Crystal the Artist

10 Practical Things You Should Know During Personally Difficult Times 1. Your limitations of what you can do to help improve the situation. 2. Your personal boundaries of what you can tolerate and offer others. 3. Your weaknesses so you can know where you will need the most help. 4. Your strengths so you grow in your self confidence. 5. Your mental, emotional, spiritual, social, physical, financial needs so you can remain nourished. 6. Your bad coping strategies so you can avoid doing the things that will deplete your strength. 7. Your support people so you are not carrying the burden alone. 8. Your community resources so you can maintain your self sufficiency. 9. Your healthy hopes and goals for the situation so you can keep aiming towards improvement. 10. Your worth and value because you are something amazing.

Beautiful, tender, warrior, Wearing battle scars like ornate jewelry, Bought with your countless and priceless tears. Beautiful, tender warrior, Embracing your sadness, embracing your sorrow, Not backing down in weakness and constantly challenging your fears. Oh, beautiful, tender, warrior, You make music from life’s highs and lows, Each note unraveling an enchanted story, Beautiful, tender, warrior, Don’t stop feeling, believing, being, Don’t stop needing, seeking, exploring, Living and finding your glory. Oh, beautiful, tender, warrior, You are loved, sought, and seen, Held in the mighty grasps of a fighter Beautiful, tender, warrior, Cast down your burdens, unravel the madness  Trade in your weight for something lighter. Beautiful, tender, warrior, Full of compassion, boundless, free Eyes straight ahead and feet right on track Beautiful, tender, warrior, Follow your soul’s yearning Deep into the unknown and never, not once, ever look back.

  Winter frost, Preserving life beneath. The chill cannot hold you captive. The sun speaks a language, Your heart can hear. Whispering its warmth to you, Inside you radiate. Your delicate encapsulation, It grows too faint. Life meets life, Heat on flame. You are alive. Trembling, Your ready soul, Shaking, Dripping, The earth receives its blessing, A refreshing dew, A trickling promise of life anew. Drop by drop, The soil drinking, Replenished, Full, Feeding- You, A child of hope, A recipient of grace, A wonderous beauty, Held in magnificent light, In bloom, Alive, A miracle.

My heart on the line here, laying it all down, walking into the garden, stepping into the presence of God, acutely aware of His wondrous Grace, His magnificent love. Here, I stand at peace, here my heart is still, here my spirit is alive, in awe, in love, at rest. Nothing else holds me like the beauty and strength of His embrace. There is no shame here. There is no fear. There is no worry at my rough edges. All I see and feel and know is Him. Meet me here in His presence. Let Him join our hearts as one.

Can you make the song bird sing She fell from flight with a broken wing Upon falling, her heart was broke Your lovingkindness, her spirit woke With her wing her heart was mended With your love her sorrow ended Now she chirps as true love waits Now she sings as true love makes her alive and makes her free She is soaring upon the breeze She is dancing through the air On the edge of compassion You'll find her there Over the mountains and desert springs Love awoke and now she dreams On your branch she finds her rest A pounding warmth inside her chest The little chirps, once so small Now she bellows loud for all

There is no greater transformative power than love. Love that waits and restores, accepts and releases. Love that wants to see you bloom, alive and free, unrestrained. Being a recipient of a love like this is humbling. It will break through the toughest of barriers, knock down walls you have built with your bare hands. It makes mountains tremble and mighty oceans roar. And yet, it is gentle. It is redemptive and generous. It will set your soul on fire and leave you with a burning flame. Love is a mighty force that slays. It makes you weak with its graces and full until bursting. You will glow. You will radiate. You will be free. If you find yourself a recipient of this kind of love, bathe in it until you can bear its greatness no more.