Welcome to Bigger Picture Moments, a weekly writing meme where we breathe in the moments that paint a picture of the grander scheme. All moments are welcome in this space -- small or large, as community is just as important as the grander awareness brought on by searching for a bigger picture every week.

Please link your moment below, and be sure to link up at Sarah's next Thursday. Before you leave, we hope you'll take a moment to visit a few other friends and spread the love.When the words are far and few in between on this page, they're actually lodged inside my head, bumping shoulders, stepping on each others' toes, all anxious guests at a packed party inside of a too-small apartment.
And though they were invited guests, welcome guests, my tiny home just cannot accommodate the masses.
Me, the hostess, I'm frazzled, clearly not enjoying the party at all, and my guests?
Well, they are all while praying, praying, praying someone opens the fire door so they can step outside of the sweaty confines of an overcrowded space and into cool night air.
Because like any crowded room, any packed party, it's noisy in there. It's sticky. It's uncomfortable. And it's oppressing.
An over attended party never creates intimacy and conversation; more, it gives way to the whole
let's get out of here and find a place where we can talk.A place where we can listen.
A place where we can breathe.
That coffee shop down the street?
Perfect.This, friends, this place right here?
This is my coffee shop. It's a place where all my words, my guests, have the freedom to talk, listen, breathe.
And I want it to be a place where my friends and their own guests can do the same.
I've been desperately missing this place, my coffee shop, and the freedom it gives me to express and create and share and learn and connect because I've been so wrapped up in, well, life.
All the things -- the blessings, the meetings, the encounters, the dates, the playgroups, the outings, the trips, the keeping up with household chores and growing-up-too-fast little ones -- that happen in that majority of time I schedule for life.
But I need a break from that sometimes.
It's sounds funny, but I need a break from life.
I need a break from all of its goodness and all of its overwhelmingness and all of its not-as-goodness.
I need an escape from the packed party.Lately, I've not been so good at opening the fire door and breaking free from the over-crowded apartment.
Lately, I've been simmering inside the party, sweltering, bumping into the words and thoughts and feelings that poured in the door after they'd been out living life alongside with me.
And thanks to
Ellie's post, a good babysitter in the form of my sister and a
craft project with my oldest where I became way too emotionally and creatively invested in his sticker project {which, holymoly, those stickers were awesome! Glittery and 3-D and interchangeable. AMAZING!}, I saw the quiet red light over by the fire escape and raced toward it this morning, breaking into the coolness of air as I walked myself here.
To this space.
To talk.
And to listen.
And to breathe.
And to create.
And I'm oh-so glad you're here, too.
Because sometimes when we've been living, living, living, it's good to sit back, create and just simply be.