Love (Written in Red)
This is a blog. This is a blog about who we are and what we love as a family. Sometimes it’s so much easier to express what excites us and what we laugh through and what we struggle with and what we hope to be in writing, and that is what I hope to do here. No experience is uncommon and I hope that this will be a way for you (the reader) to connect, to laugh, to find common ground, and to know that you are not alone. I am a mom, a woman, a wife, a mother, a photographer, a follower of Christ, an American, a black woman, an artist, a lover of science and the natural world, a lover of poetry and music and art, an entrepreneur and an experimental cook, a budding outdoors-man...or woman I guess (just to name a few things), but you don't have to be all or any of those things to follow this blog. You just have to be a person who loves, laughs, works hard, makes mistakes and is always trying to become the very best versions of themselves--because really, that's all this blog--our story--will ever tell here.
It literally took me years to come up with this title that describes what I want this blog to be so perfectly! I can’t take credit for the wording though, because I got it from a song. A long time ago we had a friend who was an amateur singer and songwriter, and I absolutely LOVED his rock style of music, but he only got into the studio to record a few songs before he (and we) moved onto different things. As far as I know he never produced an album, but I am so happy to have this song on my playlist! One of his first tracks, ‘Love (Written in Red)’ is based on one of the most quoted verses in the Bible, John 3:16 in red letters, and it is a reminder to me to be in awe of how much I am loved and how much I should love our beautiful world and everything and everyone in it. Patience, compassion, humor and joy, a faithful heart, a gracious spirit, conscious humility, and full-blown, unashamed Agape love… like the love that Christ had for me and all of us from the very beginning, is and always will be our ultimate goal. It’s how we try to raise our children, it’s how we keep our marriage strong, It’s how we make decisions in our lives. No joke, it’s an everyday struggle, and I am far from a finished work, but I hope that each post changes someone’s day. I hope each post will make you laugh, or make you think, or make you try something new. I hope a post will help you put on another person’s shoes, or make you pick up the phone and call an old friend, or make you believe you can do something you never thought possible.
I’m not going to preach to you, or tell you what you should do, what you should believe, or what the right choice is because there are lots of blogs that do that already, but I will tell you true stories from my life and the lives of my family, things I have noticed, and what I think is interesting. I’ll share my joy and laughter in each day, and the rawness of pain and the healing that follows that we all go through from time to time. This blog will be a hodgepodge of random but I think you will see that my focus is consistent, whether I’m telling a story about a struggle, or trying to figure out how to make sushi.
Take a minute to read the lyrics below—maybe you’ll understand why I chose ‘Love Written in Red’ as our anthem.
It was an ordinary day
Flipping right through the page
When I stumbled across this phrase
And then it jumped right out the book
When I took a second look
Curiosity was hooked
Now what I read was ‘for God so love the world’
and it seems my mind put it on repeat
The four letter word that jumped right out at me
Love written in red
Could this part be true?
Could I take your word for it
Turn the page and ignore it
Like I usually do
Love written red
No what must I do?
Could it be better for me
To feel the same as the
four lettered word for you
Been reading this for some time
Still can't seem to find anything between the lines
But it's nothing new to me
Finding it a little hard to believe
Anything I cannot see
But is it possible one can love the world
when it seems the world couldn't ever care less
Could I be so sure, so sure that what you’re offering me is best?
Every ordinary man has heard of love in every way it can be used
Am I to understand this word is any different coming from You?
It's crazy to see this delhima again, amazing to me, this word!
-Written by Filipo