Contentment

Almost filled up my 'From Brain to Veins' journal. Only a couple of spreads left to fill. This one is 'Contentment is greater than monetary riches'.

Blessed is the person who is content with what they have. Thankfulness and contentment go together. When we learn to be thankful for what we have, we become content with what we have. The practice of thankfulness teaches us to appreciate even the smallest of things and to realise how rich we really are.

More than your body

Another layout in my 'From Brain to Veins' journal where I'm exploring those things that we know in our minds but don't always reach our hearts so that we live them. This time - You Are More Than Your Body.

Say it with me: I am more than my body.

I found this image in a magazine. The headline for the article was De-Age Your Body. Seriously?! This woman can't be out of her 20s. With all the advertising, magazines, movies, etc. telling women - whether blatantly or in more insidious ways - that they have to be 'beach ready', stay young, be thinner, it's time to speak out.

When we put so much emphasis on what people look like, the size of their waist, the lack of wrinkles on their face, how fit they are, as soon as they become ill, grow older, don't 'measure up' in some way, they are seen as valueless. So what about the wisdom of those who have lived long, fulfilled lives? What about the perseverance, bravery, and strength we see in those who endure prolonged illness? How can we dismiss the beauty of faces that have been lived in, bodies that have brought forth life?

The tape under the figure reads: giving, smart, playful, silly, splendid, fantastic, awesome, funny, sweet, epic, amazing. None of these requires a particular body type.

I'm sharing this with all the lovely people at Paint Party Friday. Go and visit to see all the awesome art they've produced this week.

Emotions can lie

Up next in the 'From Brain to Veins' journal - sometimes emotions lie. It is easy for us to know this in our minds, but when we are in the midst of an emotional outburst or meltdown, that knowledge can go out of the window.

How often have you found yourself having an over-the-top emotional response to something? When it happens, do you realise that it is not really a response to the particular happening, but something deeper? Whenever I have a response that seems way too big for what has actually happened, I ask myself : is this response justified? Is it reasonable? If it isn't, then what is it really about?

I may be intensely angry or frustrated at some trivial thing. Chances are my emotions are lying to me. I'm not angry about what has happened, but what has happened is in the same vein as something I'm harbouring anger about. Something bigger and deeper.

Of course, it may just be that I'm tired, or my blood sugar levels have dipped, but even then, my emotions are lying to me.

So beware!

Who you are

Here's the latest spread in my 'From Brain to Veins' journal - a journal for exploring those things that we know in our minds, but that don't always penetrate to our hearts.

As a stay-at-home mum and homeschooler, I find it difficult when people ask me what I do. How to answer? I'm a wife, a mother, a teacher, an artist, I write, knit, make jewellery, give a day a week to working for the church my husband is pastor to, love to cook and share skills.

What do I do?

They don't really want a list of what I achieve every day. What they mean is, what is my career? What is my job and function? And then I can sometimes feel a bit embarrassed. I shouldn't, and most of the time I don't, but occasionally I do, especially when I'm in a room with high achievers. But God is so much more interested in who I am; how I'm growing and becoming more like Him. I could be the best lawyer/doctor/whatever, but if I'm not growing as a person into someone who is loving, kind, compassionate, then what does it matter?

Wouldn't it be so much better if we asked each other who we are? What are our dreams? What are our hopes? None of us have a single 'function' in life. We are all made up of different facets and they all add in to who we are.

I think that is much more exciting.

I am enough

The latest spread in my 'From brain to veins' journal - the journal where I'm looking at those things that we know with our minds, but take a long time to reach our hearts and be lived. 

I am enough.

Even when other people might tell me that I'm not young enough, thin enough, rich enough, pretty enough, clever enough, whatever enough, I need to remember that I am enough. 

Just as I am.

I am loved enough.

I am rich enough.

I am sufficient for what I need to be and do because I am loved and I am equipped.

And so are you.

Opinions

How often do you listen to opinions that don't really matter?

How often do you take on things that other people - people who shouldn't hold any sway with you - say about you?

Why do you care about what the woman at the school gates whispers to her friend before they both look at you and smother a laugh?

We shouldn't, but we do.

In my latest spread in the 'From brain to veins' journal, I remind myself that there are very few opinions that should really matter to me. In reality, the only opinions of me that matter are those of God, my husband, and my daughter. The opinions of others don't affect me unless I let them.

Why should I care if so-and-so doesn't like me? If I can stand with a clear conscience before God, my husband, and my daughter, that is enough.

But I need to be reminded of that when my skin becomes a little thin.

I am loved

This is the first spread in my 'Brain to Veins' journal (see the last post).

I am loved.

A simple declarative sentence. Yet we often find it hard to believe.

How often do you find yourself thinking, 'They wouldn't love me if they knew…'

It is only with length and depth of relationship that the truth of 'I am loved' moves from the brain to our veins. Only with repeated instances of being shown that we are loved, no matter what, do we begin to believe it.

Linking with Paint Party Friday and Express your Creativity

From brain to veins

It's one thing to know something with head knowledge, but quite another to know it in your heart.

A while ago my husband found a great book for me to alter - Atlas of Female Anatomy. It's interesting for a couple reasons. The shape is fun as it is tall and narrow. Inside there is a slim book on the left hand side and a three-way fold-out atlas of the body with some movable pieces on the right.

It has been sitting in my studio while I decided what I wanted to do with it. I didn't want to cover all of the anatomical illustrations and I wanted there to be a theme. A few days ago it came to me: exploring those things that can sometimes take a while to travel from our brains to our veins; those things that we don't always find it easy to believe deep in our hearts even when our heads say it is true.

So here's the first page of the book side; the title page, if you will.