Recently, I watched a documentary about all the STUFF humans waste- oceans filled with trash, tons of technology, and mountains of discarded debris. Marketing can manage our moods! God, I don’t need any more stuff. I’m stuffed with all that I NEED. Your table is long, Lord. It accepts us ALL. Pull up a chair, friends. Let’s talk about the stuff that matters!
Happy Thanksgiving, family and friends. Do you know how loved you are and how thankful I am for you?💛🍁
Thank you, Lord, for your blessings on me! 🎶Missouri Fall~ KL Hale
May your day be STUFFED with blessings, peace, and LOVE. 💛
Embracing imperfection with faith, flannel, & fresh air
Was it the salt water or the oceans of tears I tasted? “I’m so insignificant,” I thought, as my toes sank into the sand. Confusion, doubt, and diagnoses were once rip currents. Just as the Spirit cools the heat and humidity of humanity, the gusts and breezes off the Atlantic coast washed me with relief. God’s love and grace overcame my dry, hot spirit like the powerful waves that left me weightless. An indescribable love (like that for my children) cleansed me. Without strain, my eyes witnessed infinity along the horizon. “I love you to infinity and beyond” was my soul’s song.
Tides were turning.
When my emotions rise and fall, like the tides with gravitational pulls, may the SON and the miracle of the Moon remind me of our Creator. Christ who makes the impossible, possible. Whether you’re hiking a mountain or climbing an obstacle, standing at the ocean or in a grocery line, lying in a hammock or in a hospital bed, you are significant to Christ. YOU MATTER. YOU ARE LOVED.
K.L. Hale
Goodbye, summer. Hello, fall. Friends, may your tides turn in ways that give you peace, good health, and happiness. I’m flannel with faith, and a bit of salt and fresh air, all mixed with love and gratitude for each of you.
Have faith 💙
Have you heard of NET, yet?🦓
Last Thursday I tested positive for Covid. My head felt like it was going to explode. My body ached. The trip? Was it worth it? Is ANY of this worth it? YES! “For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love, and self-discipline.” 2 Timothy 1:7 (NIV).
When I was approached by my dear friend from college about taking me on a trip, I was hesitant. I’ve had my hiking tribe in the past accompany me. I’m very protective on solo short trips. Every detail of my life requires discernment. Dread is not an option (or, in honor of visiting Kennedy Space Center, “Failure is not an option.”). My hesitation was dissolved by our humor. Off to Florida, we flew.
In November, I’ll return to the National Cancer Institute for more scans. Until then…I’ll use wisdom and take it one day at a time. Because I’m a life-long learner, I’ve learned new software and attended training. As of Friday, I’m an official school substitute. Half-days will be the best for my health (and two a week if possible). My goal is to be here two days a week (in addition to publishing once a week). I’ll be less on my phone and more present in the life in front of me.
Life is risky. I can worry about every pain, blood count, or ache I have. OR…I can…live. Each morning, in meditation, prayer, and worship, I open up my hands and say, “I surrender.” I’ll move when HE says, “Move.” Stop when he says, “Stop.” Rest when HE says, “Rest.” Go when HE says, “Go.”
Tides are turning. What will YOU do with TODAY?
How will you ride out the waves? Are your tides turning? Although there will be weeks I’ll be gone, I’m waving and praying from SW MO.
We love you. Karla & Finley ❣️🐾
Typically, I don’t turn off comments. I’m reserving energy so I can visit your places. Thank you for your understanding.❣️
Let the rivers clap their hands, let the mountains sing together for joy;
Psalm 98:8
He was criticized for abandoning his party. He was fierce competition for the Democrats. Progressive? A bull moose. He was my age when he gave his speech that night in 1912. Theodore Roosevelt spoke of morality, responsibility, and compassion—not of his other opponents. Some say if he couldn’t rule, he would ruin. Injured pride and greed? Was he crazy?
He defied hardships and lost himself in danger. Theodore wasn’t a stranger to loss. On Valentine’s Day, at the age of 25, his mom, Martha, died of typhoid fever. Eleven hours later, his wife, Alice Lee Roosevelt (two days after giving birth to his daughter) died of a kidney disorder. He faced his fears and the frontier. Inconvenience and hard places kept his body and mind free from aches.
Defeats, tragedies, obstacles, and weaknesses only grew his grit. Adventures in the outdoors and willpower quenched Theodore Roosevelt’s thirst for greatness. It wasn’t any surprise to his 2nd wife he would break away again…to a punishing adventure.Punishment through physical challenges or punishment to himself for the pain and loneliness?
“On the banks of the River of Doubt, the same unyielding will and thirst for achievement brought him face to face with the absolute limits of his strength.” (Millard 2005)
“After his humiliating election defeat in 1912, Theodore Roosevelt set his sights on the most punishing physical challenge he could find the first descent of an unmapped, rapids-choked tributary of the Amazon. Together with his son Kermit and Brazil’s most famous explorer Candido Mariano da silva Rondon, Roosevelt faced an unbelievable series of hardships: they lost their canoes and supplies to punishing whitewater rapids, and endured starvation, attacks, disease, drowning, and a murder with their own ranks. In the end, three men would die, and Roosevelt would be brought to the brink of suicide, but the expedition accomplished a seemingly impossible feat, and changed the map of the Western Hemisphere forever.” (Millard 2005)
“Who hears the rippling of rivers will not utterly despair of anything.”
Henry David Thoreau
For those of you familiar with President Roosevelt’s life, you might know of the tragic death of his son, Kermit (who accompanied him on this river trip). I was once in despair. It’s not that I didn’t want to be HERE. Just not in pain. Mental Health is not a disease. It is part of all of us. What flows through us and gives us hope? How do we face challenges and ride the rapids? How can we recognize the need for utter relief and build resiliency?
Resilience is the residency of Christ in my heart. The rapids we face are the battles for our hearts.💛
Days of floating the Ozarks’ rivers flow through my soul. Tranquil tributaries turned to raging rapids at times. The gushes and torrents were tough teachers. My resolve to rally runs like rivers. Droughts will deplete. Rainfall replenishes. Floods forge with my faith. Rivers rally my resilience. There’s healing in hard times-continued creek crossing despite crisis.
When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you…Isaiah 43:2
“The life of God is described in scripture as a river–a powerful, gorgeous, unceasing, everrenewing, ever-flowing river.” (Eldridge 13).
“When you do things from your soul, you feel a river moving in you. A joy.” Rumi
Our Creator can calm currents. His love and grace will flow freely through the tributaries of your heart. 🩷
May the river of life from God flow in and through us and take residency of our hearts.
K.L. Hale
I will make rivers flow on barren heights, and springs within the valleys. I will turn the desert into pools of water, and the parched ground into springs. Isaiah 41:18
“Love is the river of life in the world.” Henry Ward Beecher
“Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it.”
Norman Maclean, American author, from “A River Runs Through It” (1976).
“You drown not by falling into a river, but by staying submerged in it.” – Paulo Coelho, Brazilian author, from “The Alchemist” (1988).
Pics by K.L. Hale–rivers in the U.S.A.
‘”The river has great wisdom and whispers its secrets to the hearts of men.”
