I have a friend who I have known for awhile but have really grown close to over the past few years. I have learned so much from her by watching her be a mom to her three kids and by loving me and my family. She rarely greets my son without telling him she loves him or misses him and continually tells me about girlie things she has seen for Emmie. Our husbands work very closely together so it's nice to have eachother as a sounding board for their work stuff. I remember the day I called her to tell her there was a house down the street from ours for sale and they needed to check it out. I remember climbing through the kitchen window and calling her while describing the vacant house to her over the phone. They bought the house and moved in and I had no idea at the time what a gift God was providing for us. She often takes Rhett for me so I can spend quality time with Emersen or just have a break. My family has been blessed by countless pop bye's to drop off fresh baked cinnamon rolls or chocolate chip cookies. She has a keen sense of knowing what I need before I even know I need it. She truly enriches my life and I love her dearly.

I have tried on numerous occasions to get her to start a blog not because all her friends have one but more because I really think she is a great writer. I have given up asking at this point and supoport her reasons for not having one. However I still think my blogging family would appreciate her writing as much as I do. We have been conversing via email recently about "living in the now." I loved what she had to say about what that means to her and how God is working in her life so much that I thought I should share it with all of you. She may kill me for doing this but read below, I guarantee you will be blessed.

"The whole living in the now thing came out wrong when I said it, and I should have corrected myself. I want to be someone who lives in the now, but I have in no way shape or form mastered the art of doing this. It is something I pray that God will make real in my life. Just like patience. I'm the most impatient person in the world but I feel like God wants to change that. That's how I've seen God work in the past, he changes something that is so far from perfect into the most beautiful and whole part of me. The thing is that when He does this I can't take any of the credit, because it is so obviously not of my own doing. This makes me even more intrigued and excited about the mysterious and powerful side of our God. I have seen little sparks or shimmers of light at times where I just forget about my "to dos" and throw my senisble self in the back seat and go wherever I fell would be most benefitial or memorable in the lives of my kids or my own. A lot of our beach outings are like this. Our house might be a disaster, there is about 15 things on the "needs fixing" list and it would be a very bad decision to waste a lot of gas, but it is a gorgeous day and we only live ones. Running barefoot in the sand in January, collecting hermit crabs and eating half a dozen little Einstein cinnamon & sugar bagels is much more meaningful and "in the now" than another day at the house in East county. These trips have occasionally been ruined by me obsessing over how much efficient time and money we're wasting. If I happen to stop starring in the sand or at my own navel while pouting around and look up, feel the fresh, humid and salty wind in my face I can usually let go. At those times God is in the wind. All of a sudden the sound of my kids laughing and calling loudly for me to see some sea weed castle is less annoying and more musical in nature. I've always found God in nature, maybe because that's where I find peace and my mind stops racing. Maybe one of the tricks to living in the now is to figure out where it is, or what helps you to just stop your mind and be okay just breathing and being rawly alive (I don't mean to spell really - I like the word raw here and don't feel like changing the whole sentence so I made up a word) . Anyway, I'm a work in progress, most days feel like I'm not making any, and my favorite thing about following God is that I don't have to figure everything out by myself anymore and this is a good thing since my navel isn't all that interesting. "

Thanks Ingvild, I'll keep working on it.