Nights on the Veranda

One day you and I will sit on our veranda as the summer sun is setting. We will dream of the future and behold this very moment. When it's dark we'll watch the moon rise and listen to the crickets. It will be those moments which seem endless and unforgettable and imprint eternal pictures in our hearts.

xoxo

Ramona

The Big Leap

If you have read my blog for a while you will have seen how some themes keep coming up because those are the things that I often think or pray about or it is things I need to grow in and make decisions. One of those things is letting go and just leaping off the cliff into the unknown - taking a risk. I wrote about this here, here and here.
Today I saw a video which expresses all of the above and more. It is amazing, beautiful and yes totally feeds my romantic heart.

I am glad that over the years I have risked things in all sorts of areas in my life. I am glad I jumped into the unknown. There were times where I hit rock bottom but always have I grown from it and learned.

What are you risking right now?

xoxo

Ramona

Beauty

Recently there has been a lot of video sharing on facebook with titles like "See how this daddy changed his daughter's life forever", "Model shooting for a day and what photoshop does and how they didn't like it". Of course we all remember this very impacting and beautiful video by dove. It is so interesting how especially we women seem to struggle with image of beauty so much how we always want to be stunning and beautiful but we always complain about the areas we think are not pretty. Talk with a woman for some time and you'll find out. But oh how she lightens up when you tell her she is beautiful.
I was lucky to grow up in a family who would always tell my sister and me that we were beautiful and captivating and worthy. We both learned that beauty is not mere outward appearance but something that comes from the inside - your personality, your character.
I don't know if you have ever experienced this moment when you thought a person was really beautiful and then you get to know them and somehow the beauty fades because of the way the person is  (bad attitude, unkind, full of trouble and greed e.g.) and the beauty was only appearance. Or when you meet somebody and at first look they don't strike you as remarkably beautiful (in the "common sense" of beauty) but with every conversation and moment you get to know this person they grow to become more and more beautiful?
I know I have experienced both it always being proof for me that true beauty really does come from the inside. I also believe that there is beauty in everyone. We just have to look for it, allow it come out.
About two weeks ago I saw some pictures of myself from the Winter Days and started the whole thought train on what I didn't like in the picture, that I look too big, not pretty enough etc. when all of a sudden I paused for a moment and remembered how I had felt that day and that indeed I had felt beautiful that day. In that very instant I turned my head from the picture and walked away in my thoughts not allowing the "I'm not good enough" to take hold of me.

So I really want to encourage us all and especially the women out there to stop thinking about all the things that are wrong and start thinking about all the things which are right. You are beautiful beyond measure, you are wanted and worthy, lovely, enough, you have what it takes.

xoxo

Ramona

Thursday Tunes

If you read my Monday blog you know that The New World is one of my favorite movies. But let me add to that the music of the movie is incredible. What is so amazing about it is the fact that the movie was cut around a finished score and not the other way around which goes to show the importance of the music in this movie.
It is like an awakening of some sort and calming too.
I created a spotify playlist so you can listen to the whole of it.

xoxo

Ramona

Movie Monday

If you have been following this blog for a while you might have noticed that I love the movie "The New World". It is by Terrence Malick and I believe he is an amazing, very deep and thoughful writer and director.

Yesterday it was time again I watched "The New World". This movie takes my breath away every time from the first time I have watched it. Every time I discover something new, something meaningful. It is timeless and so full of depth. It is captivating.
What I love about this movie is that it is
1. authentic
2. cultural
3. shot in almost only natural light
4. it focuses on the quietness of that time and the clash of two cultures and oh how well this is portrayed

If you have not seen it I strongly advise you to watch it, but make sure you are in the right mood for it because it is special and quiet and without much action.

xoxo

Ramona

Comparisons

Like I mentioned on Tuesday I want to share bits and pieces from Romans 12 because that chapter got me to the core.

"let’s just go ahead and be what we were made to be, without enviously or pridefully comparing ourselves with each other, or trying to be something we aren’t."

Can somebody please shout a BIG Amen to that one! Be what you were made to be, not what somebody else was made to be. You are unique with a set of talents and gifts and a beautiful personality. God wants to use you.

I'm honest, comparing myself has been something that I needed to work on so hard and I still have moments when it tries to come up big time and it hurts because you always lose. You are never going to be as good or intelligent or pretty or smart or witty than anybody else. In the game of comparison you are the one who loses so just quit it. Start being you. Accept who you are, change the things you know you need to change and move on. Be yourself.

xoxo

Ramona

Thursday Tunes

The past two weeks I have been listening to Sleeping at last a lot - ok when don't I listen to them a lot? But really I purchased the new EP and it was on repeat.
Anyways today I want to share a song which seems to get me every time and it is called "You are enough". The lyrics are beautiful and express something very important that you are in fact enough. I know I am sometimes struggling with this question of am I enough or rather am I too much but God says we are enough and we are loved so let us not believe the shadows but know in the depth of our hearts that we are enough.

when we woke up
the world was figured out
beyond the beauty we’ve dreamt about.
this brilliant light is brighter than we’ve known,
without our darkness to prove it so.
still, we can’t help but to examine it,
to add our question marks to periods.
at the foot of our bed, we found an envelope…

“you are enough.”
these little words, somehow they’re changing us.
“you are enough.”
so we let our shadows fall away like dust.

when we grew up,
our shadows grew up too.
but they’re just old ghosts
that we grow attached to.
the tragic flaw is that they hide the truth

that you’re enough.
i promise you’re enough.
i promise you’re enough, i promise you.

“you are enough.”
these little words, somehow they’re changing us.
“you are enough,”
so we let our shadows fall away like dust.
“you are enough.”
these little words, somehow they’re changing us.
let it go, let it go, “you are enough.”
so we let our shadows fall away like dust.

xoxo

Ramona

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Perceptions

Yesterday I was reading in Romans 12 and there were a few verses which stood out to me and caught my attention so I thought I'd share some of my thoughts about them here bit by bit.

"The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what he does for us, not by what we are and what we do for him."

Isn't it funny how we all have a tendency to put people in boxes because the only way we can see them is through our lenses of experience. So we categorize and box people in.
I for one have never liked it when people have put me in such poxes like, "Ramona always talks", "Ramona is always forgetting thing", "Ramona's head is always in the clouds"... etc. etc. Although some of these perceptions might be true in some way, they are a mere fraction of who I really am.
I have always tried to break out of these boxes and change the ways people think about me. I have always tried to prove something to people but honestly that is quite tiring and often times doesn't work.
So last year when I sorted out a lot of things and reflected a lot of my behavior I decided to not do that any more - try to prove something but instead rest in how God sees me.
Now I am not perfect and I still struggle in many areas and there are always areas in life we need to work on. Come on, we're human!
But the only way we should see ourselves is through Jesus' eyes and that is very comforting. So let us all try that today:
1. To see us the way He sees us and 2. To see others that way

xoxo

Ramona