Bagging up the sun-drenched summer of your life - to retrieve someday in the winter of your life

Ann Voskamp has some thoughts about motherhood and the passing of time:

Motherhood is seeing the map of your own bones unfold into a whole other person and the ride of a lifetime.

And sometimes all you want to do is go back, get a do-over — sometimes all you want to do is bag up the whole sun-drenched summer of your life — to retrieve someday in the winter of your life.

Ann recently celebrated her tenth anniversary of blogging, which is one more year than I:

10 years this September, 10 unexpected years I’ve been writing here in this corner, a whole decade of collecting lines of our story, His Story. So we can go back to what we bottled and taste again of who we are — to remind ourselves of who we are when we forget.

Sometimes you don’t know you’re walking through a door until you find yourself inside.

Sometimes you don’t know what He’ll use to heal you, sometimes you won’t know the cost. Sometimes you won’t be prepared for the fire and the heat and the Spirit and the fear-begging-to-be-made courage. I never expected so much joy to come in so many unexpected ways.

How much of your life do you leave behind memories the way you want?

Ann also has a new book out called Unwrapping the Greatest Gift: A Family Celebration of Christmas.