Created/Creative/Creator

Whilst vacationing with my wonderful family 

in Arizona last week,

I spent some time with my ever so artistic Aunt Linda. 

She makes the most beautiful quilts. 

It was so pleasant to sit with her and listen 

as she shared about quilting and crafting and creating. 

Each of these processes requires so much

love

and a deep appreciation for

beauty. 

When I came back home, 

I decided to buy some yarn and crochet some hats.

Then I started making headbands...

I love the yarn that I bought

{even though it's almost camouflage-y}

I feel a snatch like a hippy 

but

curly hair seems to be all about being loose and fancy free

and sometimes it needs to be tamed by a headband. 

It is just ever so fun to use

the mind and hands and glimmer of creativity

that God has blessed me with

to actually create something. 

I love finishing a project like this and then 

pausing

to look at it, really study it.

This may sound ever so silly...

but these moments of 

pure delight

that I feel when I make something

cause me to look at the world differently.

God must have been so stinkin' stoked

as he created the earth. 

His delight in his creation of everything,

especially his people,

must be so incredibly vast. 

It makes it a little easier to understand

how He delights in me. 

I am his created one.

"When I consider your heavens,

the work of your fingers,

the moon and the stars,

which you have set in place,

what is mankind that you are mindful of them,

human beings that you care for them?"

Psalm 8:3-4

{thoroughly delighted is this Maddy-heart}

Echolocative Joy

Dolphins make little clicky sounds 

so that they can gain their bearings

and understand their surroundings. 

Their happy clicks bounce off of objects 

and then come back and hit their foreheads. 

This process is called echolocation.

{Isn't that silly? How much God must have been smiling as he created those little guys!!!}

I like that they require the presence of other things to survive. 

Otherwise they would loudly stumble

their little ways through the ocean.

I feel like there has been an abundance of joy within my spirit as of latel. 

I'm learning that I experience joy in the

 greatest capacity

 as I get to share it with others. 

Joy stuck inside of me tends to get a snatch explosive. 

Therefore, I thrive off of

 these moments 

when I get to share my joy. 

I feel like a dolphin. 

Letting out my joy.

((usually in the form of many many words and the occasional squeallygiddy dance

I imagine that dolphins would be the best choreographers of dance if they were land animals))

I delight in watching my joy bounce off of the people around me. 

Seeing the beauty of joy rooted in Christ that encourages others, 

rather than joy that is centered around me. 

That is hard business. 

I admit, sometimes

 I like just reveling in my own joy, 

but that is stanky and selfish. 

I desire to intentionally share my joy to encourage the spirits of others.

Because when it encourages others it always has

a

way

of

coming

back. 

It bounces off of the people around me and hits me in the forehead. 

Or the heart to be more exact. 

((joyful dolphin-hearted is this Maddy girl))

Bird Poop Joy

Today was a longathon kind of day. 

I walked back from dinner and just as I entered my dorm, 

I felt some icky stuff on my hand. 

It was yellow and wet and blobby and I realized that it was on my shoulder too. 

BLEH!!! 

It looked like mustard...or bird doopy. 

In that moment, I kinda realized that I had a choice to make. 

It felt like it could have been the thing to push me over the edge.

Or I could try to let it roll off my back. 

So I decided to try to make it positive...

and here-aaaaa are the ways that it brought me joy: 

1. it provided fodder for conversation with some of the girls on my floor I don't know well...

girls bond oh so well over bird poop moments

2. it was yellow...which is one of my favorite colors

3. it was yellow...which matched my wallet 

4. it motivated me to change my clothes so that I can go work out later

5. it made me appreciate the fact that there aren't more birds everywhere that doopy on me all the time 

((joyful and [now] clean maddy-laddy))

I've Got the Joy Down in My Heart...and Exploding Through My Fingertips

Oh my goodness.

It's another one of those incredible days.

The extremely explosively joyful ones that involve a lack of ability to communicate.

I need an emotional popsicle again.

God has created to me to very much thrive off of being around people.

It has been a good day for extraverted me.

So many rich and deep and beautiful and didactic conversations.

I feel so blessed and overwhelmed and joyful and...

words fail at capturing the sheer elation.

My body is responding with a strong desire to frolic for hours.
((I am thankful for the great people in my life who let me explode
and tolerate my claims to joy every fifteen minutes....)

The morning began with a beautiful service at church 

that perfectly captured the grandness of God's word and 

the Holy Spirit's involvement in the lives of His people.

I spent a relaxing and full lunch hour with dear

friends in rich conversation

about how we relate to people

and the way that God has created and taught

us each to do that in different ways.

A pineapple pursuit brought me to the grocery store

where I had an encouraging conversation with the lady rang me up 

((who is a Christian))

and felt blessed in blessing her.

I spent a grand hour with my good friends Deb, Allison, Kelly and Alicia.

Wonderful women whom I have grown close to throughout my life.

The evening ended with a glorious time at the Cheesecake Factory

for some fabulous dessert and solid fellowship with

my Torrey group.

Dear friends who have become my family in the last LONG months.

There are like fifty synonyms for joy and none of them are sufficing. 

I feel like it's a little taste of heavenly joy...

ultimately indescribable...

so rooted in the work of Christ in my life...

and the beauty of the people he has placed in it.

((joyxplosive is this heart))