Author: Jenn Johnson

I am a stay at home mom of three boys, ages 18, 14 and 9. I have been happily married to my husband since March of 2004. I love yoga (love), coffee, and a good book - there is always a page turner on my nightstand. In 2016 my brood moved across the country to live out our dream of having a life on the east coast. We packed our little car full of kids, animals and clothes and set out on the adventure of a lifetime. We now own a beautiful house out in the country and couldn't be happier. Life is good on my little piece of land. My goals in life are to be happy in my own skin, live in every moment and to share my thoughts with others and inspire them to be themselves! I believe that everyday is another chance for us to bloom into who we were meant to be.
Thoughts · Uncategorized

What will it take?

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In a world of senseless tragedies, where children aren’t even safe at school, it’s getting more and more difficult to have faith in humanity. There has always been evil in the world but it has now seeped its way into places that were once deemed safe. It’s impossible not to be afraid that a tragedy will strike close to home sooner or later. It’s impossible for us to ever think of schools as a safe place ever again. We are no longer naive to the fact that they can be battle zones. I don’t know how we can fix this but I don’t believe it’s just one thing. It is multifaceted and complicated and involves way more than gun control. This is just my opinion. What do you think?

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She is…

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She is freedom and captivity all rolled up in one. There are days when she runs wild and nothing can hold her down. And there are days when she feels trapped by the confines of life and she questions everything. Her soul is a little bit of fire and a little bit of ice. She sometimes strays from who she wants to be but she always finds her way back. She finds life highly addictive in all of its highs and lows. She feels blessed but also cursed. She knows that life can change in an instant and she sometimes finds herself waiting for the shoe to drop. She feels deeply and loves hard and when she says that she will always be there, she means it. Her heart is delicate but she is strong. So if you love her, love her deeply. Give her your heart and all that you are. Be in one hundred percent. She will excite you and show you life in a whole new way. And with her, you will never, ever be the same person that you were before.

Change · Happiness · Life · Poetry · Thoughts · Words

Good, Good Day

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I wake up to a chill in the air and the sound of the wind rustling through the trees just outside my window. It’s a Monday, the start of a brand new week, full of brand new possibilities. At this early hour, the house is quiet, beds still hold sleeping bodies lulled with dreams. I breathe in the coolness of the house and wrap my favorite soft blanket tightly around my shoulders as I make my way downstairs to the smell of coffee brewing. I see the darkness fading as the sun begins to rise and greet the day, lighting up the entire world. And I can feel it in my bones. It’s going to be a good, good day.

Change · grief · Happiness · Life · loss · love · Thoughts · Words

The Big House.

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She lived in a big house with a small mind.

She created ugliness in beauty and chaos in peace.

She lived out her days longing for what used to be while completely ignoring what was right in front of her.

She filled herself up with regrets and stopped noticing all of her blessings.

The people in the big house tried to remind her but she had closed herself off to them.

Swept up in her own ideas about life and how little she mattered, she looked the other way when they tried to convnce her how much she was loved.

As life went on, that big house stayed the same but became less and less crowded, until one day it was just her.

All alone with her small mind, with her small life in a big house.

Alone, lost and sad.

All her life she looked backwards while all the while life was moving forward, to this exact time, this exact moment.

As she sat in a chair, in that big house, with her small mind, she all too sudden became aware of how small her life really was.

It was just her.

Everyone else had moved away, moved on or passed away.

While they had been here, she had avoided them because they had reminded her of everything she wasn’t.

They reminded her of the dreams she didn’t pursue, the future she’d never have, the goals she’d never accomplished.

While she had a family, she had pushed them away with her bitterness and hate for what she had become, somehow blaming them.

Now that they had gone, now that it was too late,

she realized that all along she had, had it all.

The marriage, the family, the big house, the dream.

She had been blind to all of it, wishing for everything else.

It had destroyed her, her marriage, her family.

The real regret was now, the end of this all, what she had become.

A lonely, widowed woman whose heart had closed off all love.

Whose small mind had created a small life.

In a big house that was now empty.

 

Change · Faith · God · Life · Poetry · Prayer · Religion · Thoughts · Words

Her Anchor

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In these troubling times, when uncertainty is more abundant than ever, 

she finds that her faith remains strong and loyal. 

She knows that there will always be two sets of footprints in the sand, 

no matter where she ends up or what the outcome. 

She will never be alone. 

She will hold onto the only truth that is constant, God.

He is her anchor, grounding her in the unsteady waves and storms of life.

She will hold tight to His unconditional love and mercy and she will not drown.

 

 

 

Change · Faith · Happiness · Life · Thoughts · Words

These Days.

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It’s beautiful to see the way the world is coming together for each other right now.

In this foreign new world, I’m seeing abundant beauty.

People are sharing their gifts, for free, in order to shine a light in the darkness, an act of true selflessness.

Never before have I witnessed such extreme acts of kindness and love for complete strangers.

Even though most of us are living out these redunant days inside the walls of our homes with only our immediate family,

people outside are being brought in through the wonders of technology and we are all being connected.

It’s hard to feel alone.

It’s comforting to know that goodness still exists and in times of distress we are all still connected.

It’s wonderful to see how abundant hope, joy, faith and friendship is and how easily it is being shared.

Hold tight to this time right now, and stay positive.

The world is truely a beautiful place, that even in times of chaos and confusion,

we can come together, as one, and hold each other up.

THAT is the true experience of altruism.

 

 

 

Change · Faith · grief · Happiness · Life · Self-love · Starting over · Thoughts · Words

Pause.

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Don’t let this quiet world get you down.

There is so much hope that can be found in each sunrise,

promises held in each sunset.

Don’t stay behind windows, locked inside with panic and fear.

Open your door and step outside into the beauty of everything that still remains.

Watch the birds flying freely and let go, shake loose the restrictions you have placed on yourself.

Feel the wind on your face and let it remind you to breathe, deeply and with intention.

Look up to see the clouds floating passively in the sky and look inward to find grace.

In this time of uncertainity, look around at the things that haven’t changed to find some grounding within yourself.

Hold tight to all things good: love, patience, joy, kindness, hope.

Let go of those things that serve no real purpose: fear, anxiety, control, panic.

These long days of isolation will pass, like days always do.

Time will move forward and lives will go back to normal.

Let this time of pause be a time of self-care.

Let this time of pause remind us of what really matters.

Let this time of pause open our eyes to the things we’ve been holding onto that we now can let go of.

Pausing can be a good thing because it forces us to stop.

And when we stop we have the chance to see more clearly.

We have the chance to take chances we might never of taken before.

So step back from your windows and instead of waiting,

start living the life you really want to live when we press play again.

 

Change · Christian · Faith · God · Happiness · Life · loss · love · Marriage · Relationships · Religion · Thoughts · Words

The Walk

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The hubs and I went on what I call a ‘date night’ walk this evening. We needed some alone time, a quiet moment to breathe and just be together. We live out in the country where there are dirt roads and wide open spaces…The perfect place to get lost in God’s beauty. As we held hands (and I stopped to take a few pics) we talked about the crisis happening all around us right now, and as we talked we both felt all of our anxieties and worries lifting off of our shoulders. In this quiet world, where the future is unknown and all of our lives have been upended we decided this is the perfect time for us to press the reset button. I think God is giving us an opportunity to slow down, to look up and finally see what we have. I don’t know about you but I feel like this could be a time of great blessings. We are going to let this time, this worldly pause, reveal to us how we can be better, how we can do better and I hope our new normal will look nothing like the old one. Take it two ways, this time can either cause you stress and panic or it can be a time of paving a new road into a much needed change.

Body love · body positivity · ditch the diet · Happiness · Life · Self confidence · Self-love · Thoughts · Words

Imperfectly Perfect

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Wearing a black one-piece bathing suit, the pattern just a simple solid, I make my way to the shoreline,

the unfamiliar feeling of freedom coursing through my veins.

I’m not worrying about how my body looks,

not caring about what others are thinking of me.

I am simply present in the moment.

I feel the heat of the sun on my back, 

the way the soft breeze plays with my hair, 

the feel of the gritty sand between my toes,

and a realization comes to me,

I have finally accepted myself, 

and in doing so I have let go of fear.

The fear of not being good enough. 

The fear of other people’s judgment.  

The fear of MY judgment whenever I faced a mirror.

I’m as vulnerable as I’ll ever be in this bathing suit, 

but I am not hiding, 

I am not covering up.

I am not afraid. 

This is me.

This is who I am. 

Unapologetically,

Imperfectly perfect, me.

Faith · grief · Life · loss · love · Relationships · Starting over · Thoughts · Words

The Downpour

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doodaddy_strangers_bench

Sitting in the downpour, it felt like the world was falling apart around me.

That wet wooden bench was my foundation but it felt like it might melt into the earth and take me along with it.

How did I even get to this moment?

Once upon a time, the sun was shining and my heart was full.

The clouds were bright and the sky was the color of the ocean.

Possibilities seemed endless and hope was abundant.

Like birds flying through the air, full of freedom and grace, was my life.

Most days I felt not like I was walking but that I was dancing, floating above the ground.

Now I sit in the rain, soaking wet and completely broken.

You took with you the sun.

I raise my face to the darkening heavens and a million little tears fall upon my already wet skin.

Let this rain cleanse me so that I can be made new.

Let it fill in the cracks so that I can feel whole again.

I am tired of feeling so heavyhearted.

I shiver a little as the air around me grows colder and I take a deep breath.

I feel the weight of myself collapse so that I am lying on this bench and I give up.

I give up you. I give up us. I give up the promises and hopes we once said we had.

I give them up to whoever will take them and I let myself drown in my misery.

Like a seed that has just been planted, this water will help me grow, from something so small and buried and unnoticed to something that rises above the surface for the entire world to behold.

From this ugliness will bloom beauty.

In time I can walk away from this soaking wet, wooden bench, and start down the path to a new way, a new life, a new me.

In time, this moment will be only a memory with less feeling attached to it.

But for now, I just need to be here, in the rain, letting go.