Favorite Things Tag

“Raindrops on roses
And whiskers on kittens
Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens
Brown paper packages tied up with strings
These are a few of my favorite things….

“Girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes
Snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes
Silver-white winters that melt into springs
These are a few of my favorite things”

First off, I love this song! Fantastic movie, if you haven’t seen it. You gotta love Julie Andrews!! I had to post some of the lyrics because I love the imagery in them. <3
Secondly, thank you SO much, Liv, for tagging me! That was really sweet of you. Y’all go check her out; I love her blog!
I don’t know Beth in Boots, but I’m thankful for the cute tag! I like getting to know other bloggers through neat tags like this and I hope you guys find this a worthwhile read.
Here are the seven rules :

Link back to and thank the person who tagged you.
Link back to and thank the blogger who began the tag.
List and picture seven of your favorite things.
Tag at least seven people (or as many as you can).
Use the picture above (at Beth’s request).
List the seven rules.

These are in no particular order, so without further ado, here are seven of my favorite things:

Stories

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Maybe this is a given, but I truly love words. I love language. I love reading books, novellas, and short stories. I love writing stories.
I like watching characters develop over the events of the story and I adore detailed world building. I love the elements of stories, the plots that draw you in and set you on the edge of your seat–the page-turners. And I also really enjoy the emotional tug that great authors manipulate in readers. I invest in the books I read and the characters become a part of my world.
There’s nothing like listening to a captivating storyteller. You know, the one who’s silver beard touches the floor and knobby hands run small circles on the smooth wood of his crooked walking stick. That deep hum in your chest when your enraptured by his rough voice. Your eyes stare into the flickering flames of the fire that just barely manages to chase away the night chill. Yeah, I am a story teller and I love stories!

Sunsets

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I am completely and wholly in love with sunsets. Again, this may be a bit of a given because of my love for colors, but I find them absolutely mesmerizing. I do prefer them to sunrises, but only just. I like watching the colors fade to the black of night. Sunrises, although perhaps more metaphorically inspiring because they bring the dawn and light and hope, seem just a little bleaker to me. The colors dissipate instead of intensify.
Sunsets may just be the most beautiful things on all the earth, in my opinion. I love the vivid rose and peach color that melds together, the soft gold and majestic purple. Blood red and royal blue. The iridescent colors bleed together in a magical way that’s never ever ever repeated again. The colors can’t be replicated. No crayon, paint, or pencil can every reflect what your eyes see in real life. No picture ever turns out as beautifully and no painting is realistic enough to fully capture the magnificence. (Fun fact: I have a lifetime goal to one day hire a skilled painter to paint several sunsets scenes for me with which I intend to decorate my “dream” house. So, if you know anyone, hit me up!)
Sunsets take my very breath away. I’m drawn to them. Each sunset is new and different, never like any before it or any after. Furthermore, the moment is fleeting. Something about pausing…and taking in that singular moment before it too is gone forever enchants me.

Waterfalls

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Ah! Waterfalls are so awe-inspiring! I love a good waterfall. They’re powerful and pure. Misty floats off the waterfall and gently kisses your skin. The roar when you stand at the foot of a fall is deafening and mighty. I feel giddy and wild when I hike near waterfalls. I’m one of those people who gets into the water and stands at the base of the falls, craning my neck to look up. I drop my shoes somewhere and start climbing the rocks barefooted for the best pictures.
Another life goal: Go see Niagara Falls! And I’ve heard Victoria Falls are stunning! By the way, Hawaii has some simply beautiful rain forest and waterfall hikes!! (The picture above is Manoa Falls in Oahu.)

Storms (and Seas)

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Yes, you read that right. I love storms! Specifically, thunderstorms. But I also (this sounds so terrible…) enjoy tornado weather, heavy rainstorms, and other varieties of storms. No, I do not enjoy the pain and heartache that tornadoes and hurricanes and the like bring. No, I do not revel in the death and damage they cause. However, I am in awe by the raw natural force that they are. They are a display of the magnificence of God’s power. Plus, the energy in the atmosphere is addictive!
Storms fascinate me. I relish the dark, black clouds billowing in the sky. I love lightning and thunder. The electricity that charges the air. You can even smell it! (Well, I can, but I lived in tornado alley for years, so I learned what the conditions were and developed that sense from years of experience.) I get positively giddy when the thunder rumbles low and long. (I also am enamored by low bass voices and singers, fun fact.) Also, I love that loud, sudden, out of the blue, BAM clap of thunder in the dead of night. Rain soothes me and puts me right to sleep. Storms are thrilling and soothing and they speak to something deep inside my soul.
This is a bit of an add on, since it’s not a storm, but the sound of the waves rolling in and out…in and out…in and out reaches that same place in my soul that thunderstorms do. Something about the repetitive, low, almost roar that sounds from everywhere combined with the distinct taste and smell of salt in the air and grainy, wet sand between your toes. That’s home to me.

Children

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Mmm…there is nothing in this world more precious than a child. Children melt my heart and call my name. They leave the sticky footprints of disaster behind them everywhere they go. They find beauty in the simplest of things. They speak the truth. And they radiate joy so easily. They love wholly and without reservation. They don’t hold back and play games or toy with your emotions. They’re just who they are.
We learn to be reserved and distrusting as we grow. We begin to be concerned with the opinions of others and we’re corrupted by the world. But children are innocent and loving and entirely trusting. They put their faith into you. They trust you to bathe them, feed them, provide for them. Children run to you when they’re scared or hurt and know deep down inside with all they are that you can make it better. I love the image of innocence and that unashamed trust. I want to trust my God like a child trusts and I want to love with the heart of a child. I want to capture that innocence and regain the simplicity and pure peace of childhood.
I also really love the smell of newborn babies. No, really. Think about it. Have you ever held a newborn? Not only are the adorable, precious, and so, so fragile, but they smell distinctly and uniquely like a newborn! Holding those beautiful babies cannot be compared to anything else, but even after I’ve left them and return to my own day and world, I can smell, for just a few hours, their fresh, new smell on my skin. And it leaves me smiling inside and out.

Mornings

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Yup! I am a morning person! I’m one of those incessantly chipper, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed people in the mornings! Well, that’s not entirely true. I am bright-eyed and bushy-tailed after I’ve had my breakfast and a dark, quiet morning.
I don’t turn the lights on when I wake up. I usually get ready in the dark, or mostly dark. I wake up and meander into the bathroom and then into the kitchen. Once I eat, I’m a little more awake and can handle a little light. I like natural light in the morning, but once I’ve eaten, I can usually handle turning on a light if I need it. The trick to the great, chipper attitude, for me, is the dark and the quiet first.
When I get up on time, I read my Bible and devotions, if I have them too. It puts my mind and my heart in the right place to start the day, and that is what fixes my gentle, happy spirit. I’m not a hyper chipper person. I’m more of a quiet chipper person. I like to see the good in people and situations, but I’m not bouncing off the walls. It’s not in my personality. However, I can be a total grump if I wake up too early, without enough sleep, to a bright light, or if I’m jarred out of sleep. I’m also really crabby without breakfast. My body doesn’t do well without food on a regulated schedule, and that affects my mood. A nice, quiet, coffeeless (love the smell, but can’t stand to drink the stuff!!), and dark morning to myself is just what I need to get my days started.

Relationships

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Okay, so it’s true I’m a completely hopeless romantic at heart, but that isn’t solely what I mean by this. I love community. I love fellowship. I love friendship. True friendship. Real relationships between real people. Deep relationships that are far more than hello in the hallway. I mean the kind of relationships that last a lifetime. People leaning on each other, growing with each other, and sharing lives together. I love the people in my life who support me and share their troubles with me. I love being the shoulder to cry on and the resounding shout when things go right. I love that connection between us. I believe we, people, are meant to be in community with one another. I think we’re relational creatures.
I love to cook and bake, and I come from a big family, so we don’t cook in small portions. In fact, when I went to college, I struggled with cooking meals for myself because I always cooked too much. I didn’t know how to cook small. My favorite thing about cooking is not the awesome creativity outlet that it is, the experimentation with foods, flavors, designs, and presentation. It isn’t the exploration of new cuisines and cultures or even the sentimentality of generational recopies. It isn’t the amazing feeling I get when I make a dish by myself from scratch. Those are all great parts of cooking, parts that make cooking the fun hobby that it is for me. But the best part of all, is when I get to share the food with others. I like inviting my closest friends and family over and watching their faces light up with joy and satisfaction over the food I worked so hard to create. I love sharing the meal with them–fellowship. That’s why I cook.
One of my favorite relationships is the protective older brother and his younger sister relationship. I’m the oldest in my family, so I don’t have an older brother. I do have three younger brothers, and one of them is only slightly younger, so maybe it’s just a relationship I wish I had, but it melts my heart into a puddle every time. I love that protective nature and the integrity and nobility it takes to have that. I love it because it’s people taking care of other people, people who love each other enough to stand up for each other and celebrate each other. I love relationships and studying human behavior. It’s one of my favorite things. 🙂