in neat longhand, walking to the mailbox and then the waiting, oh the sweet waiting!
In this world full of distractions I long for simplicity, I wanna go retro, not techno, slower, not faster, prefering vintage to mass production and snail mail to electronic mail and so-called social networks…
How much more delight is there in the once a day chance of receiving a hand written letter or postcard on my doormat, instead of fighting and then giving in to compulsively checking all of my electronic inboxes.
Now I’ve found something excellent which both tickles my fancy for old-fashioned post and creativity. Postcrossing!
What is it and how does it work?
1. Go to the website: www.postcrossing.com and register
2. Request an address to send a postcard to and a code to write on it.
3. Recycle, buy, craft, photograph or paint away at your postcard. Don’t forget to write down the special code.
4. Send your postcard to the address. I already sent one to Germany and one to Russia! You can send up to 5 postcards simultaneously.
5. When the receiver gets the card, he or she registers the card with the help of the special code. Now it’s your turn to be eligible to get a postcard from another postcrosser somewhere in the world!
Exciting!
Love, Ester
P.s.
If you really start to get the taste of it, there is a possibility of post swapping on the website as well. Good old pen pal style!
Today felt like it was my birthday, but better, when I woke up with childly excitement. 40 Days I have waited for this day to come again. Just beautiful to realise that Jesus can do for me what I can never do for myself. Give me new life!
Happy Easter everybody! The Lord is truly risen!
Here’s a short animated video of the Easter story for kids or grown-ups 😉
Thank you for following the 40 Day Devotional series, it was a pleasure to write them, stay tuned for other content on how to live a simple, inspired, spiritual, organized and creative life.
Today was a cold but springtimey day! I enjoyed the sounds of the birds and the budding trees and flowers.
With Jesus’ upcoming resurrection on Easter Sunday, nature: creation is also showing itself again after the dark and barren period of Winter. It’s a promise of new life!
The final week of Lent started yesterday on Palm Sunday.
This week I look forward to ‘reliving’ the events leading up to Jesus’ resurrection on Easter.
Holy Thursday, Good Friday, the waiting on Saturday and the glory of Easter Sunday!
I started a real cool Holy week video devotional yesterday, called The Artists Bible
Click the following link to join: YouVersion Bible app for Android
Today I feel especially creative and colorful and I googled ‘praying and drawing’.
Then I found this AWESOME website I want to share with you today!
God made us in all colors and shapes and therefore we can pray in all colors and shapes and forms and manners too. God has a sense of humour too!
Here goes:
Praying in Color = prayer + d o o d l i n g
When multiple friends and family members received ugly and scary diagnoses, Sybil MacBeth found herself exhausted by the words of her prayers and stymied by a lack of focus. One summer day, she retreated to her back porch for a session of mindless doodling with a basket of her favorite colored markers. She drew a shape, put the name of a friend inside, and added lines and color. She drew another shape with another name and added detail and color. When the page was covered with designs and names, Sybil realized she had prayed. The action of drawing was a wordless offering of friends and family into the care of God. The page of drawings became a visual reminder to pray. This was the beginning of Praying in Color.
1) You want to pray but words escape you. 2) Sitting still and staying focused in prayer are a challenge.
3) Your body wants to be part of your prayer.
4) You want to just hang out with God but don’t know how.
5) Listening to God feels like an impossible task .
6) Your mind wanders and your body complains.
7) You want a visual, concrete way to pray.
8) You Need a new way to pray.
Here’s what you need to get started:
1) Paper
2) Pen
3) Colored markers or colored pencils or colored gel pens
4) A table or clipboard or book to put your paper on.
“You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being” (Revelations 4:11)
At the end of a working week, before the weekend starts and the hustle and bustle of life winds down a little bit, but social commitments are awaiting us, it’s nice to stand still and soak up some sound and simple advice like the above.
To consider: What do I really NEED to do this weekend? It might be less than I think. PAUSE and BREATHE for a moment, then let go of some of the things you planned.
To try: Pick one or two of the suggestions in the above image you haven’t tried before and give it a go this weekend.
This afternoon, while I was walking my dog in the cold winter sunshine, we came along some trees and bushes in the neighbourhood and there were a variety of birds cheerfully singing! One female magpie was even making her nest high up in one of those trees!
I got an instant Spring foreboding, inspite of the cold. I felt grateful and free!
“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? …
Simple & Inspired Living 