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Jean Marie Bauhaus

Multipassionate Freelance Writer and Speculative Fiction Author

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May 13, 2009 by Jean Marie Bauhaus

Protected: This Old Haunt – Part Eleven

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This is the prettiest time of year for this property, and the time I start wishing we could buy this place and stay here forever. Of course, ask me again how I feel about it in the middle of summer when we're having to constantly mow all that acreage in 90+ degree humidity. 😂 #ozarks #countrylife

Pulled out my spring and summer capsule wardrobe. Working on washing and putting away all the winter clothes. #itsaspringthing #project333

All the blooms are purple. Also, I live on the porch now. Please forward my mail. #itsaspringthing

Amen.

Spring is springing! 🌻

I made a headband / ear warmer because you can never have enough of those. No pattern - I made it up as I went, and only had to frog it once. 🐸 #amknitting #knittingjoy #stashbuster #knittersofinstagram

It's been a very productive week of writing, but now I'm fried. I'm just going to sit here and stare out at the woods for a while. Happy Friday, everyone!

Saved at a very young age, I clung to the knowledge that Jesus loved me and quickly learned to be a prayer warrior. God was my refuge and my helper. And despite all the bad, He seemed to protect me from the truly awful—or at least that was my perception at the time. Like a frog in boiling water, I had a deadened sensibility to what constituted truly awful. Still, I clung to my convictions that God was my protector. Even through my tormented twenties, as I battled what I didn’t know at the time was severe depression and drifted with no real sense of direction, drifting even from the Church, still He kept me tethered, kept me close to harbor, kept me from floating too far to make my way back to shore Read more of this month's A Quiet Life on Substack at the link in my profile.

Today is dreary and cold so here's a #latergram from Sunday when it was so warm and sunny this very confused bush started putting out blossoms.

This morning, my husband entered my office to share something he'd come across online that he knew I'd think was cool and would want to know about. But he caught me in the middle of praying, and my response to the interruption was less than gracious. Don't you love it when our sin natures crop up while we're in the middle of praying or doing something spiritual? Later, I sought him out to apologize (ironically, I interrupted him while he was in the middle of Bible study; his response was far more gracious than mine). I told him I never want to make him feel like he's bothering me when he has something to tell me. I never want to make ANYONE feel like they're bothering me if they interrupt me. But this is a work in progress. For far too long, my response to interruptions has been anger or irritation. Supposedly, it takes us 23 minutes to get our focus back after an interruption or distraction, and I tend to have focus issues anyway. So for much of my life I guarded my focus time jealously and resented anyone or anything that detracted from it. But that's not how we're supposed to be as Christians. Jesus certainly wasn't that way. He was highly interruptible. He got interrupted constantly, and he never responded with less than grace, giving his full attention to the source of the interruption. Some of the greatest moments and lessons of Jesus' ministry came out of interruptions. He never once lost his cool over being interrupted or made someone wait while he completed his planned task and found a time to work them in. He dropped everything for the person right in front of him and met their immediate need. That's how I want to be. I want to be interruptible, to put people ahead of my plans, to see interruptions as divine appointments and opportunities to love and serve. Clearly, it's still a work in progress, but I'm getting better at it. Interruptions are GOING to happen. We don't get a choice about that. But we get to choose how we respond. ❤️

First time I've seen the sun in over a week. 🙌

~Take Swift Action~ . At some point a couple of weeks ago, this phrase popped into my head, and has become something of a mantra that has been helping me actually do things instead of overthinking, overanalyzing and talking myself out of following through on new ideas. . I used to be a lot more impulsive when it came to implementing my creative ideas. Sometimes that got me into trouble, but it also led to some pretty amazing things. . But then that impulsive streak got me into some big trouble that led to a lot of pain and fallout, and I've been a lot more careful ever since. Instead of doing the things, I've become someone who journals about the things, prays about the things, thinks about all the ways a thing could go wrong, begs God for a sign telling me He wants me to do the thing, and talking myself out of doing anything. . But I know that's not how it's supposed to work, and I miss that old, impulsively creative version of myself. One of my hopes for this year is to get back some of that impulsivity, albeit balanced with discernment -- after all, if I try to do ALL the things I'll just make myself crazy. . But this little phrase, take swift action, is helping me get past the endless thinking loops to the actual doing. It doesn't necessarily mean I drop everything to do the thing, whatever it is -- sometimes the "swift action" just involves making a note in my bullet journal, or adding it to my to do list, or telling someone my intentions. . But those little actions take the thing out of the realm of theoretical possibility to actual goal, at which point I'm far more likely to follow through than if I hem and haw and ask God for permission first to even explore the idea further. . Continued in comments! 👇👇👇

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