Getting Back to Nature--Kayaking Style

by Lisa Jordan, @lisajordan

My husband is on vacation this week, so yesterday, we loaded up our kayaks and headed to a nearby state park where we spent the afternoon paddling the lake and neighboring stream. 

Stately pines, spindly birch, lush elms, and sturdy maples stood like sentries as sunlight glistened across the glassy water turning it silver and gluttonous clouds in a bright blue sky mirrored the surface. Bullfrogs and songbirds provided nature's symphony as we sliced through the water flanked with grasses, downed limbs, and wildflowers crowned in a rainbow of color. Jewel-toned dragonflies flitted across my bow and played tag with the golden monarch butterflies. Overhead, a hawk dipped and soared looking for prey.

We floated over a wooden footbridge, past beaver dams, muskrat lodgings, and weathered wood duck boxes and docked to enjoy a picnic lunch along the bank. A school of minnows scurried through the shallow water and a lazy trout rested in the camouflaged shade of a fallen tree. 

On the way back to shore, we startled a young doe who stared at us with her large brown eyes before darting into the foliage. 

After a busy week (month), taking time from our busy schedules and getting back to nature kayaking style was the perfect way to spend the afternoon. We set aside our screens and to-do lists just to be together doing something we enjoy together. 

How do you like to spend quality time with those you love?

Season of Hope
His dreams can all come true...but only if his ex-wife will agree!
Jake Holland’s peaceful dairy farm is a sanctuary—one he wants to share with other worn and weary veterans. He just needs one more piece of land to start his program...and it belongs to Tori Lerner, his ex-wife. A collaboration could benefit them both, but with a past full of secrets between them, is there any hope for renewed love?

Heart, home, and faith have always been important to Lisa Jordan, so writing stories with those elements come naturally. Represented by Rachelle Gardner of Books & Such Literary Management, Lisa is an award-winning author for Love Inspired, writing contemporary Christian romances that promise hope and happily ever after. Her latest book, Season of Hope, released in March 2019. She is the Operations Manager for My Book Therapy. Happily married to her own real-life hero for almost thirty years, Lisa and her husband have two grown sons. When she isn't writing, Lisa enjoys family time, kayaking, good books, and being creative. Visit her at lisajordanbooks.com.

Cultivating Friendships

by Lisa Jordan @lisajordan

I spent this past weekend with four close friends, celebrating our belated Christmas and one of their upcoming birthdays.

Before I had gone to hang out with them, another friend commented that she didn’t have a group of friends like mine and expressed a twang of jealousy. Earlier in the week, another friend shared she wasn’t good at nurturing friendships.

I get it. As we go through different stages in our lives, our friendships may come and go as well. Even though we may pinky swear in third grade to be best friends forever, life doesn’t always allow for those childish promises to be fulfilled. Not only that but as we grow and mature, our attitudes and opinions change, causing rifts and distance. Wives and moms can become too consumed with their family roles to take time for outside friendships.

Cultivating friendships is essential because we were created for relationships. God didn’t design us to spend our days alone.

Even though I have a very healthy marriage and a strong relationship with our two sons, I need my female friends to sustain me in ways that my husband and sons can’t.

For the most part, women understand other women. PMS, anyone? Try to get a guy to understand that one.

Not only that, but there’s a connection between friends that is different than a marital bond or one between a parent and a child. While my husband and boys appreciate my stamping, scrapbook layouts, or crocheting/knitting projects, my female friends are the ones who share those hobbies and totally get my need for some crafting therapy. 

Chatting with a friend over coffee feeds my inner needs of being heard, being noticed, and being needed because hopefully, I’m strengthening that relationship with my friend as well.

But what if you don’t have a close-knit friendship or circle of friends, and you want one? How do you go about cultivating those friendships?

Think about what you want in a friendship and what you’re willing to sacrifice and give because any relationship worth having requires sacrifice, compromise, and your willingness to invest in that bond.

How do you like to spend your free time? Are you a classic movie buff? An avid knitter? An outdoorswoman itching to go for a hike or launch the kayak as soon as the ice in the river melts? If you’re involved in particular hobbies, see if there’s an acquaintance who shares your ambitions. Take the first step. Invite her to grab some coffee, hang out, or do something you'd both enjoy. 

Pray for your friend. Take the time to drop a note in the mail, send a text or email, or pick up the phone to connect with your friend. Do something to show how much you value your friendship. 

Once you allow a relationship to grow organically, you'll want to spend more time with that person and cultivate a friendship that will feed your soul and make it blossom. 

What about you? Do you have a close friend? How did that friendship come about? What do you do to cultivate that relationship?

Ask Elnora--Relationships????

Okay, today, darlings, let's discuss relationships. That's the buzz word for "people who need people". Aren't we the luckiest people in the world? Why do we need other people in our lives?

Well, Elnora needs people to change light bulbs and slay spiders, of course. But mostly, we all need other people to make our lives better. It's about love. And maybe it's just me, but some of the people I love the most drive me a little nuts.And I mean, tossing the pearls and throwing the shoes nuts. And yet, I couldn't live without them. So let's talk about what makes a great relationship and what not to do. Ask away? I have tons of experience in this department!

While you're pondering your fabulous questions, tell me what you love about Friday??
Besides being here with us, of course!