Dreaming, thinking, waiting during sleepless nights, restless mornings & wasted days. I see the painted sunset as the bright lit moon appears in the darkened nite sky. Try to sit down, relax & turn on a movie, but I’m already watching one playing in my head! Anxious thoughts & stressful clutter fill my mind throughout the hazy day. Gotta focus, have much to do, but can’t move. Makin a list, checkin it twice, my energy has now been all but used up. Really! Try to sleep, so fatigued & tired, but I keep seeing sugar plums dancing in my head?! Wait… what?! Where did that come from? Trauma, drama, anxiety & stress, call it what ya want, it zaps the strength right out of the super men & women that we are. Gotta look at the beauty, not the ashes. See that precious lil’ fractured treasure? I found it delicately broken, laying on the burnt ground. Yet when I look at it pieced together again; I see hope… if only for a moment. That gift I was given by a stranger, gives me joy for this mourning & grief. Oh… that sweater my friend just gave me. This’s my garment of praise & thanksgiving for a new day. These are the things I must fix my thoughts on right now; that which is true, honorable & right. That which is lovely & admirable. I must think about things that are excellent & worthy of praise & thanksgiving. Because I can choose to rejoice in the things that are before me; family & friends, nature & music, love & all that is good in life. Yet what will sustain me when I ponder this thought, is less of what I can see & more of what I can’t. It’s in faith that I believe that God gives me strength; He carry’s me, holds me & brings me thru it. This is my assurance, my hope, the reality I know… that God has not finished in me, the work He began! Philippians 4:8
Painting by: Jim G Peppler
