The Lupine Lady

Im a firm believer in the little things of life. 

Anyone who has been with this blog for a good amount of time will know this. I write about it all the time, because I’ve trained myself to start to notice them. No one will ever truly be capable of noticing every little blessing God showers on us each day, but I want to seek out as many as I can. 

My favorite book when I was little was a book called the Lupine Lady. I don’t remember all the details of the story, but I remember the watercolor illustrations of a woman planting lupines. She would travel the world and plant lupines wherever she went, making the world a little more beautiful. 

Looking back on it, I’ve realized how much this shaped me. Life is a gift. I want to use every ounce of it. 

I’ve struggled so much the past few months with where I am in life. I’ve gone through so many days where I think of choices I’ve made the get me here and I feel like they were safe. In August I moved out, and at the time it felt like a big deal. And it is, but at the same time, I only moved 45 minutes away. To a college that ive been so familiar with my whole life. And I go home at least three times a month, even just for dinner. My friends from high school are scattered around the country, or even the planet. And I’m still in California, where I was born and raised, doing what felt like nothing special. 

Most of this hit me last semester, and around November I was itching to leave. I love my school with all my heart, and the curriculum here actually surprised me; I realized I wasn’t as familiar with the college as I thought. I’m in love with what we do here. But at the time, I wanted to travel. I wanted to experience the world. 

I was frustrated because I knew I couldn’t leave. I took it to God so many times, and every time I knew He was telling me to stay. And yeah I was frustrated. Frustrated that Gods plan for me was so slow. Frustrated that Gods plan for me always seems to involve me waiting for something. Again and again God asks me to wait. 

2018 was the first year in forever that I’ve spent the whole year in one place. Yes, technically I moved to school, but I didn’t travel anywhere. The farthest I went at all in 2018 was LA, which is less than two hours away. I think a lot of me feeling eager to get out into the world was because of this. 
So I started off 2019 with a weekend trip to San Francisco with my friends. It was a little taste of the world, and definitely helped my travel bug. 

I’ve always believed happiness is a choice. Not to say it’s like a light switch, which we can turn on or off at any given moment. Not even to say that it’s a choice to see the good or the bad. But it’s a choice to see the good despite the bad. 
I believe that if you train yourself to notice the little blessings God sends you each day... THIS is the secret to happiness. It’s not practiced enough. Life isn’t about changing the world, but seeing God in the world. And God is loudest in the small moments. 

My campus is nestled in these lush green, rolling hillsides. I went on a hike and found a whole field of beautiful purple lupines. It brightened my day, and made me remember why lupines are my favorite flower. Because they remind me that life is the little things. Life is finding God in the little things. 

I still have a passion for travel, but God has already begun opening that door to me. This year is going to be unlike last—I’m going to experience a bit more of life I think. And I’m excited to find God in new ways throughout it all, and try to make the world a little more beautiful along the way. 


“You must do something to make the world more beautiful.” - the lupine lady