Looking Back, Planning Ahead

Taken as a whole, 2012 was, without a doubt, the single most stressful year of my life, beginning even at the tail end of 2011. At times, things have even approached horrifying. I won't explain. But I have learned 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 well this year---

                                Rejoice always,
                                    pray continually,
                                        give thanks in all circumstances;
                                            for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

Praying continually- oh boy have I been practicing that one! I've experienced a new kind of commitment to my Savior, a trusting commitment, a "leap into the iar expecting to be caught" kind of trust. Is my faith a crutch? You bet, because otherwise I don't think I could stand. The past four months in particular have been brutal and yet "praying without ceasing" becomes easier.

We still have some uncharted roads ahead of us but I truly am thankful that we will not travel alone. God has already mapped the way for us.



In light of all the hoopla the past few months, I'm going to be taking a more relaxed approach to this blog. I know, by the looks of the recent posts one would think I have already relaxed. OK, maybe so but this is official notification of my new relaxed blogging style. This blog, regardless of how much I love it, is a hobby. The Butterfly Jungle is my place to fool around and explore the surprises and "coolness" of life. I've backed up, re-evaluated, and re-established goals and expectations for the blog. Those goals and expectations are mine alone and while I honestly do appreciate each visitor to the jungle, I've let go of counting stats, exploring how to increase visitors, worrying about how long it's been since my last post. I'll get to it when I get to it but right now there are more important things in life for me to attend to than my hobbies.

(I was going to insert a photo here but seem to be unable to upload photos right now for some mysterious reason. Pretend that you see the most gorgeous photograph ever.)

There have been topics on the past that I did not post on because I felt that they wouldn't appeal to a mass audience. There have been topics that I wanted to do but felt that "no one is blogging for those issues. There have been obscure, geeky topics that I felt might be too nerdy. POOF! No longer care about those hang-ups. What you see is what you get and while I would love for you to come traipsing through the underbrush of the jungle of life with me and see what we can flush out, this is not a professional, powerhouse blog that's going to change your life, give you daily inspiration, make you a better cook, or show you how to make museum quality crafts for $1 each. It's my hobby, a place for me to flex my puny little creative muscles and to explore whatever it is that I want to explore no matter how weird or geeky it may actually be. If you find things you enjoy- awesome. If you give me the boot and never come back to the jungle, I'll be sorry about that but I'll understand.

SO--- I'll be thrilled if you hack your way back into the jungle. We're full into homemade bird suet production around here and I'll share my recipe with you next time. Honestly, our birds go nuts for it.

(Pretending again- the second most gorgeous photo you've ever seen.)

 

Best wishes and peace to you all, my beloved butterflies, for a Happy New Year.