Transformation Begins With Change

I instagramed this photo last week and little did I know taking the moment to close this chapter of my life would be so transforming.

Months ago {hello Easter} I commited to reading the book Celebration of Discipline for Lent. 

Three months later, last week, I finally finished.

Over the past few weeks I only had a few chapters left and I kept on telling myself I just needed to finish it.   I have so many other books I wanted to start reading but I knew if I didn't just make myself finish this book now, I would never finish it.

And that day that I finished that last chapter...a chapter on the discipline of celebration...I closed the book with a sigh of relief and a heart of joy.   

I did it.  I finished.  I made it.

What at first was celebration over finishing this goal...this book...lead to the realization that not only did I finish this book but I gained so much more.   

A more disciplined and focused life.

Along with the book, the change was slow moving.  It didn't just happen one day.  There was no one day where it all just clicked.

I was slowly being transformed each day I chose discipline.

I look back at the person I was when I decided to read this book and the many months before.  I was in a rut.  I was lazy.  I was unmotivated.  I lost sight of myself and the person I wanted to be and the person I believe I am designed to be.

I cannot even begin to pinpoint the changes that have lead to this transformation.
 
So many of these things I have been dealing with for a long time...even perhaps my whole life.

But in discipline I have found freedom.  Freedom to be. 

...

If I could sum this all up in a song, it would be this one by Florence + The Machine.

Whenever I hear this song come on I want to dance with my arms wide open...bare footed...and in the rain.

My spirit is full...and the weight of the world disappears as it flows away with the rain.

The dog days are over.