Guest Post: Reflections

It's Monday and time for a posting from my dear friend @jonolaynie

And without further ado, here she is.

I walked home from a photo shoot through the summer’s evening sun, wondering what I’d write about in this space.

And, this is it- when all is quiet and my soul rests- this is what I remember, what I come back to again and again.

Gratefulness.

Life is hard, days are long. Bills pile high and relationships grow strained. People are messy and discouragement is ever knocking.

We can let every day suck, or we can suck it up and look at the bigger picture.

I may not be able to change the circumstances or people around me, but I can change my attitude, my heart, me.

To tell you the truth, I cried a little today. Alone on my couch and working long hours, I couldn’t see the light, only work, only tiredness.

When I only look in front of me, at all that’s on my plate, I sink down, down, down to depressing spaces. But when I raise my gaze, look just a bit higher and see Him staring back, then-sometimes only then-do I find the strength to face the day. 

So I take a deep breath and still my soul. I breathe in, I breathe out.

And I remember. 

God’s faithfulness, inherent goodness. His nearness and His strength.

Because I know I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. I already have. I’m excited to see more.

And then I can go on. I can face both the dawn and the defeats of today.

So whatever is filling your days, whatever is staring you right in the face, look away, look up.

Sometimes, when all I see are the mountains of mess, of questions, of problems, I take myself away on a walk. And I start my list. “Thank you God for being alive this day. Thank you for the wind, this breeze on my face. Thank you for bare feet in green grass and for faces in the clouds. Thank you for Jonathan, my sister, my friends. Thank you for my healthy today. Thank you for the pancakes this morning and for lunch and dinner too.”

And on goes the list. It’s ridiculous really, how much goodness I have in my life, how little I can see it if I let my gaze go black, to the depths of things.

Kid, He’s got your back and it’s going to be okay. It’s all going to be okay…..And don’t forget to say “Thank you,” with every step along the way.

Layne lives in southern Ontario with her husband Jonathan where they have been running their media company since October 2011.

She graduated from Western Kentucky University in 2005 with a Bachelor’s degree in photojournalism. She interned at newspapers in Indiana and Michigan and has volunteered for PhotogenX since 2009.

Layne co-authored “Act Here. Love Now.,” a culmination of stories, photos and practical ways to impact your own community, city and world. “Act Here. Love Now.” was a finalist in the Multicultural Non-Fiction and Current Events/Social Change categories in the 2012 Next Generation Indie Book Awards. Their business was recently featured on Wedding Chicks, one of the premiere wedding planning sites.