imago Dei

i want to live my life how i wear my clothes
with reckless abandon to be whoever i want to be that day
- however i want to be that day.

i want to live in a way as to inspire something unlike any other
because i am something unlike any other.

i want to flit around my house in a gown when i don't plan to go anywhere at all
just because i want to.
i want to live the life of grand adventures in ball gowns and rain boots if the day so requires it. {and maybe even if it doesn't.}

there's something about paradoxical juxtapositions that i love. 
something about wearing a fancy dress to lounge around and watch a movie,
something about wearing glasses just because they help me think,
something about a fancy skirt with sneakers,
something about seeing the world how i was created to see it.

and yet. 

some people don't see the fun behind the sequin pants. 
some people don't understand wearing a magical skirt to sit in front of your computer and spin yarns.

we are not fully understood by those around us.

this doesn't mean we should try to silence the calling placed on our hearts.

this doesn't mean we are worth less just because the other wooden people give us dots.

after all punchinello - the carpenter carved you with love and care.

my daughters love wearing dresses and "make-ups."

they love dressing up and letting their imaginations run wild. 

why don't we?

when did we lose this?

where did it go?

sometimes - or maybe almost always - we forget how to dream. 
we forget how to imagine.
we forget how to create out of our truest self. 
we have lost our way.

some of the sanding down of our rough edges allows us to better interact with people and have truer relationships. 
but sometimes people gouge us and remove bits of us with their words. 

and with their actions.

sometimes we forget who we were made to be because we let other voices crowd out the voice of our maker. 

we forget that he sees us, truly. that he knows the depths of us. that he loves us anyway.

we think we must only be the parts we can see in the mirror. we make and remake ourselves all the while missing the mark of who we were made to be because we forget to consult our maker. 
too often i'm a knife trying to act like a spoon and wreaking havoc everywhere i go. i've been worn down and blunted by the world, but still i cannot scoop how a spoon should. 

God doesn't create anything but miracles. 
you are miraculous. 

soak that in - marinate in it.

you are one of his miracles.

anyone that holds a newborn baby in their arms and realizes that child is a whole and complete person in a teeny tiny package has heard the call of the creator even if they do not heed his voice.

so let's dance in the rain. adventure in the woods. make the music video.
write the poem and the book. {and the book of poems}
paint the painting. draw the world inside of your head.
God is a creator God, and we are made in his image. 

we are made to create. to make. to inspire one another toward more. more than this.
the american dream will let you down. any dreams that stay grounded are not dreams at all, but simply thoughts. thoughts of the uninspired. 
peel back. drill down. stop trying to do the things only in the ways that make sense. 

i don't understand what it means to be a writer on the side

like somehow you can push, pull, or hide 

that part of you at will.

i'm all in or all out.

that doesn't make me good. 

we cannot throw paint on a canvas and call it a masterpiece. 

we are called to create, yes.

but we are called to create with excellence. 

to push to the deepest depth.

to resonate in a way that is nothing but true.

scrape out the lies trying to hold on.

edit ruthlessly.

refine it in the fire.

don't just write and leave it.

don't just paint the base.

don't just sing the song.

but persevere and create.

work.

push for more.

not to make yourself anything.

not to earn your worth.

but because you are capable of more.

you are a child of God.

i am drawn to beauty

but not merely something pretty

there must be some depth and interest

and more than the surface.

dimensions make it real.

stop making yourself rigid in ways you were never meant to be. 

stop staring into the windows of other people's lives.

turn around.

look at the wide world you live in.

live your own life in the way that only you can live it because you were not made to be anyone but yourself.

call out to the depths of other people.

lean into the imago Dei in you that you may see the imago Dei in them.

xoxo