Tag: donna ashworth

Lean Into the Shadows of You

September is a great time to determine what you’ll focus on pursuing or releasing the final few months of 2024. Your answers to these questions can pinpoint your heart’s desires, your life’s calling, or your need to delve deeper within. 

Set aside some quiet time to courageously listen, pray and journal. During that process, name your fears and claim the bold ideas and dreams that lie just beyond them.

Taking this path may require you to stand alone for a season – perhaps to foster your pruning and perfecting. 

On other days, you may be compelled to stand by as others race past – giving you an opportunity to celebrate their wins, as you take consistent steps in the right direction. (Trusting that there are enough to go around.) 

Every day, you can choose to stand in light and love, so that as you give it, you become it.  This effort may be the most important of all, so that as you lean into becoming “what” you have in mind, “who” you are becoming simultaneously aligns.

What better way would there be to end this year?

Stay on Your Path

Five years ago today, I posted the photo and the sentiments below about the start of September and the looming end of this year. All these years later, this digital journal entry of sorts still resonates and feels worth sharing.

As you launch into September 2024, may my reflections on walking my life’s path encourage you to more fully appreciate your own:

I entered the first day of September (2019) with a morning trek along a path that was brand new to me. It was beautiful, breezy and serene. 

I talked to God, and then I stilled myself to listen, even as my feet kept moving. 

Then I saw it – a juncture in the road where the paved path yielded to gravel – leading to uncultured, unknown territory, and to a bend around which I could not see.

I advanced a few feet, then retreated, deciding to explore more fully on another day.

For in that moment, I had all I needed – fresh air, a lush green setting and a visual reminder that at every turn, I am loved, worthy and deserving of joy. That was the response that filled my listening heart.

That walk reminded me that even when we’re on the right path, we’ll encounter some pebbles, stones, rough patches and dirt. We won’t always know the end before we begin or even when we’re mid-journey. Yet, that’s why it’s so important to enjoy each step of the journey itself and to find value in each phase. 

In the right season, at the appointed time, we will discover the beauty around those bends, and perhaps appreciate the extra effort (courage?) required to get there. 

Wherever we are on our path today, we can lean into the truths of how God has already blessed us. Think back over your life for a few minutes and count the ways. 

Then, set your intentions, determine what you’ll do next (or how you’ll surrender), and say “thank you” in advance for the good that lies ahead – on paved roads, gravelly paths, wood trails and all.