How Do You Refresh?

My journal has been getting a workout lately. So many things flooding through my head. I've even had to pause to journal multiple times throughout the day, because it can't all wait until later. 

So when I saw the question How do you refresh?...I had to write about that too. Mind if I share?

How do I refresh? With words - the same way I do everything else. Words are how I think, celebrate, grieve, process, and learn. So yes, even the journaling itself is refreshing to me. It gives me a chance to clear out my mind so I can refresh and, of course, refill. Always refill.

And by the same token, I refresh when I scrapbook. I relive the memories, preserve them, and create something beautiful to have for the future. It refreshes me to make the books and again to look at them.

I refresh when I walk, though I need to remember to put on the right shoes for that! (Ryan and I took advantage of a warm day yesterday by walking allllllll around the edges of town, but I wore my cute shoes, not my comfy ones.) The fresh air, the sound of birds singing...that refreshes me as much as the movement itself.

I'm refreshed by waking up to sunshine again. I think I mentioned that I had Ryan swap some blinds in our apartment so light comes in better, and it's been so great to wake up more gradually. Hasn't hurt that there have been some stunning sunrises lately! (Things that do NOT refresh me include the time change, so let's not talk about that, mmmmmkay?) 

Days off refresh me, and we just had several in a row, between some long weekends and bereavement days. I drank up every single day off - especially the ones where I never left the couch. When work days are long, leisurely days off are sweeter. 

Baking refreshes me. (Sampling the work does too, but I digress.) Sometimes nothing fixes life like a proper batch of cookies. Chocolate chip.

Music refreshes me. If you ever see me driving, don't roll down your window. It just removes one more barrier between you and an off-tune (but much-loved) concert.

A good text thread refreshes me. A couple of weeks ago, I had an on-again-off-again conversation throughout a day with the worship pastor I served when I worked at the church last year. She became such a dear friend to me during that time, and we can get going on some of the best stories over text. Partway through, she told me conversations like that remind her why she misses spending every day with me. Same. But oh how great that conversation was!

This is not near the bottom of the list because it's low in priority, okay? Studying the Bible refreshes me. This Lent study I'm doing is showing me all sorts of new-to-me things I've never noticed in Scripture before. Loving it. And I'm also refreshed in knowing that will never change. No matter how old I get or how much I study and learn, it will always refresh me.

And of course, time with Ryan refreshes me. No matter what we're doing, whether it can be considered the most fun or unspeakably hard, is refreshing, because it's shared with him. The past nine months have indeed carried some of the hardest things we've ever done in our lives, but we also have each other all day every day, and that's the best. 

There's more, I know, but these are some of the things that refresh my heart. What about you?