Collecting things

I’m a collector.  I think I was just born with this innate trait wired into my being.  As long as I can remember I have been collecting things, grouping things, gathering things.  Candy tins were a big one in my youth; I bet I have over 100 candy tins (think funky altoid-types) stored away somewhere.  One day I might cover a whole wall with them. :)  You think I’m joking, but seriously the list of things I collect (or should I say ‘have collected’, as my husband would correct) could go on and on.

Probably some of my favorite things to ‘collect’ are quotes, poems, phrases, prose, scripture, and lyrics that speak deeply to me.  I have quite a few journals full of little bits and phrases that I picked up here and there that have helped me through a season or that have spoken deeply to my soul.

Below are a few that have really stuck out to me during this graduate wife journey and in lieu of the second birthday of the blog I though I’d share them.   Quite a few I gathered here from your stories or ones that you have shared with me.  Hopefully some will inspire you today. Maybe they will end up tapped to your mirror or tucked away in your heart to pull out for encouragement when needed.  Do you have any to add?  -M.C.

• “Stop the glorification of BUSY.”

• “Chose the person you want to love, and spend the rest of your life learning how to love them.” –Ingrid Trobisch

• “Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go and do it. Because what the world needs is more people who have come alive.” –Howard Thurman

• “There is no telling how many miles you will have to run while chasing a dream.”

• “Don’t waste your pain. Pick yourself up and use it to help others.”

• “For everything, there is a season…” –Ecc. 3

• “Darkness cannot drive out darkness: 
only light can do that. 
Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.” –Martin Luther King, Jr.

• “The task of the modern educator is not to cut down jungles, but to irrigate desserts.” –C. S. Lewis

• “Don’t look for big things, just do small things with great love.” –Mother Teresa

• “Grace has a grand laughter in it.” –Marilynne Robinson, Gilead