Year of Abundance
Welcome back to the blog, sweet friends! The coziest corner of the internet, in my humble opinion. :-) I hope January 2025 went decently for you. There’s a lot happening in the world, there’s a lot happening in our lives, and January was very…January.
This is a really exciting season for me! I told Grammy recently that I have a lot of spinning plates- Church work, School work, Podcasting, Writing, Still Good Co., speaking, friends, hobbies, etc- and sometimes I realize what a china cabinet I’m hauling around. My mind stays pretty busy. I’ve journaled and prayed so many times for guidance, patience, and wisdom, charting this new path- again! (LOL) I know that God is answering me faithfully and quietly in things great and small: Answers, connections falling into place, pleasant days, great support, the reminder that I can take one moment at a time. Realizing that I truly enjoy this season and each of the spinning plates. They’re full of creative work, smiling faces, and equal parts familiar territory where I thrive and new horizons that challenge me. I love having routines and places to be AND the flexibility to take sunshine walks, appointment days at Levines, and time to care for our cozy little house. Now I assure you, it’s not perfect. Some days I tread water with much flailing and doubt and low-key drama. (Ha!) But many days, especially today, it’s really wonderful. I’m so thankful for this blessing of a season. I want to keep this perspective, to feel God turn my face back to Him and calm my thoughts so I can actually soak up all the goodness He’s placed here. When I calm down, I remember, “Right! This is possible. This is how it’s meant to be.”
For a long time, I’ve feared having to make choices. I feared I could either teach (with absolutely no time/energy for anything else) or leave it behind totally for something I couldn’t quite define. I came to that conclusion based on my previous experiences, my current health, and…my very human perception. Scarcity. Limitations. But guess what, friends? We love a limitless God of abundance!
2023 taught me how to live. I learned to depend on God for really big, urgent practical needs and relax into the waiting. It was full of scary life moves: officially resigning, losing disability and health insurance, needing a job but not sure what I was ready to do. God was so faithful to provide what I needed one day at a time. A little hope here. A surprise connection there. A few extra months I didn’t know I had before a deadline, etc. Those added up, reminded me of Him faithfulness, and kept me from going crazy. (LOL) I remember thinking, “That could only have been God. I have seen it! This is how I should always try to live.”
2024 taught me how to dream. I can’t say that I finally felt “brave enough” or “prepared enough” to pursue these dreams- I doubt I ever will! What I can say is that I felt safe enough to think about the future in a “I’m going to let my heart want something new” kind of way. For five years, I grieved a future changed by cancer. Dreaming hurt too much. It felt selfish and silly. I walked into 2024 with open hands, awe and wonder at all that God had provided in 2023. If He had given me the perfect church-school job combo, new insurance and assistance, a podcast, more confidence and contentment, and dreams growing in my heart…what couldn’t He do?? I honestly cannot believe all that happened in 2024, you guys. Here are some of the highlights/lowlights:
Six months of writing mentorship from Rebecca George! (author)
Playing french horn again and sharing some of my faith journey at church. (Public speaking training!)
Our sweet nephew’s baptism and Andrew and I being his godparents. <3
Realizing my broken heart had finally healed, and I could be happy without my old life.
Reworking my book proposal and collaborating with other amazing writers.
A driver’s license with a picture that looks like me again!
Stars Hollow Summer series on the podcast- interviewing my best friends and having a great time!
After a summer of discernment, I went all in for Still Good Co.! I opened an LLC, learned how to find vendors and run an online store, and had my first pop-up shop! I launched an apparel line recognizing MBC Thrivers, teaching others about the metastatic breast cancer colors, and reminding women everywhere we are all good creations from a Good Father. This really happened!!
Guest speaking on 3 podcasts and at 2 conferences. (What?!)
Losing my friend Stacy broke my heart, and catching COVID was hard.
Andrew and I’s trip to Disney
Celebrating 1 entire year of CLEAR SCANS, my 5 Year Cancerversary, and my 35th birthday at the same time!!
Sure, there were lots of bad days. Sure, I doubted and questioned and wandered away too many times. Despite all of that, 2024 was a year of healing, celebrating, dreaming and having the peace to pursue them. It feels like this beautiful moment where I’m bursting out of my chrysalis- all the refinement and reforming of my cancer journey released this butterfly of a life that I didn’t know what possible. (And don’t you hear me give cancer credit for that- but I think you, dear reader, know me better than that! haha) This year was (yet another) testament to God’s healing power, faithfulness, kindness, and provision. His ability to take absolutely anything and make it ok by simply being with us. The slow healing of my heart, my complete dependence on God, and realization that maybe, just maybe, life could be wonderful in this new place…it’s all evidence of the Holy Spirit doing a major thing in my life.
I think my contentment in Christ gave me the ability to actually follow dreams and prompting in this season! I do not deserve it. The dreaming, His love, none of it.
“What a wonderful God we have—he is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the source of every mercy, and the one who so wonderfully comforts and strengthens us in our hardships and trials. And why does he do this? So that when others are troubled, needing our sympathy and encouragement, we can pass on to them this same help and comfort God has given us. You can be sure that the more we undergo sufferings for Christ, the more he will shower us with his comfort and encouragement.” -1 Cor. 1:3-5
I have no idea where 2025 will go, but I feel like anything is possible. I’m calling it a Year of Abundance! I hope to live as fully as I can with the many gifts He’s given me, trusting that He will shape the desires of my heart. I don’t have to fear making decisions, or act from a place of scarcity, because His abundance knows no end. I don’t have to forecast future problems because I’m not operating on my own strength.
Honestly, who am I to decide the best use of my life or my story? I want to be anywhere God takes me. :-) Here’s to 2025!
