Skip to main content

New Again

 

photo copyright Jubilee Young 2022

 New is hard no matter what it is. New is a change, perhaps a shift in what we were expecting, and at the very least, it is a shift in what normal is. I quit my job at Paxton. I do better in different environments, and I am glad I realized this. It is not easy, but in finding what I should say “no” to, I have found what matters.

They say, and it’s true, that for everything you say “yes” to, there is something you are saying “no” to. The best productivity advice says, instead of first choosing what you are going to do for the day, you should choose something to say “no” to. Prioritizing life comes from choosing what to say “no” to. Well, that might be easy for other people.

I just did it. I decided, among other factors, that I prioritize writing in my life, and the way the job was working made it so I could not prioritize it how I should. Writing is part of my passion in life, and it is important that I pursue it. I have made writing a job, a ministry, a hobby, and an aspiration, and it shapes what I know, how I express myself, and the connections I make with people. 

Of all the new things in my new of moving back home, writing is the constant I look forward to. I look forward to chronicling renovating the single-wide I will eventually move into, new writing projects, and other things that come up in life. For now I will bring life back to a new normal, and I will go from there. A new starting point begins the moment a new goal is pursued.  


Comments

  1. Ann TeldererMay 27, 2023 at 8:33 PM

    Amen, Jubilee! I totally get this part because it is what music has been for me: "Writing is part of my passion in life, and it is important that I pursue it. I have made writing a job, a ministry, a hobby, and an aspiration, and it shapes what I know, how I express myself, and the connections I make with people. Being a writer is part of my identity." I have stated it this way: "It is not something I do - it is who I am." And as Liz Curtis Higgs, one of my favorite author/speakers says, "If you don't do you, who will?"
    Also, I love "A new starting point begins the moment a new goal is pursued."

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

God's Smile

  I rarely gasp. Almost never am I surprised to the extent of an involuntary exclamation. Excitement comes in the form of a slight flutter or pounding of my heart, a smile or grin on my face. I have never heard myself gasp in pleasant surprise until the other night. I walked down the flights of stairs to the ground level. I was met with the balmy evening air—balmy though it was February. The sky was dark; the stars were out. I turned my head and saw the moon and gasped aloud. A perfect crescent, almost as small as it gets, but the full moon was outlined in the shadow. Above the moon were two bright stars. I could not see many other stars, just the two above the moon. And then the sky. It was not black, but a deep, deep blue that faded into the horizon. As picturesque as the full moon in autumn. Why did I care? I was on my way to a book study meeting, and I had just left my knees, where I told God how I forget too easily. Recently I had been questioning why God cares so mu...
Post a Comment
Read more

Finding Life

       Life is never predictable, but the goodness of God is. Life will throw you curve balls, but the grace of God will catch them while you get there. Life may splinter into a million shards, but the Rock of our Faith will hold us when everything else falls apart. Dreams may shatter, but the presence of God will become tangible so we know His love is not a dream. The peace of God is greater than the roar of present circumstances. The mercy of God is stronger than our frail, human faith. The blessings of God are present and animate when life seems to have taken a bad turn. To find God in the moment I must LIVE IN THE MOMENT.           This is not a cliché. It is a possible reality. Living in the moment means telling God when I am afraid. It is responding to His touch, even when His touch seems painful. Living in the moment is allowing God to restore, allowing God to bring His healing when I still want to struggle. It is allo...
4 comments
Read more

Startling Realizations

          Procrastination is not my problem. I get things done by the due dates, and I start working on them a few days before they're due. I don't like to wait until the last minute, in fact I hate when I have to. This was all true until I listened to a talk on procrastination. The person said he had a "PhD" in procrastination and was a professional at it. He talked about things I have always known, things I had read about, but another part stood out to me, convicting me as a criminal.          I procrastinate! The things I procrastinate about aren’t just tasks, they are minutes. I don’t want to get out of bed yet. I’m not going to tidy my room today. I’ll just leave that piece of important mail there. I’ll wait another day to deposit my check. I can respond to that text or email in another day. It’s not urgent (or simple). With all that, I ruin my life.           On a task basis, I have two articles d...
Post a Comment
Read more