Of Late

More photos from my time this past month in Newcastle, Australia. 

Back in Australia

I landed in Australia four days ago and am so stoked to be back in this beautiful country. Here are a few photos I've been able to take since being back in Newcastle.

MUM

Mum, Mom, Mother, Mummy. All of these words mean the same thing yet they all carry a different kind of weight. Personally, I like to call my mum, 'Mum'. I used to call her 'Mummy', but when I became a teenager I felt like that was a bit too childish. 

I was in Chapters a few weeks ago and stumbled upon this article about how this lady, a writer by trade, found the saying, 'You should listen to your mother' to be true. Sometimes as a 25 year old woman, still trying to figure out my 'calling' in life I find it hard to listen to my own mothers wisdom but as this lady found out its so worth it to do. 

"...enabled me to make a living doing what I had always loved. And for this I can thank my mother. Because she was the one who saw that her business graduate daughter was not quite content and made me apply to a school of communications. You should listen to your mother. Really." - Lady (who's name I can't remember)

Sometimes I take my mum and her age old advice for granted. But as I grow and mature I'm finding more often than not that I should really just listen to her. Not just because she's 30 years older than I am but because she has had experience and gone through similar things that I am now facing. 

So this is for you Mum, I'm sorry that more often than not, I don't listen to your advice and wisdom but I want to change that. I love you and am so grateful for you. 

Anxious Flyer Much?

You don't notice the sometimes frightening bumps and sudden jolts when your whole flight has been that way.

I remember back in May when I was travelling to Turkey with a group of friends and we were flying the infamous Malaysian Air. We were flying from London to Istanbul and I had been nervous about flying Malaysian Air but on this particular flight my anxiety was getting the best of me. Every little bit of turbulence was freaking me out and when we had arrived and were making our decent to land, we didn't. And the second time we didn't. This is when my anxiety started to climb. All these irrational thoughts started racing through my mind. Like maybe we can't land because terrorists have taken over! Or we're not landing because there's a terrorist issue on the ground at the airport! Or simply, this is it, we are all going to die!!!!

All of these thoughts were going through my mind in a matter of minutes. All the while I'm trying to calm myself down and not totally pass out or start crying because I have no idea what is going on. And then in the middle of my internal freak out I hear the quiet still voice of Jesus say to me, "Anna do you trust me enough to give me your anxiety?"In that moment, when I felt Jesus speaking to me and felt for the first time on this whole turbulent flight His peace and comfort, I was ok. I stopped and took a breath and replied, "Yes, but I'm freaking out!"

And then on the third approach, we landed.

I feel like God lets us go through stuff, like little freak outs on turbulent flights, to bring us and draw us closer in to relationship with Him. And it's our choice if we respond to His knocking on our hearts.

I've probably struggled with anxiety since I was a small child but only have I recently come to terms with it. The more I go through life and meet people who have experienced similar anxious feelings the more I feel ok with it. And the more I keep talking to and trusting the Lord with my worries and sometimes very irrational concerns, the easier it is to live and breathe in freedom from it.