Blogtember 2015: Wise Words

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The first time I heard this quote I was in a church basement. I was a youth group leader and our group was participating in a two week mission project in our community. I learned a lot and experienced a lot during that time but the thing that stuck with me the most is this quote. "The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet." Let that sink in for just a minute. It seems to me that a lot of people think that in order to do answer God's call they have to struggle and sacrifice and be unhappy. The reality is that is not the case. Yes, sometimes we struggle and make sacrifices, but God wants us to be happy! He has given each of us unique talents, passions and goals because each of us has a unique plan for each of us that requires the perfect combination of a whole lot of things. When we're following a call it's easy to focus on the struggles and completely lose sight of the big picture. The realized dream and accomplished goal mean more than what we've "missed". 

I often relate this to camp. If given the choice between relaxing on a beach or spending the day at camp, I'd chose camp every time. I don't think I'm missing out on summer. It's okay that camp isn't going to make me a millionaire, the "sacrifice" of living on a budget isn't really a sacrifice when it means I'm working at camp. Doing what makes me happy, what brings me deep gladness is exactly what God has called me to do.

Linking up with Blogtember.

Blogtember 2015: Letter to Me

Hello,

You should know that sixteen is just as sour as it is sweet. Soak up those moments with  the 'parallelogram'. I know it's hard for you to believe but those girls won't always be your best friends.  (Don't worry, in your 20s you'll find yourself surrounded and supported by some incredible girls. You will do life with these girls and love every moment.) Try not to take yourself too seriously, it's important to work hard but that doesn't mean you need to stress about perfection. Be diligent when it comes to taking photos and scrapbooking, guard those memories and preserve them as best you can. This will be last summer you spend as a camper and the last you ever spend at MP. You will be devastated and heartbroken beyond anything you could ever imagine. Let yourself be sad.  Let the experience inspire you and motivate you. The truth is, it gets worse. It will lead you places that you never would have went had everything gone according to plan. Trust God's plan and know that He knows exactly what your purpose is here on earth. (Those girls you'll do life with, you meet them because you lost MP.) Do your best to stay connected to the communities that you value, even if you can't always be involved, stay connected.

Life has a way of working itself out. It takes awhile and sometimes it feels like you'll feel like a hot mess forever but it will work out. Give it time. When you turn 25 you still won't have it all figured out (and have come to realize that nobody has it all figured out) but you will be happy with where God has lead you. You're not at the finish line yet and your head and heart will be full of ideas and big dreams. Keep going. Stay motivated and inspired and surround yourself with the people that you love. Remember to relax and rejoice when necessary.

Keep moving forward. Everything happens for a reason and God will bless you in ways beyond what you can imagine (Ephesians 3:20).

Love,
2015 Donna


Linking up with Blogtember.

Friday's Here!

I had a really solid week. I'm 98% recovered from being sick and I'm pretty much back into my normal routine. And it feels so great. I'm linking up with Oh Hey, Friday to share five things about my week. A couple of favourites, a comical predicament and some inspiration. 

{one}

Gold. I've never been a lover of gold. I have always preferred silver jewellery and was of the mindset gold stuff made things look tacky not classy. Except I bought a t-shirt at Target a few weeks ago that had some gold in it and I saw a blanket at Winners and some canvas prints with gold writing. I have to admit gold is growing on me.

{two}

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Donuts. I have a specific craving for a vanilla dipped sprinkle donut like the one pictured above. Except that every time I go into Tim Horton's to get one they don't have what I'm looking for. Sure there are sprinkle donuts but the past two weeks they've been heart sprinkles or the rectangle type of sprinkles. And by golly I want round rainbow sprinkles on my donut. I would also like a good cup of black tea along with my sprinkle donut to balance out the sweetness.

{three}

I'm waiting on some prints I ordered from Etsy and I was just matched with my Galentine's Day swap partner from the Blogging Elite. Which means I've got so much fun mail to receive and send in the next few weeks! It makes me so excited. Mail makes me so very happy!

{four}

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This quote. It speaks to me in a big way. I'm a pack rat, a borderline hoarder and have a lot of difficulty getting rid of anything that has any sort of emotional attachment. Whenever I attempt to declutter I always justify keeping things by saying one of two things: "I might need this someday" or "I can't get rid of that because...*insert random memory*". Which, for some things is crazy, I am definitely going to make it a goal to be more intentional and serious about decluttering in the coming months. 

{five}

Thursday we had a potluck at work. I made honey garlic chicken and was pleased with the outcome and nervous about I was going to transport the chicken to work. I put the chicken laying flat on the floor of the passenger side of my car and it made it safely into town without problem. Parking at work is a bit of a nightmare. It's all on street parking and with the snowbanks piled as high as they are it takes some manoeuvring to get close to the curb (snowbank) so that you don't get a mirror taken off by a passing car and also not so close that you get stuck in a snowbank. So I parked...and then I realized I had to get the chicken out.  I was optimistic at first and thought maybe I could squeeze between the snow bank enough to open the passenger door but upon further inspection there was no way that was happening. I knew what I had to do. Somehow I needed to get the chicken across the seats without tipping the foil pan and spilling sauce all over my seats. I think we all know where this story is going...made it safely over the passenger seat...did not make it over the drivers seat. Honey Garlic sauce puddle right in the middle of the driver's seat. Of course I didn't have time to clean it because I was standing on the side of the street and I had to go to work. Eight hours later I drove home sitting on a grocery bag but turned my heated seats on out of habit. 

If anyone has any advice on getting honey garlic sauce out of upholstery and/or get the smell of garlic out of my car I am all ears.  

Career Advice

I'm keeping things simple for today's Blog Every Day in May Challenge. My advice is this:

Figure out what you love and then figure out a way to make money doing it.

It makes me so sad (and annoyed/frustrated) when I hear people (especially people around my age) say things like "I guess I'll do education and be a teacher, I don't know what else to do with an English degree" or "I don't really like engineering, but I'm going to make a lot of money." and the one that makes me cringe the most, "I really wanted to study art, but there's no jobs with that and my parents wouldn't let me, so I'm going to be a nurse because I'll be guaranteed a job out of university." I realize that not everybody knows exactly what they want to do and interests might change along the way. But the reality is that in this day and age your career is a big part of who you are, you're going to be doing it for a while. Why spend all that time doing something you don't like? 

You might not make a ton of money doing what you love (I am pretty confident I will not achieve millionaire status working at camp), but as long as you live within your means (something our society is pretty awful at) why not spend your life doing what you love? There are so many options out there that with a little bit of creative thinking and hard work I truly believe that everybody can find a job that they love.

Trust Me, I'm An Expert...?

Today's "Blog Every Day in May" Challenge is to educator my reader(s) about something I know a lot about. I think just about the only thing I know a lot about is camp but I'm not sure how my knowledge of soothing homesick campers and living with your co-workers for 3 months without bloodshed is of use to anyone else.

Also, the finale of Big Brother Canada is coming on and I need to focus all my attention on that and not blogging. 

The End.