\n
Have you even taken the time to look inside your house from the outside? I mean really<\/strong> just stopped to take a look inside?<\/p>\n I was listening to the radio again today on the way to a meeting when the country song, My Front Porch Looking<\/em><\/strong> in came on. LoneStar sings about finally owning a little piece of land where he can see the sun rise and the moon lay on the fences.<\/p>\n \n He then does something that, I suspect, many of us have not taken the time to do. He turns his head and takes a look inside to see what it looks like there. It’s in that moment that he sees the most beautiful view he says he’ll ever see…a family he adores a woman he loves.<\/p>\n \n While many of us do not fit the bill of the traditional family and we may even live alone, what does the inside of our home say about us?<\/p>\n \n I took a look when I unlocked the door last night…I’d left the lights on and I could see inside from the car. It was when I stood at the door after I opened it that I saw the most.<\/p>\n \n What I saw was years of accumulated furniture, pictures, and items that had stories to tell of their own. In fact, there aren’t many things in there that were just bought or accumulated for no reason.<\/p>\n \n When I looked in I saw a small table carefully built by a good friend, Chris, and another built by a friend, Clarence, who has long since passed away. His daughter and I are still friends today. I saw a chair my Aunt Dud sat in for 47 years teaching 5th graders in Wilmington, NC. There’s a picture of my son in fireman’s gear when he was six and a wall full of pictures of he, his Dad, our friends, my cowboy and his mother…some who have died and others who are an active part of my life today.<\/p>\n \n In another part of the room is a framed poem penned by my son when he was very young and given to me by his Aunt for a present one year. Then there is a family made quilt that has to be over 100 years old and is carefully placed on the back of my easy chair to wrap up in when I’m cold. A copy of my new book lays open, face down, on the ottoman nearby…years of hard work in the making with many stories about the family and friends during my 55 years.<\/p>\n \n As I walked in and looked at the rest of the house, I realized I have a home with real character…that represents years of being a single Mom raising a wonderful young man who is now 23. I thought about the years of having him and his friends burst into the door and bound upstairs to his bedroom…a room which is now my craft room where friends and their children and others come to make jewelry, lamps and creative projects. There have been hours of memories spent there making surprise gifts for others since my son moved out on his own.<\/p>\n \n I think I’m saying that my house is a beautiful place to me, full of memories and love that were and are healthy and good.<\/p>\n \n I encourage you to take a look at your home from the outside, and look at what it represents to you. Is it all about healthy living with family and friends that you love and care for?<\/p>\n \n If you see things going on in your home that do not produce good memories, you should consider what you can do to make that different. What a shame it would be if you only see pain when you look into the door of your home.<\/p>\n \n You and yours deserve better.<\/p>\n \n My wish for you today<\/strong> is that you can see good things when you look into your home – be it a small apartment or a spacious house. If you can’t, then consider making changes so that you can say, like the song, ” I see what beautiful is about when I’m looking in.”<\/p>\n \n ~Joellen<\/p>\n \n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Have you even taken the time to look inside your house from the outside? I mean really just stopped to take a look inside?<\/p>\n I was listening to the radio again today on the way to a meeting when the country song, My Front Porch Looking In came on. LoneStar sings about finally owning a little piece of land where he can see the sun rise and the moon lay on the fences.<\/p>\n He then does something that, I suspect, many of us have not taken the time to do. He turns his head and takes a look inside to see what it looks like there. It’s in that moment that he sees the most beautiful view he says he’ll ever see…a family he adores a woman he loves.<\/p>\n While many of us do not fit the bill of the traditional family and we may even live alone, what does the inside of our home say about us?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29,12,25,22,32,16,27,18,4,3,31,30,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-american-pride","category-education","category-familyfriends-gatherings","category-friendship","category-holidays","category-life-events","category-living-life-to-the-fullest","category-parenting-families","category-relationships-marriage","category-relationships-singles","category-releationships-general","category-teenagers","category-serving-others"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=101"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reflectionsfromacountrygirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}