oh. please do read.

I’ve learned that no matter what happens, or how bad it seems today, life does go on, and it will be better tomorrow. I’ve learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way he/she handles these three things: a rainy day, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights. I’ve learned that regardless of your relationship with your parents, you’ll miss them when they’re gone from your life. I’ve learned that making a living is not the same thing as making a life. I’ve learned that life sometimes gives you a second chance. I’ve learned that you shouldn’t go through life with a catcher’s mitt on both hands; you need to be able to throw some things back. I’ve learned that whenever I decide something with an open heart, I usually make the right decision. I’ve learned that even when I have pains, I don’t have to be one. I’ve learned that every day you should reach out and touch someone. People love a warm hug, or just a friendly pat on the back. I’ve learned that I still have a lot to learn. I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.

maya angelou

Our Story from Neighborhood Film Co. on Vimeo.

Grace.

“Grace strikes us when we are in great pain and restlessness. It strikes us when we walk through the dark valley of a meaningless and empty life... It strikes us when, year after year, the longed-for perfection does not appear, when the old compulsions reign within us as they have for decades, when despair destroys all joy and courage.

"Sometimes at that moment a wave of light breaks into our darkness, and it is as though a voice were saying: ‘You are accepted. You are accepted, accepted by that which is greater than you and the name of which you do not know. Do not ask for that name now; perhaps you will find it later. Do not try to do anything now; perhaps later you will do much. Do not seek for anything, do not perform anything, do not intend anything. Simply accept the fact that you are accepted.’ If that happens to us, we experience grace."

Paul Tillich, The Shaking of the Foundations

QUESTION: When have you been struck by grace?

dependence: a personal note

i’m the “life-long learner” type. constantly curious and inquisitive. wide-eyed with ears peeked to any new wisdom, insight, or lesson that i’ve not experienced before.

independence has held on with deep roots since my early years. i’ve admired people who appear as if they could do everything on their own if they had to, and i’ve become that type of young lady in many ways. but i’m realizing, through reading the insightful words of a friend and spending time in introspection, that a heart and mind in pursuit of independence can be stifling to my faith, my relationships, and my professional success.

independence and abundant life cannot flourish within the same individual.

i need God, friends, and family to breathe fresh perspective, encouragement, and pure love into me.

seems kind of obvious, right?

of course there is value in doing life with other people.

of course there is value in letting them hold you accountable to your dreams and goals as well as receiving their love and affirmation.

it’s a message i’ve known in my head but not through-and-through in my heart. i’m finally grasping it. and it’s freeing, let me tell you what.

go live WITH people this weekend. tuck your phone away and enjoy face-time with someone. let them in and nurture real, raw community.

art.

Art, like life, is a challenge. It challenges all our resources, mentally and physically. It can’t be predictably created from a linear didactic formula. It eludes methodology, technology, or ritual. It is, like life, more about being human, being vulnerable, being imperfect, and about things unexplainable. It is not a science. Art is about surprise, about the unexpected, about letting go and risking. It is about taking steps towards places where there may not be any footholds, and falling and failing.

– J. Fred Woell

what.

head. ponder. fear of the no. heavy heart. no light at the end. please remember me. Do I hang here holding on for nothing? Or do I hope that one day this emptiness will be filled, my dreams will appear and the worth of that little girl will shine.

Please remember me.

broken.

hands.

raised.



music addiction lately everyone should listen:

in this silence.

I will sit here, drink tea. write lyrics. draw pictures. listen to music and not give up.

live.

(and stretch your comfort zone to demonstrate love more than you typically would)

Nice is Not enough

‘Niceness’ - wholesome, integrated personality - is an excellent thing. We must try by every medical, educational, economic and political means in our power to produce a world where as many people as possible grow up ‘nice’; just as we must try to produce a world where all have plenty to eat. But we must not supposed that even if we succeeded in making everyone nice we should have saved their souls.

A world of nice people, content in their own niceness, looking no further, turned away from God, would be just as desperately in need of salvation as a miserable world- and might even be more difficult to save.

For mere improvement is not redemption, though redemption always improves people even here and now and will, in the end, improve them to a degree we cannot yet imagine. God became man to turn creatures into sons: not simply to produce better men of the old kind but to produce a new kind of man.

It is not like teaching a horse to jump better and better but like turning a horse into a winged creature. Of course, once it has got its wings, it will soar over fences which could never have been jumped and thus beat the natural horse at its own game. But there may be a period, while the wings are just beginning to grow, when it cannot do soL and at that stage the lumps on the shoulders - no one could tell by looking at them that they are going to be wings- may even give it an awkward appearance.

from Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis

Love is there if you want it to be, you just have to see that it's wrapped in beauty and hidden away between the seconds of your life. If you don't stop for a minute you might miss it.....

- today I realized I wanted you to grow old with me.

“the stillness of soul is increasingly rare in this world addicted to speed and noise.”

she rode.

And she rode and rode and rode. As she pedaled, letting the wind and sun steal kisses on her cheek, a funny thing happened. With every pedal forward, every move in one direction, she unleashed the pieces of her past she drug for so long and left them in her wake. So she rode and rode and rode, until the only thing she carried on her shoulders was the weight of the dancing sun.

32.

I'm not trying to give my life meaning
by demeaning you
and I would like to state for the record
I did everything that I could do
I'm not saying that I'm a saint
I just don't want to live that way
no, I will never be a saint
but I will always say

squint your eyes and look closer
I'm not between you and your ambition
I am a poster girl with no poster
I am thirty-two flavors and then some
And I'm beyond your peripheral vision
So you might want to turn your head
Cause someday you might find you're starving
and eating all of the words you said -ad

oh.

“yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. what is your life? for you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. instead you ought to say, ’if the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.’” james 4:14-15

My wish for you this weekend, is that you find rest and comfort in knowing that you - in your beautiful uniqueness - are so deeply loved by our compassionate God.

i know your hands will clap.

blessed are those whose lives unfold in wings, the butterflies, and those whom the moonbeams fall.

"You cannot protect yourself from sadness without protecting yourself from happiness."
— Jonathan Safran Foer

When we long for life without difficulties, remind us that oaks grow strong in contrary winds and diamonds are made under pressure. - Peter Marshall



Lord remind me of this, my heart is empty I am tired and I miss Nashville. I miss a bunch of things and I am questioning some hard topics.

“when you find your completeness in Me, you can help other people without using them to meet your own needs.”

a piece of my brain.

Translucent elderly Butterfly milk drops
Marooned wine bulbs of dusty tulips
The pallid heavens of silk on the milieu
Sanded bulks of rooted eyelashes dipped with the-
Dye of acrylic on a splash of an inkblot
Oceans beseeching amid salty moans
Words coercing slanting suggestions and faction
Holding an hourglass, pocket watch, and a fluid nose
Conclusive of a painting
Butterfly acrylic on a beach with tulips in the backdrop
Elderly man with a love of sand
The painter keenly paints the image
And I tepidly paint the painter

no turning back.

Today I decided this will be my new motto. No turning back. I have been afraid of to many things and I just want to be Brooke. Live life and go for it. I love this.

So I think it’s time I take the time to sit and just listen.

I am here, Lord. What do YOU want me to hear today?

to starve is to feast

less of me

more of jesus.

no place I would rather be.

i am a broken christian.
we all are.
i dwell on things that i shouldn't
i over think things. I make mistakes.
my heart gets heavy, but then it's a night like tonight that i fall to my knees raise my arms in the air and put my trust in our amazing father. "Preserve me, O God, for in You I put my trust." Psalm 16:1 There is no place I rather be!! He knows me, he loves and he has a plan for me. He knows YOU, HE LOVES YOU and HE HAS A PLAN FOR YOU!!
Work/Occupation: I place in God’s hands.

My writing: I place in God’s hands.

Health: I place in God’s hands.

Friendships: I place in God’s hands.

Love: I place in God’s hands.

Travel: I place in God’s hands.

Everything else I can’t think of right now: I place in You-Know-Who’s hands.

sail.

reminder.

“In Him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace.” Ephesians 1:7

“receive My peace abundantly and thankfully” - Jesus


today and every day this should be our prayer!!

Lord I surrender to you

Lord I ask that you give the wisdom that i need to get through this day

allow my heart to open up to what you want me to do not what I want to do, even though that is hard, I ask for strength.

Abba: I belong to you and only you.

adele.

Her lyrics blow me away along with her voice.

coffee.

rochester = a book & coffee plus time to think and write.

one head.
two could be.
one will on a paper.
two can seek.
coffee and cotton.
wool and cream.
one will fall to the bottom.
the others hand to soften.
this everlasting descent.

committed to freedom.

every once in a while i get these reminder emails from a program i attended a few years back. it's funny b/c every time i get the reminders it's a day I need to hear them, it's definitely God speaking directly to me. these were the last two i received, both spoke truth to me as I struggle with the topic that they float around. funny how when you try to run. God finds you.


Brooke,
A Reminder for Your Spirit:
We can safely say that God can bring good out of evil; we cannot say that God brings about the evil in hopes of producing good.
-Philip Yancey
Author: Where is God When it Hurts

Brooke,
A Reminder for Your Spirit:
There is a time for risky love. There is a time for extravagant gestures. There is a time to pour out your affections on one you love. And when the time comes - seize it, don't miss it.
-ML

what do you live for.

i can't wait for this movie to come out.

empty.

last night my roommate's dad paul died. there are no words for the heart ache that is present right now on this earth, but the beauty that is going on in heaven. paul loved jesus so much and we know he is dancing in heaven and sitting with our amazing father. The loss here on earth is so hard, there is this emptiness.....I can only think of Kristin, Nicky and Kathy + family. Lord I ask you to carry them hold them in your arms and guide them. Loss of words right now.


LORD CARRY US. WE NEED YOU TO CARRY US.

love.

I am the paint brush you are the canvas.

i want orange beards
knots in my hair
sweet fruitfull tears
Colorfull patterns
music in my ears
then i lean out in the world,
and grasp

resting in this…


God is good, all the time…and all the time, God is good.

grieving and hope

Meditating on what it means to grieve and resting in Jesus.

Ephesians 4:30–32. Paul says, “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.” And then he names my sins: “Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.”

poison.

“dance with mystery… change is calling out, i can feel it’s breath. my fears are falling down, right to their death. may they rest.”

neon.

Fading neon lights
yellow feelings flashing under the midnight street signs
i have cold sweats in mid november
i am 81 and there are patterns on my head like lady bugs dancing on the chandelier
with spiders trickling down the inwards of my spine
give me good morning kisses
and burnt orange goodbyes
untill the dandelion wine has gone sour
and no one will be around to answer the door

a once courageous heart.

he believes you will understand:

what is imagined is a delicate image within itself,

and you will discover, that what is hidden is really to be found.....

i have the best friends a girl could ask for.

so i have had a crappy few days ok I have had a crappy week and if anyone knows me that is hard to admit (another blog will come about that) so i woke up this morning and one of my favorite people in the world katie collins sent me this email and made me feel so loved and wanted in this world. i seriously have the best friends in the world and i praise God for them every day, i don't know what i would do if they weren't in my life. i might just move to chicago....

Top 10 reasons you should move to Chicago stat:

1.) I live here. ...no brainer right?!
2.) Missio Dei is the real deal. Full of real people with real vulnerability and real passion for God. All my friends would love you!
3.) We could be roommates or flatmates or housemates or matey mate pirate mates!
4.) We can laugh into the wee hours of the night until snot drips out our noses and tears pour out of our eyes.
5.) The Midwest is Best. No joke. Midwesterners are no nonsense with theirs heads on there shoulders. Rugged types with strong sense of community and respect.
6.) Lake Michigan! Yeah boi! Where else can you join the Lakeview Polar Bear Club or ride your bike car free along 18 miles of the Chicago Lake front? Not to mention the amazing lake front parks that stretch from Roger's Park all the way down to the Museum Campuses. And water sports! Water with out the salt and sharks... genius.
7.) The Museums. Yeah DC has its cool museums and all but they don't have Sue the T-rex. And where else can you do a handstand in a Tornado and not get hurt? Or see where Fairy's sleep in style?
8.) Deep. Dish. Pizza. Us Midwesterners got to eat hearty in winter. Fat keeps the heat in. Also name any type of food or treat or edible delicious thing you could ever want it's here in the city. Also hundreds of independently owned coffeeshops to spend your day reading and people watching. Starbucks no more my friend.
9.) The Christmas season in this city is so homey and wonderful and magical and I love it! LOVE IT! also in the summer people come pouring out of the wood work and pop out of nowhere to play out side in the parks. We pride ourselves on the parks here. They're pretty rad.
10.) Selfishly I just want to be in the same zip code as you Brooke Reilly. You are amazing. You are well loved. And I have loaned you to my friends in DC long enough. Ha! Tell them you are overdue and come back to me! Or prerhaps I'll have to start charging them late fees.... mmm...might have to implement that... :)