beyond imagination

Crazy thing happened this morning....I woke up and I was older....not just a day older...a whole YEAR older. Somehow the calendar had turned over. Here I was obliviously plodding through life and somehow the years ran away from me.

I can honestly say that the life that I have lived up to this point is nothing at all like I imagined it would be.....NOTHING!!!! . . . and what is so cool/scary is that there is still so much life to be had.

You remember when you were in school, you would see these 20 something year olds and be in awe - they so grown up and have it so together.... and then you get there and you feel like nothing changed in your life, like you still a kid?  40 seemed over the hill and practically retired and 50 should have been in an old age home. . . then you wake up, like I did today, and realize you are 37 . . . and 40 is around the corner... and suddenly 40 seems like the new 20. . . and there is still so much life to be had.

My life is definitely not what i imagined. . . and often I look around at the people I encounter on a day to day basis and wonder if their lives is what they imagined. . . and truthfully....I often see people who are my age and they make me feel young. We all age differently. I recently met a woman, i assumed was in her 60's and she was only in her 40's. . . .age and life had not been kind to her. When I was in Albania [and even sometimes here] . . . I look at how people dress and how differently I dress and sometimes it makes me feel younger than I am.... but I am not a mom currently, and don't need to dress like a mom. . . .neither am I a business woman....so I don't need a power suite....what i am....and thankfully what I enjoy being....is simply ME .... in all my elegant eccentricity.

I don't fit society's pattern . . . not by a long shot. . . I have not taken the path most have walked. . . I do not make sense in a lot of people's minds and imaginations . . .but I have walked the most wonderful path available....the path that God has etched out before me....His way. . . .and I have been given the freedom to embrace who HE fully created me to be instead of conforming to society's norms.

My imaginations had to find their rightful place in HIS plan. . . . in my younger [slightly more ignorant days] .... I had it mapped out....marry the guy that I adored at 24....so we could have a few years together before we popped out some children and adopted a child.  .  . that relationship didnn't last....the marriage didn't happen and neither have the children. . . but the life that happened past that point has been nothing but boring and completely fulfilling. . .

It is scattered across nations and littered with traumas and tragedies and laughter and miracles and adventures and some of the craziest co-incidences that go far beyond imagination. It has been colourful and extravagent and sometimes exceptionally dark. I have met the most wonderous, awe inspiring people and some villians too.... it almost reads like a fairytale . . . but its all true..... and what excites me even more....is that there is still more living to do.......can't wait to see what else He has in store.

Ephesians 3:20
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us...

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Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.
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Now to the God who can do so many awe-inspiring things, immeasurable things, things greater than we ever could ask or imagine through the power at work in us,
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Now to Him who is able to [carry out His purpose and] do super abundantly more than all that we dare ask or think [infinitely beyond our greatest prayers, hopes, or dreams], according to His power that is at work within us,
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od can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us.