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Gindi Vincent

The Dish on Career, Fashion, Faith, and Family

Dreams

Fallow Fields

June 6, 2018 by Gindi Leave a Comment

A couple of hours into the drive, I turn down my favorite two lane farm to market road.

My job now takes me into south Texas.

Every month I find myself on this road.

It’s become familiar to me.

Every single time I tell myself to pull over and take pictures to capture the beauty.

But the urge to get to the destination and begin work generally overrules the longing.

Nonetheless, this time, I snap pictures.

I’m unable to capture the spectacular beauty of the bays with small foamy peaks forming in the breeze. I drive over this bridge and breathe more deeply.

But the fields. I capture the fields.

They’re in various stages. My favorite is the fields with mature sorghum, their yellow bushy heads waving as I pass.

Then there are the lush green fields, just beginning to emerge.

The exquisite Monet-inspiring fields of hay pop up every few miles. Those are the fields I know best.

Marring the landscape, in my feeble non-agrarian mind, are the fallow fields interspersed between the beauty.

I’ve lived in farming communities so fallow is not a foreign concept.

Yet I found myself pulled to research it when I returned home. Why, with all the glorious crops these fields could showcase, must they lie there, dirty brown?

I stumbled onto a website called Wonderopolis that has now become my favorite new on-line stop. I can’t wait to explore all the wonders Wonderopolis explores with my imaginative kids.

The wonder of crop rotation (and fallow fields) is one of their many topics of exploration. Wonderopolis shares:

As farmers thousands of years ago learned, several problems begin to creep up when you don’t rotate crops. All of these problems can lead to decreased yields…

The land can become “tired” and less fertile. The same type of crop planted repeatedly in the same area keeps draining the land of the same nutrients needed for that plant’s growth.  Certain pests can reach levels that are hard to control when they learn to make a home near a field that always has the same type of crop…

In the past, not planting anything (also called leaving the field fallow) allowed the land to rest and replenish its nutrients.

Why should it be any different for us?

I entered a fallow period.

All I saw was the dirt. The lovely golden fields next to my empty acres.

But it’s the fallow seasons that allow us time to replenish. Increase productivity. Prepare for the fertile seasons ahead.

And then there are the times we are kicking and screaming to avoid lying fallow. Or fighting the need to change the crops we’re planting.  Because we know what we know.  We’re a species resistant to change.

So we fret and moan about why we’re tired and producing less and being attacked on all sides.

We clutch the walls and cling to the status quo but the status quo has worn us down.

The fallow fields.

The changing crops.

Those beautiful painful things do the same good work in our lives they do in the fields. Wonderopolis says it “battles against the forces of erosion,” “pests are deterred,” “increases productivity,” and “replenishes nutrients.”

I looked on the brown dirt with new eyes. I saw the beauty.

The differences in the fields and the variety of crops they hold showcase fresh beauty.

I am reminded to find the beauty in whatever season I’m in. There’s value in each one.

Filed Under: Dreams Tagged With: seasons

God-sized Dreams Post, In His Time

August 29, 2016 by Gindi Leave a Comment

My original God’s timing story is the one of our years of infertility.  Little did we know at the time that God was saving us from heartache. A tumor had taken up residence in my uterus which would have crushed any embryo who attached.  I could never have asked or imagined a tumor would be removed and the very next year, to the month of the tumor removal, we welcomed the triplets into our home.

It’s happened over and over again I’m certain, but I’m recognizing it all the time now.  These past two years are a series of His timing.  From the small to the large. From the career to the family.

The summer of the book release, I tried and tried to find speaking engagements.  Every request I made went unreturned or uninterested.  When I stopped, He started.  Every single speaking engagement I have accepted, over 20 in each 2014 and 2015, came through no work or connection of my own.  I will get a random call, email, or LinkedIn request.  This year, God helped me move from a period of accepting requests from a place of scarcity (if I say no, I’ll never be asked again) to a place of security and provision (if I say no, He keeps providing, and if the requests dry up, I’m also okay with what He has next).

His timing.

He works things out, down to the smallest detail, but only In His Time. 

 

Won’t you join me over at God-sized Dreams today to read the rest of the story…

Filed Under: Dreams Tagged With: god-sized dreams

For the Young Dreamer, at God-sized Dreams

June 6, 2016 by Gindi Leave a Comment

Today, I’m sharing some advice for the young dreamer who has lost her way or is just frustrated with the journey…

Third, and last for this little note, would you guard your heart (and mind?) (and body?)?  I have watched with great heartbreak the destruction the enemy can wreak on the most promising young dreamers.  The devil knows if he can take you out early, he can keep hundreds or thousands of people from knowing who God is because he dimmed your light.  If you have run away, or if you are living with someone just to feel loved, or if you are suffering under addiction to drugs or alcohol, you can come back.  You can return to those who love you and believe in you.  You are welcome, day or night, in the arms of Father God.

 

Would you join me for the entire letter over at God-sized Dreams today?

Filed Under: Dreams Tagged With: god-sized dreams

Spring Book Club at God-sized Dreams, Part 4 and 5

March 31, 2016 by Gindi Leave a Comment

Y’all, it’s been so nuts I forgot to run the tickler last week for part 4 of the book club I’m leading over at God-sized Dreams this spring.

If you missed last week’s on how to understand the role of your time and your decisions in the overwhelming busy you feel, then hop over here to catch up.

Here’s an excerpt from this week’s final installment the spring book club of Breaking Busy:

 

The lie of shame.  Shame drives us into a never-ending cycle of trying to fix ourselves, to prove to the world and ourselves that we are not inherently flawed, that we have value.

The lie of not enough. Every day the Enemy lies to people, to tell you you’re not good enough, trying to distract them from their calling. 

The lie of unworthiness.  When we live life feeling unworthy, we wonder if we will ever be enough – smart enough, creative enough, thin enough, rich enough, spiritual enough. We stay stuck in cycles of busyness trying to please others to gain assurance and acceptance. 

 

I hope you’ll continue reading how to break busy over at God-sized Dreams.

Filed Under: Dreams Tagged With: god-sized dreams

Spring Book Club at God-sized Dreams, Part 3

March 17, 2016 by Gindi Leave a Comment

I hope you’ll join me over at God-sized Dreams today for the next installment of the spring book club I’m leading on Breaking Busy.

Here’s a sneak preview of today:

“My worries were born out of my need to be in control, my desire to know what was next in my life, and a lack of gratitude for the grace he had already given me… Worry is different than anxiety. Anxiety is a deep sense of doom rooted in a fear that is often a lie from the Enemy. Anxiety cripples us and leaves us feeling incapable of escaping our situation. Worry, on the other hand, is our attempt to control the future.”  Breaking Busy, Chapter 5

We have to cut out the worry stopping us from doing what God is calling us to do (and not to do).

Filed Under: Dreams Tagged With: book club, god-sized dreams

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