Sanders' World Changing

In 2001, while I was stationed in Hawaii,  two of my childhood besties came to visit. While at the famous stadium flea market or some other souvenir hot spot, we bought aloha heart charms painted with our names and flowers and committed to keeping the baubles hung around our car rear view mirrors. Since 2001,  I have probably owned 8 different cars and the charm hung around every one.  For most of those years my name charm hung in front of a wooden cross, until one day the necklace holding the cross broke. The name heart remained. While driving north to Pennsylvania yesterday I was listened to an audio book titled, Girls With Swords, by Lisa Bevere. She spoke in depth, and seemingly effortlessly, about how women need to rise up and fight for what's right. She talked about  changing the spacing of the letters of God's word and getting the words God Sword. The imagery was much better than I could give justice to, if you want to know more about that, definitely read h...

In a world of people, I can feel alone. Completely whole, I can feel broken. Fully mature, I can act childish.  I forget where I came from, but more importantly, Whose I am. It is when these things happen regularly that I know there is a problem with me. A problem with my thinking. A problem with my heart.  The sayings are true, “you cannot pour from an empty cup” and “put your oxygen mask on first”, etc.  So, the next few days are my cup filling, mask wearing, Carrie finding days.  I am checking out of my normal and spending time at the Fearless ladies retreat that I have been planning to attend for the better part of this year. There have been obstacles in the way that could have kept me from making it to my destination. Exhaustion, distance, money, physical health, just to name a few. But, the truth is, I cannot say “I need some time to get away and be refilled” and not take the opportunity that has been on my heart for so long...

There is a song by Luke Combs called Beautiful Crazy.  The first line does not describe me at all, but the rest of the song, well, I feel like those are words my husband could have written about me before. Before. Before, what? I guess that is the question, right? People say things like, "the honeymoon is over". We didn't get married for a honeymoon. We didn't plan a honeymoon on purpose. We got married because we wanted to be together and buy a house and start a life and be committed. And we are. We still never had a honeymoon. We do have a cruise booked for six months from now that will be the first solo vacation he and I will ever take that didn't include a Navy port call. That's pretty cool, but, that's not the point of this message. Wedding vows say, "for better or for worse" for a reason. That reason is because there will be worse but there will also be better. Right now I am going through some medical things that also effect me...