“Give me a place to write, ” I told him. I didn’t mean a comfy chair or a room with a nice view. I needed the literal space where I write words.
Nearly eleven years ago I sat on a white couch on Captiva Island on our honeymoon and started a blog. Then I deleted it. A couple years later I started another one and stuck with it consistently for many years and enjoyed the heck out of writing about whatever I felt needed to be said. At some point I became extremely sporadic. I once blamed having children for my lack of writing, and while that is a huge part of it, I have recently learned that I lacked motivation because I was posting to a blog that had pictures in its heading from when my son was 6 weeks old. He’s almost 5 now. I needed something fresh and different, but I didn’t want to start over. Kind of like when you get a new Bible and you’re excited and sad at the same time because all those notes in your old Bible don’t transfer to the new Bible.
So, I asked Brent for a place to write, meaning, if it’s possible to transfer my old blog to a new blog and the content stay the same, I’d be one super happy momma. Because if you’ve ever read my blog, you know I have some posts that mean the world to me and I’d love for them to be in the same place as the new stuff. I also have some posts that were really stupid and embarrassing that I’d like to never read again. Whatevs.
This week, I was taking a meal to a friend of mine (Jess, the one who took the lovely picture of my family you see on the homepage). I forgot that I asked Brent to work on this for my Mother’s Day gift. And I’ll be honest, as I was driving the thought crossed my mind that I probably shouldn’t expect anything for Mother’s Day. My birthday and our anniversary are also in May, so we usually celebrate all three by having a fancy schmancy meal for our anniversary, and I’m okay with that. While I was at Jess’s house loving on her beautiful baby girl, I got a text from Brent with the link to this and I was floored. It’s one thing to take me out to lunch or let me get a pedicure for Mother’s Day, but for my husband to know me well enough to know that I don’t really want those things, but instead I want a fresh place to write is another thing. A big thing.
For Christmas 2011, we didn’t have much and weren’t planning to buy each other Christmas gifts. Brent surprised me with a new prayer journal, a nice pen, and my own domain. It was the very best gift anyone has ever given me until this Mother’s Day 2018. I think the reason these gifts mean so much to me is because they are investments in a hobby of mine, and I dare say with hope, a gift of mine that I’ve always loved and want to continue to love. When someone recognizes that you do something well and encourages it and even invests in it, that can really spur you on to keep on keepin’ on.
I think the break I unintentionally took from writing on my blog has helped me gain a better understanding of who I am. In the time I’ve been unintentionally quiet on my blog God has taught me to carefully examine my thoughts and opinions that I want to share.
It’s fitting that this fresh place to write is a Mother’s Day gift. I named this blog after my mother many years ago. Her heart is always merry. Even when she’s angry she’s somehow merry. Even when she’s sad she’s somehow merry. Even when, as a child, she’d point her finger at my brother and me and say through her clinched teeth, “You wait ’til your father gets home,” she still found a way to start laughing because my mother can’t be serious for half of a second. It’s not in her. The merry always comes out. And I’ve found that a merry heart really does act like medicine because after almost 33 years of being her daughter, my heart is always merrier when I’m around her. Anyone that spends time with her would agree.
So, here’s to more doing what I love doing. Telling stories. Writing things. Recognizing God in the small and big, the mundane and the exciting. Hopefully this new space to write is easy to figure out for a website dummy like me.
Cheers!
A Merry Heart 