Tenacity from Juniper Gillian {Guest Post}

 
For the word of the Lord holds true,
and we can trust everything he does.
(Psalm 33:4 NLT)
 
 
 

It’s hard to believe that April is coming to a close. And to finish off our observance of National Poetry Month, I am happy to share a poem from my sister, Juniper Gillian. What a joy for us to be neighbors after so many years of living apart. She is a tender hearted, tenacious woman.You can read more of her musings at Grounded.


Tender hearted
Energy
Never letting go
All out
Caring
In
The
Yearning

2013. Copyright. All Rights Reserved. Juniper Gillian.

Relevant: Having Significant and Demonstrable Bearing on the Matter at Hand

There is only one thing worth being concerned about.
Luke 10:42a NLT
 
 

Last Thursday, I was asking questions about blogging. Basically, my questions distilled down to this one question: How relevant is blogging?

I haven’t come to a conclusive answer, but my recent adventures blogging here and researching other blogs and bloggers, and taking a blogging seminar at the Daybreak Women’s Conference this past Saturday seem to be pointing to a two-fold answer:

Community and Purpose

Women are looking for community, a place to share ideas, struggles and answers that resonate with them. By blogging, women are finding a voice and purposing to encourage others to find their voice, too.

So far, my journey seems somewhat serendipitous. I decided to blog a few years back because it was a way to share my musings with my friends, and hopefully a few other readers out there. I was sporadic.

After months, a significant vacation and time set aside to contemplate my vocation, I have returned to blogging. A place where a writer can write and where readers can read.

While exploring this new frontier, Lynn D. Morrissey, has been like a scout, forwarding me blogs that she finds significant. I would go check them out. One day I came across Jumping Tandem. I read a side blog about cairns. I kept seeing her site referred to by others. And then one day she invited the blog community to DREAM.
 

Jumping Tandem: The Retreat
 

 

 

 

 

Today, I signed up to go on this retreat in April 2013 to further explore the purposes of blogging and meet some of the community in person. Three reasons that I’m going:

As soon as I read about it, my spirit was quickened and I felt INVITED by God.

I told my sister, Gillian, aka Juniper Gillian, about it and she jumped at the opportunity. I checked my email this morning and she had already registered.

I met another blogger in person at the Daybreak conference this weekend. Mary Carver, who happens to be part of this same community. She writes at her own blog and (in)courage.(Small world, even in the blogosphere)

A third purpose of blogging in this particular community is to uplift the name of Jesus. I want to choose the good portion. To sit under His teaching, and then invite others to join me through this place of feeding on words…and the main entrée: His WORD.

The Sovereign Lordhas given me an instructed tongue,to know the word that sustains the weary.
He wakens me morning by morning,
wakens my ear to listen like one being taught.
Isaiah 50:4 NIV
 
 
You feed them from the abundance of your own house,
letting them drink from your river of delights.
For you are the fountain of life,
the light by which we see.
Psalm 36:8-9 ESV

 

 

 

Thrilling Guest Thursday: Juniper Gillian

Lately, I’ve been thinking about the purpose of a blog. Is it for encouragement? To share God’s Word and God Stories? Or is it a place to publicly journal and share photos? Do I blog for me or for an audience? I haven’t come to a conclusion, but I do know that the blogosphere has great potential. Potential to share our hearts, express with words what our lives are about and how life impacts us.

Today, I want you to meet one of my sisters. One of my mother’s daughters. I have many spiritual sisters, but only three flesh and blood sisters, who each share in the spiritual with me.

Here is Juniper Gillian, aka Jill. I am going to link you to her post about her new name and her awakening, which is beautiful to behold. Sometimes this world tries to make us go back to sleep. This is my challenge to Juniper Gillian to stay awake, because she has so much life to live and she makes this world a beautiful place to share.

Juniper Gillian

I just thought of another reason for blogs…they are storehouses of our musings. Often I just read the post of the day on the blogs that I follow. However, archived posts can be a depository of literary gems. The following links take you back to some posts that JG wrote while in Scotland, as well as more recent ones. I am not just bragging on my sister, but she has a style that resonates. I look forward to more of her offerings in the future.

Tomato Cage Love
Grounded
Shades of Grey (The blog she kept while in Scotland, I definitely reccommend digging through the archives to mine some valuable gems…such as “The Community of the Coal” and “Elemental“)

Oh yeah, another purpose of blogs…to share our lives through snapshots. Here are some glimpses of our recent camping adventure with JG and her brood.

playing checkers on the boat

campfire circle on our own sandbar

my own “Ernest Hemingway”

Intuition beached next to the campsite
 
mama and boy
 
our own “Patriot”