An Unhurried Living

My first book, ‘Making for Mending’ will be out later this year (🙏)!

My publisher has opened a contest for book cover designs and I’d love your help in selecting a cover.

There are 4 options—would you help me by selecting the cover that best resonates with you?

From the publisher: About the Book:

This book advocates for the transformative power of art in navigating the challenges of life, offering a perspective that making and creating are essential acts of self-care and worship. Through personal experiences with trauma, loss, and sorrow, the author encourages women to embrace their role as makers, finding solace, purpose, and a connection to their intrinsic creativity as a source of healing and resilience.

Here’s the Google form to vote:

Book Cover Poll for Making for Mending Gabi appreciates your feedback on her book cover designs.

Everyday Field Guide to Beauty Day 3:

"I dream an inescapable dream
in which I take away from the country
the bridges and roads, the fences, the strung wires,
ourselves, all we have built and dug and hollowed out,
our flocks and herds, our droves of machines.

I restore then the wide-branching trees.
I see growing over the land and shading it
the great trunks and crowns of the first forest.
I am aware of the rattling of their branches,
the lichen channels of bark, the saps
of the ground flowing upward to their darkness.
Like the afterimage of a light that only by not looking can be seen, I glimpse the country as it was.
All its beings belong wholly to it. They flourish
in dying as in being born.
It is the life of its deaths."

~Wendell Berry, 'The Dream'

Field Guide to Everyday Beauty Day 2:

These Morning Glories catch my eye almost every day. They’re so lovely and are slowing tangling themselves along the top most part of our property gate.

I’ve caught sight of hummingbirds here, big bumblebees and tiny honey bees, squirrels arguing with each other and jumping trees limb to limb. An entire living ecosystem exists outside my door and I’m embarrassed to say I rarely stop to notice.

Lilies of a field, sparrows that neither toil nor spin—and how He provides for them.

Are we not much more than they?

And yet I worry—about provision, about the state of our country, about the evolution of global events, about the woman my son will marry (he’s only 12 😳🙃), about my taxes. So much time wasted, worrying about what hasn’t or may never happen.

Forgive me, Lord.

So instead I stop, notice, and am humbled by a Morning Glory, who gently opens in the early hours and rests by the afternoon. A lesson for me, perhaps? Or maybe, just a reminder for today, to trust in Him for all things.

I’ve been navigating a hard season.

There have been so many welcome changes. Changes that just a year ago, I couldn’t have imagined would be possible.

I’m learning (or rather, re-learning) that hard is not bad.

Sometimes, hard is just hard.

Good things and bad things can come from a hard season. I often forget to go gently with myself so I can take in and process all of the good. Sometimes the bad is all I focus on. It just seems easier to do.

As an artist and writer, I believe one of my primary callings, and it certainly is a driver for me, is to cultivate the habit of attention and encourage others to also slow down, pause, rest, and refocus on what is good.

As an artist and writer, who also happens to follow the Lord Jesus Christ, I believe I have a responsibility to push back against the darkness with what tools, skills, gifts, and learnings I’ve been given. Sometimes, exercising those is taxing. It feels pretty dark out there, with wars and rumors of wars.

Sometimes, I need the encouragement myself.

This month I’m starting a series here on IG to help us (that’s you and me) cultivate and reshape the habit of attention. It’s pretty simple and has its origins from a writing experience I hosted this spring.

We’ll do 3 things together for the next 30 days…

*Rest*—essentially, to pause, and notice beauty in your everyday moments. Snap a picture to help you remember.

*Write*—jot down in a journal or your phone: the date, and a few lines on why it caught your attention. Describe the moment.

*Restore*—shift your thinking and find gratitude and thanksgiving. Praise the Lord for what is good. And…remember who you are.

So, I’ll meet you here everyday for the next 30 days…share something lovely that caught my attention and reattune the eyes of my heart and mind to find beauty in my everyday moments, even in a hard season.

I hope you’ll join me. I’d love to see how you cross and collide with beauty as well—use the hashtag and I’ll share your pics…for my encouragement and yours. 🌸

Headed to today and leaving this precious boy at home. I know he’s in the best hands, still in my heart, and always on my mind, but it’s always so, so hard to leave.

Looking forward to a beautiful weekend of connection, inspiration, remembering, and restoration. 💛

+faith

Wishing the loveliest of birthdays to this beautiful man who has resurrected and rebuilt so many times over.

I am so grateful for his life. ❤️

I just got back from Franklin, TN where I attended the lovely Wild+Free conference this past weekend. I’m sharing a few thoughts about my weekend and how this conference was different from the San Louis Obispo conference earlier this year.

The link is in my bio. Stop by and listen. 💛

bedeeplyrooted

“And that is just the point… how the world, moist and beautiful, calls to each of us to make a new and serious response. That’s the big question, the one the world throws at you every morning. ‘Here you are, alive. Would you like to make a comment?’”
~Mary Oliver

May the overflow of your heart comment today 🌻

“I don’t know, at least in this season of my life, apart from the death of my husband, an ache greater than a homesickness for the eternal. It’s kind of a strange feeling, to be homesick for something you’re not really sure you know, but yet somewhere, imprinted in your soul, without your conscious awareness, you know.”

I’m talking about tension living in my latest journal post—the kind where loveliness and sorrow exist in the same breath. The link to the post is in my bio.

“That homesickness you feel—that I feel—may not even be definable to you. Maybe you’ve never even recognized it as a homesickness. But it’s there. If you’re filled with the Spirit and have been redeemed by the saving power of the Gospel, you know living here, in this splintered world, well, it just ain’t it. You feel the homesickness in the cancer diagnosis, the miscarriage, the loss of a husband after so much suffering. You feel the ache for more after discovering the affair, struggling to make the mortgage, or hearing of the kidnapped child. You feel the sorrow and lament and the ridiculous unfinishedness of things. It’s all real. I’ve been there.

But yet, we know more is coming. And we know renewal is on the way. And while we’re here, we know we have calling and purpose. We have gifting—to be used for the Body and beyond.”

I’m home from France, and now I feel a homesickness in reverse…I wish I were back there. But home is here, for now, and I’m glad for it, too.

I’m talking about spiritual homesickness in my latest journal post—the kind of homesickness that leads you home. The link to the post is in my bio.

The older I get, the more I recognize our journey towards sanctification is a woven tapestry of loss and restoration, lament and hope, death and resurrection, as we all wait to be made new again.

The loss of children, the loss of a husband, the loss of a father…it’s been so much for me over these years.

It’s like that tension we feel, living in brokenness and hurt, seeing and hearing quiet whispers of Eden, but yet knowing deeply it’s just not it. We haven’t arrived. But there is a promise of what’s to come.

But in the midst of that, the Lord has brought me renewal, has created loveliness out of ashes, has raised to life what I thought once dead. And with scars and tenderness, I move forward to what He has waiting for me there.

Having sojourned so many deaths and resurrections, I know you too can move forward with hope, because He does make all things new. 🌸

It’s so lovely to connect with new friends! I’m always humbled and grateful you choose to share space with me here. Thanks so much for following along!

The online space has its challenges, doesn’t it? It can feel pretty dark out there—I know I feel the darkness closing in at times and it makes the tension between what is here and the hope of what is to come, even more distinct.

It is for the hope of glory we wait, isn’t it?

But while we’re here, we still have a moment of connection—a carving of time where we encourage one another in good deeds and spur one another on, to finish our race well. My hope here is to encourage you in your motherhood, your homemaking, and your cultivation of place, so living a rooted life not only gives glory to our Creator, but pushes back against the darkness here—each in our domain of home and community, as we become the quiet resistance. 💛

So here’s to a big hug 🤗, a cup of tea 🫖, and a prayer for all you homemakers, the gentle resilience of today. I’m tending, healing, cultivating, loving, and mending alongside you. 🌸

To the quiet spaces we choose instead of washing the dishes.

To the making of timeless moments we choose instead of folding the laundry.

To the capturing of hearts and minds…and yours too, because you know the work will be there later.

To the remembering and the staying and the resting and the hoping…

What a beautiful place, home is.

I pray your weekend if full of the quiet moments that spur the remembering of home.🌸

“Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.”
― Robert Louis Stevenson

It’s so easy to judge ourselves by our work product. I think I’ve done it my whole life. I used to fault the journey well known by those first-generation Latin Americans—the one where your parents came with nothing and built a life so you could be better,
do better,
have better.

Some of that is there for me, for sure. After a time though, I added a layer of my own—my own desire and my comparison to the world—using the world’s standards as a metric for my ‘success.’ The harder I worked to keep it all perfect, the more value I could assign myself.

I learned quickly, comparison (and the illusion of perfection) steals
and it can even destroy.

As homemakers, it’s easy here also to esteem our value and worth by how many piles of laundry we folded today or how excellent we are at keeping a crumb-free kitchen counter. I did it for a long time. It created a home of rigidity, sterility, and was kind of like a vacuum for anything that felt like a life. I placed expectations on myself and my family that simply weren’t sustainable. ��A recovering ‘home perfectionist…’ so many years gone now, and I’m grateful.

I have home, place, well-lived, well-worn, and greatly loved. It is peaceful, restful, and is a respite for me, my family, and anyone whom the Lord sends our way. I had to realign, reassess, and release. It was a journey.

My private podcast, ‘The 5 Daily Habits of a Life-Giving Home’ is available below. Just a few thoughts on sustainable habits to employ that have changed the wellspring of my home. I pray they do the same for you. 🌸

https://www.anunhurriedliving.com/5dailyhabits

“And just as a little thread of gold, running through a fabric, brightens the whole garment, so women’s work at home, while only the doing of little things, is like the golden gleam of sunlight that runs through and brightens all the fabric of civilization.”
~Laura Ingalls Wilder⁣
Onward today, sweet mothers. 🌷

“Outdoors we are confronted everywhere with wonders; we see that the miraculous is not extraordinary, but the common mode of existence. It is our daily bread.”
~Wendell Berry
A gentle reminder to look for the lovely things as you move into the weekend.🌷

Enter the Giveaway...

We're celebrating the launch of Christie's new book and the re-launch of
The Everyday Placemaker Podcast.
2 winners will be selected and receive A Home in Bloom as well as Garden Maker.

Here are the details:
https://www.anunhurriedliving.com/giveaway

U.S. residents only.

“Mothers work wonders once they are convinced that wonders are demanded of them.”

~Charlotte Mason
Once of the most frequently read quotes by Miss Mason. It kinds of makes us feel as though we should be doing all the things. That’s simply not possible, and not true.

Miracle workers we are not, but we ARE women of influence in a generation that is trying to erase women and even erase our roles as nurturers and life-givers.

Your role is powerful, mother, regardless of whether your house is loud and noisy or quieter and still, like mine. Our influence doesn’t end when our children leave our homes, or really even, when we die. We still continue to influence generations behind us with our quiet steadfastness and our devotion to what is good.

Your testimony—and sometimes, it’s just existing in the role the Lord has given to you—is a part of the resistance.

Embrace your motherhood. This IS the important work.

That IS the influence.

“I come to the garden alone,
While the dew is still on the roses;
And the voice I hear, falling on my ear,
The Son of God discloses.

And He walks with me, and He talks with me,
And He tells me I am His own,
And the joy we share as we tarry there,
None other has ever known.

He speaks, and the sound of His voice
Is so sweet the birds hush their singing;
And the melody that He gave to me
Within my heart is ringing.

I'd stay in the garden with Him
Tho' the night around me be falling;
But He bids me go; thro' the voice of woe,
His voice to me is calling.”

~C. Austin Miles (1913)
I didn’t grow up learning hymns—my childhood home had a mixture of Catholicsm and indifference to the ways of the Lord. It has taken a lifetime of growing in my understanding of the quiet things that has helped me to depend on the hymns for simple encouragement. They often steady me in unsteady times.

I remember singing hymns to myself not long after my husband died. I’d be out, milking the goats in the really early hours, alone, before my son would get up for the day. I would sing this over and over to myself until it had quieted my heart from the grief. It was then I felt like I could breathe again.

Teach the hymns, mothers. Encourage your children in the ways of the Lord, yes, but also teach them how to encourage their own hearts. Pass on what is good, even if it wasn’t passed on to you. Allow yourself to be encouraged, be it over the mountain of laundry or the pile of dishes, over the lovely or over the mundane.

He sees you, even in the invisible work of today.

“Healing is impossible in loneliness; it is the opposite of loneliness. Conviviality is healing. To be healed we must come with all the other creatures to the feast of Creation.”
-Wendell Berry
It was such a strange weekend for me. Father’s Day has so many emotions, but not really more or less than any other day, I guess.

I remember the first Father’s Day after my husband died. It was just 9 days after his home-going. This is the first year without my father, too, as he passed away just a few months ago. It feels so strange.

But we keep moving, keep waiting for our own restoration. We keep living in hope, even with sorrows and laments alongside.

Whatever yesterday brought for you, whatever you wish it was or wasn’t, my prayer for you is that you move forward in hope today, in conviviality with others, and creation, and even yourself.

The sun rises, and there’s still loveliness to unfold. 🌿

Morning moments that slowed me down this today. I hope your Tuesday is off to a restful, hopeful start. 🌸

“In the midst of our busy lives, numbering our days allows us to recognize the need for rest and Sabbath. God Himself set aside a day of rest after His work of creation. By prioritizing rest and setting aside time for worship, prayer, and reflection, we honor God and replenish our souls. Sabbath reminds us that time is not meant to be consumed solely by work but also by rest and communion with God.”

The latest post is available in the journal. The link is in my bio. 🌷

Today marks the two year anniversary of my husband’s home-going, after struggling for years with a brain tumor.

I don’t know how to describe the feeling. Most days, I wake up less sad than I did the day before. The hope increases and the grief decreases day by day.

But he’s never too far from my thoughts, the tears always close to the surface at the idea of him.

He redeemed me in so many ways, continually laying down his life for mine.

What a beautiful gift, to be loved.

Tea, today, sitting at the kitchen table with my journal, watching the ducks from the window.

What a day to be alive. 🌸

“Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” 💛

I think our world doesn’t value beauty and stillness—the loveliness that comes from simplicity and even from creation. It’s ‘extra,’ superfluous really, and we become so busy that we tell ourselves we can’t find time to slow down and cultivate a habit of attention.

As someone who has spent years honing and refining that habit, I too can get caught up in the speed of the world. It doesn’t take but a moment though, to feel disconnected and disjointed—almost like something is ‘off.’

I always have to return to the simple things, the work of being still, looking for beauty. It IS work to be still, especially in this culture. But it’s in that work of being still and paying attention, that I end up finding the rest my heart and mind we’re looking for.

My prayer for you today is that you not find guilt or even shame in the work of resting, that the slowing down of your heart and mind restores to you what became unsettled this week, that you find moments of loveliness and beauty all around you.

For me, I’ll be outside with these cuties, finding rest in my overflowing garden, tending one seed at a time. 🌿

I’ve been struggling with a migraine for the past two days. While it’s letting up a bit, I had to struggle to go gently with myself today.

Sometimes, too ambitious for my own good. Why do we strive?

I hope that wherever you are, whatever your weekend holds for you, feeling well or feeling challenged, you’ll go gently with yourself, too.

There’s too much loveliness out there for us to notice; it invites us to go softly sometimes, and savor. 🌸

“We who live in quiet places have the opportunity to become acquainted with ourselves, to think our own thoughts, and live our own lives in a way that is not possible for those keeping up with the crowd.”

-Laura Ingalls Wilder
I love this quote—one of the heart cries of my life. It’s seriously been the journey of a lifetime to become acquainted with myself, to think my own thoughts, and live my own life in a way not possible for those keeping up with the crowd. My Lord, my journal, and a cup of tea have been by my side.

Wishing you all peace, comfort, mercy, and love on this beautiful remembrance day of Mothers everywhere. 🌸

acupofmotherhood

“Homemaking is not employment for slothful, unimaginative, incapable women. It has as much challenge and opportunity, success and failure, growth and expansion, perks and incentives, as any corporate career.”

-Dorothy Morrison
More so, I would say. Eternal success, growth, expansion…

Praying for your eternal careers today, imaginative, capable women. 🧡

“Children should have the joy of living in far lands, in other persons, at other times—a delightful double existence; and this joy they will find, for the most part, in their storybooks.”

~Charlotte Mason
Homeschooling, in so many ways, has restored my own education. I also love the ‘double existence’ of living in far off lands, even if only in my heart and mind.

We allow ourselves to become so busy, so filled with expectations and decisions that I think we forget to rest in wonder and pay attention to the world around us. I know I have, and it’s been a real exercise in effort to cultivate a habit of attention over the years. It’s only now as I get older that find that the wonder was there all along for the reveling.

It’s raining today and it’s forecasted for the rest of the week. What a perfect time to nest, rest, and restore (and bury ourselves in beautiful books…and tea☕️).

Wherever you are today, my prayer and hope, whether rain or shine, is that you too can be lost in a life of story and place and wonder with your children (and for yourself, too! 💛).

A home is a kingdom of its own in the midst of the world, a stronghold amid life’s storms and stresses, a refuge, even a sanctuary.

~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer
After having traveled all last week in different places, I needed to be back home. I immediately felt the relief of walking into comfort, hearing our farm animals stir, walking into my garden, barefoot—it all felt like this beautiful exhale. I was able to breathe again and I didn’t even know I had been holding my breath.

I sat at my piano, settled my heart, created something, rebuilt my nest, and decided to go gently before I dove into what remained of my week.

I’ve been pressing flowers these past few days for a few frame and gallery ideas I’ve had percolating in my mind. It’s bringing me peace, but also jumpstarting all sorts of home decor ideas, thoughts of rearranging furniture, and has me leaning into the softening that I feel my heartspace moving towards.

I ignored the laundry, decided I didn’t care about the mountain of shoes stacking at the back door, and was ok with leaving the mail untouched. I needed to just be.

As I slowly start to feel this pulse of restoration coming back, I’m reminded of how we can create loveliness, even for ourselves, in our space—whether it be small or large, rented or owned, borrowed or shared. We have the creative design to cultivate something beautiful right where we are.

I think we were born to create lovely things as homemakers. Even lovely things for ourselves. 🌸

“Woman, how divine your mission,
Here upon our natural sod;
Keep—oh, the young heart open
Always to the breath of God!
All true trophies of the ages
Are from mother-loved impearled
for the hand that rocks the cradle
is the hand that rules the world.”

WILLIAM ROSS WALLACE (1819-1881)

Stay the course, sweet homemaker, as you are indeed the hand that rules the world. 💛