Traci Michele Photography

Photography

Relevant 2010

by

A beautiful drive.  Alone to praise and hear God’s heartbeat.  I keep looking back, thinking I must be forgetting something.  Oh yeah, it’s my children.   Those empty seats stare back at me. That once annoying chatter, I now miss.
I catch myself drifting as I stare at His masterpiece all around.  Beautiful trees painted across bright blue sky.  I can  picture His Hand, stretching forth… a little green here, a bit of orange there, some rich reds and golden there.   He painted it for me today!
My heart shifts with anticipation and wonder.  I remember the voices in looks back at home.  Who goes to a blogging conference?  they speak with confused eyes.
But they do not know that you, your faces… your hearts, spread across keys of space and time called the Internet, have brought encouragement to my heart.
I now step on pavement, bags strewn across shoulder, wheels echoing as I pull suitcase with shaky hand, heart beating loud above the rest.
Our familiar faces meet, eyes catch, arms, HEARTS, embrace.
With each speaker, the ground of my heart is being toiled.  God is taking His Sovereign gardening tool to my heart and soul.
It digs through that hardened topsoil.  The soil I thought was just fine.  I find that it is a bit dry and cracked.  
Dirt from underneath is lifted up and dropped.  Wow, that hurt… but somehow it feels good.  Another amazing women of God speaks… she digs a little deeper.  More toiling.  More churning.  
Eyes cannot keep the flooding of water from pouring down.  Neatly folded cloth napkin is unraveled once again.  I dab my eyes over and over, and I do not care.   There is no shame, in a room full of women, to grab a fancy cloth napkin and get snot and mascara all over it.
With each sweet soul connection, words that breath life, and point to Jesus, my heart-ground is being prepared for the Harvest.  Yes, the Harvest.  
Ann Voskamp, you did not know, that with your messy heart spilled forth to us women, you would bring a Harvest of souls redirected to Jesus.  Pointing us back to what we are called to be; simply humble servants. (Mark 10:45)
This week has been life changing for me, and countless others.  It took a “blogging conference” to show me, life isn’t about blogging.  Those little faces back at home need me to meet them face to face.  Cheek to cheek.  That I cannot save the world.  
But then again, we can!  As we live each day, to bring God glory in our homes, marriages, and lives… we are bringing Him glory… and changing the world, one person at a time, as we point them to Jesus.  So tell your story, dear reader.  Tell it by living.  By living and telling you are story, you are healing both the reader and the broken writer, yourself.  (Ann).
Reflections… 

 One of my very favorite bloggy friends… Heather!

 Um!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Hello!   Ann Voskamp hugged me! Pre-order her book HERE today.  You will be blessed!

 My very sweet friend and roomie this weekend, Lindsey.

 The adorableness oozes from Jessica @ Muthering Heights.

 The always classy Sarah Mae!

 I couldn’t contain my excitement for an Angie hug! (Bring The Rain)

 Courtney from Women Living Well!

I met Mommy of 10, September and Lynnette from Dancing Barefoot on Weathered Ground:

 Jessica Turner from The Mom Creative:

 The spectacular women of God behind (in)courage!

 Rachel from A Steady Rain:

 The wonderful woman behind GUSSY SEWS!


The 4 of us shared a room this weekend.  We shared more than a physical room… we bore our souls and found refuge and strength (Lindsey, Alicia, and Colleen).

Oh Lord, You’re Beautiful

I want to take Your WORD and shine it all around
First help me just live it Lord
And when I’m doing well
Help me to never seek the crown
For my reward is giving glory to You.

Thanks for visiting!

Comments

  4. This is wonderful! Job well done. I too, was there and sorry I didn’t get to meet you. The pictures are great and help to preserve memories for me also. Thank you. With this, I still keep meeting friends…sisters in Christ. Thanks be to God. Please note my blog is so new and a work in progress :)May Grace be with you…

  7. I love seeing all the photos. How fun to get to meet people that you recognize from blogs. I hope to go in the future sometime but am really nenjoying reading and learning from your posts.

    Very cool,
    Amy @ Missional Mama

  8. I keep hearing how amazing it was!! Everyone seems to be especially smitten with Ann. Love her blog. It’s so different from everything.

  9. Oh I am so silly! I saw you at the conference…I think we even talked but I didn’t realize you were Traci Michelle! Ugh! I bet I’m going to do that a lot!
    You have beautiful pictures. I look forward to sharing my experience. I am just too exhausted to gather my thoughts (so I’m reading everyone else’s, lol)
    I also still feel like I’m bouncing on the train as I sit here typing (weird!) 🙂
    -Christin

  10. I’m glad you had the opportunity to go. Hopefully this will be an annual event and I’ll get to go next year. We’ll just have to see how God works things out 🙂

  12. I’ve been looking for posts on the Relevant Conference as I had so hoped to attend but couldn’t. I loved to see all of your photos and recognized so many of the bloggers I follow.

    It’s such a small world with bloggers. Lindsey and I emailed one another when she learned that I lived in Phoenix. She asked me to reach out to her little sister who is local here. Sadie and I went to church together twice and I hope to get together with her again.

    Please share what you learned at the conference too. I am looking forward to reading it all. 🙂

    Blessings and love,
    Debbie

  15. Here I go again-the tears. First at Courtney’s blog now yours! What a sap I must be!

    I hope to meet so many of you ladies in real life someday! Such beautiful faces and hearts!

  19. Oh.My.Goodness! Your pictures are wonderful! And you’re taller than Lindsey! 🙂

    I have been so heartbroken that I didn’t go, but as it turned out, we had a little bit of a crisis at home this past weekend. Had I been at Relevant, I’m sure I’d have been a miserable wreck, thinking about what was happening here, so I know it was all part of God’s perfect plan that I didn’t go.

    Still, can’t wait for the next time all my favorites are gathered in the same place! I’ll be there FOR SURE!

  22. It was so amazing I was worried I would never be able to put it into words. I still barely even covered a tiny portion of it.