It is almost here and it is time to take charge of you!

 

We are just a few days from the turning of a calendar page that will mark the beginning of another New Year. I thought when the calendar turned last year that maybe, just maybe we could breathe a sigh of relief.  I was wrong. I didn't think 2021 could outdo 2020 in shear stress, loss, fear, and plain out jumbling of life - but I was wrong.  I could write a post singularly on the things that went south in my life personally, not to mention so many people I care about, but I am not going to do that.

2022 is my year of hope, celebration, surpassing goals, and seeing personal success.  I am going to focus on what wonderful things I have.  This doesn't mean my life is perfect but it means I am going to find the perfection between the thorns. God has been so very good to me and I often forget that fact,  I am excited about what is to come.

I am going back to why I started blogging. I am going to celebrate life.  That includes my amazing, too good for me, husband. Why he loves me, I don't know but am so blessed he does.  Love after 50 is different and we are still technically newlyweds so I am sure I will share the struggles and triumphs of this season which includes blending families and lifestyles. My husband truly took a withered vine and nursed it back to health and continues to love me daily and helps me grow stronger.  He makes me feel like anything is possible. With him, by the way, his name is David, I have learned to dream and my creative spirit is being watered to life. Things I long had felt I lost the ability to do or the passion to pursue have bloomed and I am not afraid to share without shame. In a past life I was made to feel as if sharing the things that brought me joy was wrong and annoying, but the great thing I have learned is that it doesn't matter because it brings me pleasure.  I will be sharing the creation and evolving of our home and gardens, time with old and new friends, exploring food, entertaining and adventures...not to mention products I have tried, books I have read, life with children who are now young adults, and of course life with 3 big dogs.  Oh...and a liberal dose of fashion, shoes, and skincare/makeup just to round out life.

Transparency is a word I have often used in the blogging world but I am committed to it...the good, the bad, and the ugly - which, when you think about it is truly all part of the beautiful thing we call life.

Ultimately I have realized my greatest gift is that I am a Lifestyle Curator.  My greatest talent is helping to create lives that are not just beautiful on the outside but also the inside in the deepest part of one's heart.  We can have both and they can both be real and transparent.  You can be perfectly put together and have a day that is just off and that is okay. Tears are okay. A messy house is okay.  A beautiful life is one where you can be all those things and continue to strive for peace which is the basis of the ultimate beautiful life.

I love you for taking a few moments to read my words. Your comments mean more than you will ever know. I would very much like for you to leave a comment with your greatest hope for 2022. Let the best be yet to come!

Robby Ott

I feel at a loss as to whether to write this post or not.   I can never make the words do justice to a Godly man and his amazing wife; but I feel the need to share how honored I am to have known Robby Ott and count he and his family as friends.  The kind of love Robby and his family shared was amazing, it wasn't perfect, but it was unfailing.  Robby was like that with most people, really.  He wasn't one to give up on someone. I know, because I saw it in his ministry to my own family.  He stood in the gap for me and my family on more than one occasion, even when he literally didn't have the strength to do so....and his precious wife, she shared him when they were pulled for time in their own family. 

 

Robby's passing a few days ago has me joyous that he is no longer in pain and struggling physically but hurting for those left behind. Our eternal perspective and our earthly hearts don't always walk hand in hand.  I was awed on Sunday,  as his stronger than me wife, spoke of who Robby was...and to watch the poise in which she shared what Robby truly would have wanted us to focus on....Jesus. 

"How can I glorify you today, God?"

~Robby Ott....everyday.

An excerpt from his obituary....

 

Robert Eugene Ott FLORENCE, SC - Rev. Robert Eugene Ott, 40, of Florence, SC, went home to be with his Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, Friday, July 14, 2017, at 6:28 a.m. at the McLeod Hospice House. He fought the good fight, finished the race, and kept the faith after a five-year journey with colon cancer. He entered into his eternal reward surrounded by family. Robby was born April 3, 1977, in North Charleston, SC. He was a graduate of Goose Creek High School, where he was a drum major, and developed a passion for the tuba. He graduated from Charleston Southern University with a degree in Youth Ministry. During college, he surrendered his life to full-time ministry and was ordained on July 7, 1998. Robby loved Jesus, his family, the Gamecocks, music, and golf. He was the pastor at The Garden Church of Florence. Robby was a gifted preacher of God's word, and he ministered and brought glory to Christ throughout his life. Robby and his wife, April, were married for 18 years, but he claimed to have loved her his entire life....