Doesn’t matter to me how cliche it sounds by now…

…what a year 2020. What a year.

Yet somewhere around June I made up my mind (and heart): 2020 is not over or canceled.  Shutting down and waiting until 2021 seems like an unhealthy plan for me to make. What guarantees do I have for next year?

2020 absolutely feels hard.

I hold concerns for friends and family near and far. Legal processes I’ve mentioned before are present once again. This summer some of my children experienced blatant racism in the form of name-calling and negative comments.

While I am steadied by my faith, it feels foolish to pretend these situations are not happening.

family beach time, July 2020

And still, I’m harvesting the good. The ways God meets me, surprises me, provides, protects and shows me again and again this truth: He is faithful and I can count on him.

So today I practice a bit of gratitude journaling and encourage you to consider the same.

Harvest the good, sisters. Look for it!

Yes, you and I may need to look hard and deep. Let’s keep gazing until it appears.

Harvesting the good in my summer includes:

Celebrating my first year of business and my first online course launch — both successful in my book!

When I opened this website last summer, my hopes and plans felt b-i-g. Those adjusted as the pandemic defined life choices. Sometimes, I lost my way and my voice…not quite knowing what to say in light of issues all around.

But as I recently closed doors on round one of the Write Your Self course, deep gratitude filled my heart. Five weeks with these women reminded me of just why I started.

I am reminded to courageously carry on.

Harvesting the good showed up in literal, practical ways — FOOD.

Preserving extra this summer made sense: it makes me crazy happy, I’ve never enjoyed winter shopping (the less to do the better), and canceled plans offered time.

Plus, living among farms sometimes means gleaning or receiving leftovers at rock-bottom prices! If you knew me in past blogging days, you know I love a good deal.

Time in the kitchen serves to ground me. This summer was no different.

Harvesting the good also included…

…noticing and naming an important shift.

This summer I grew less and less okay keeping silence on my experiences, opinions and thoughts about being a Black woman and mother in these United States.

No one particular event shifted things. I feel it’s perhaps a natural result of personal transformation; naming what I am no longer okay doing, saying, keeping silence on.

For sure, I am invited more to amplify voices of women struggling in emotional and verbal domestic violence, post separation abuse, and spiritually-destructive environments.

Yet I noticed a nudge this summer to show up differently around racial topics.

This came as uneasy and complicated at times. Several experiences felt as though the other person and I spoke two different languages!  I want to keep responding to those inner nudges though.

I name this as good.

And your harvest from summer 2020?

Both our tough realities and life-giving experiences can find room at the same table. We don’t have to choose one over the other when each needs space to be. 

I wonder what you notice as good around you right now.  What feels hopeful, different for the better, sweet, rich or a gift?

Feel free to comment or send me a message naming your harvest!