"Each year I ask God for a word for the year.
In 2020 the word was ‘re-potting’.

I had hoped it was re-potting of my flowers in the garden🪴, but instead it was a re-potting of my roots in my personal life.
2020 started with the COVID pandemic. During lockdown my precious mother passed away. With this came so much pain & guilt of not being with her at the time of her death - & my father, siblings & I having to walk a very lonely road of mourning on our own.
Within a few months my father also passed away.
By the end of the year my roots felt exposed & vulnerable.
2021 started with the news of my husband’s retrenchment & soon thereafter more challenging news of a restructure of the NPO where I worked.
God gave me the scripture “See, I am doing a new thing. Now it springs up, do you not perceive it. I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.” (Isaiah 43:19).
I held tightly onto that as my roots were needing some good nourishment.

When I heard about the Strongest Story course, I knew I had to do it. Jacqs & Debs shared a story of the dry & barren 'Death Valley' in California where it very rarely rains. They told the story of how one year a hurricane hit & the next year Death Valley came alive with flowers.
All those years the seeds were dormant in the soil just needing the right climate to bloom. It took an unpleasant hurricane for the most beautiful flowers to bloom.

During the course, as we looked at our own story, our passions, strengths, weaknesses, & purpose, I began a healing journey allowing myself to see new possibilities.
I realized that what I do really does count - & more importantly - I count.
Jacqs & Debs recommended a daily devotion, "100 days to Brave" What an exciting journey I have had reading this!

God started doing a new thing. Out of so much pain deep in the soil of my soul there were seedlings of hope & as the healing came, flowers of joy have started blooming.
I am so excited for the season of spring".🌷