oh darling, let's venture.

No, life cannot be understood flat on a page. It has to be lived; a person has to get out of his head, has to fall in love, has to memorize poems, has to jump off bridges into rivers, has to stand in an empty desert and whisper sonnets under his breath...we get one story, you and I, and one story alone. G-d has established the elements, the setting and the climax and resolution.

 It would be a crime not to venture out, wouldn't it? 
-Donald Miller

This is my quote for the year. 

Because this is my thinking: if I am living with abandon, then my goal is to be a venturer, in whatever way G-d tells me to. 

Remember those secret dreams you had when you were younger? Mine included being an artist, who could move colors across a canvas with such feeling I could make people cry. Maybe they were not-so-secret, and what you really wanted was to be able to get through that one math lesson without crying from mental frustration. I had those days often. 

What I'm trying to put into words (and not doing a very good job of it, I feel), is tomorrow is still tomorrow. Tomorrow will always be tomorrow. But we won't always have tomorrow. In fact, tomorrow may or may not exist for us; and nothing will happen tomorrow that we don't put our hearts and souls into today. 

Say yes. Just say yes. G-d has given us gifts, and if we bury them until we feel the time is right... we're going to miss out on seeing the most incredible and most perfect of plans unfold right before our eyes... and thinking, "Wow. G-d used me to be a part of that." Use those gifts. Don't stay within your comfort zone. Come off of the pages. Stop thinking about tomorrow. 

The word courage originally comes from the Latin word cor: heart. "The original definition was to tell the story of who you are with your whole heart." 

So. Who are you, really? 

Be courageous. Live with abandon.  

oh, dear friend. let's submit. let's venture. together. and look at His plan unfolding, and look forward to His return with a heart of joy. 

let's plant seeds to last a lifetime.