an exciting announcement :: packing up boxes

hey sweet friends, it's been a long time since this space has been used. this year has been such a beautiful time of taking time away to savor the moments and just taking more of a break from social media. and i've missed creating in this space and the community that has surrounded the blogging world. but, i'm deciding to start things afresh and for the first time a little over five years, i'm moving online spaces.

you can follow the new beginnings over at immarciamary.blogspot.com. 

these past five years have been so great with you all as friends and all your words of encouragement. so many of you have inspired me in creating and being brave in publishing what i've been creating. i will never forget a comment from one of you about a year or two into blogging, encouraging me to post my own work instead of collecting from pinterest. that entirely changed my blogging perspective  and i am so grateful. you have all been entirely amazing!

i will be keeping this space open for personal records, but there will be no new content on here from now on. i hope you join me on my new adventure.  it's been real, ya'll. 

xoxo. 

- marcia

THE DELIGHT RETREAT 2015 | rooted & grounded in love

"We will endeavor to LOVE others at all times. We will seek JESUS AND HIS KINGDOM and let our hearts be filled with more of Him everyday. We will LIVEin freedom and redemption as chosen and loved women. We will rejoice in HOPE, seek joy, and celebrate grace. We will wake with open hands and learn to wear our hearts PROUDLY, to tell our stories with laughter and weeping and song. We will be seekers, sojourning souls walking narrow and long roads leading HOME..."

- THE DELIGHT MANIFESTO

APRIL, TWENTY FIFTEEN

almost three years ago, i stumbled upon a facebook group for young creatives called Delight. i joined and ever since, i've found a family. earlier this spring, i had the amazing chance to attend the annual Delight retreat in Leavenworth, Washington. i boarded my plane to Seattle with a full heart and a stomach full of butterflies. soon enough, i was in the Seattle airport food court with a giant group of girls. As each girl arrived, Anna Gray squealed and started running. there were hugs and a few tears and so much happiness, and that was only the very beginning...

four days with thirty-four beautiful women. 
i learned about community in a way i have never experienced before. community over competition. community over comparison. 
the entire weekend was filled with more laughter and tears than i've ever experienced. we danced and ate and took photographs and prayed and took over starbucks on the way home from an afternoon in town. we had late night dance parties and ate icecream in the kitchen at 3:00 a.m on our last night together. we had prayer groups on the stairwells and four of us sat on a daybed, and watched God defeat the attacks of the enemy through prayer. we held hands in a circle before dinners and then shared stories around the table of how God worked and how He was leading. it was small groups and declaring the victory over chains that had held us back. it was dwelling on the Truth of God's word and finding freedom in that. it was worshiping in the firelight and feeling someone's hand on your shoulder when God was wrecking your heart. the Holy Spirit was there and working and binding hearts and lives together, what precious times!

on the last morning, after our luggage was loaded and the first of the goodbyes had started, we all gathered in a tight circle and getting ready to pray together one more time when one of the video guys said, "hey guys, look... this is community." and honestly i think that was the best description of these few days. yes, we laughed. yes, we photographed. yes, we cried and worshiped together. yes, we danced and ate good food. but, we found how community looks and it's beautiful.

PHOTO CRED: Tamra LaRae Photography

these women are so passionate and so talented (omg, seriously. the skillz, i can't even.) and running hard after the heart of Jesus. and i am forever grateful for these vibrant and fierce souls (hashtag warrior princesses).

xoxo. -marcia
(for more information on Delight and the beauty that this ministry is, here is the website, the facebook page, and on instagram @delightandbe)

the full steam ahead, can't catch your breath kinda crazy.

hiiii, friends! long time no talk?! i can't believe it's been so long since i've blogged and i've not been consistently blogging since like before christmas?! ahh, life has been such a wild and crazy ride lately! later last year and earlier this year, it felt as though my life was on hold and i was on the edge waiting for something to happen. and spring has come with new life and adventure in almost every moment.

here is just a small peak into the past two months and all the adventures and love and laughter and new experiences and friendships it's held. (seriously though, look at all those pretty faces I got to meet!) hopefully i'll be blogging all about these in the very near future. i have so many stories and photographs to share!

xoxo. -marcia
also: you guys!! i finally got to meet sweet grace for the first time after knowing each other through blogging for the past four years. we spent three and a half hours together talking nonstop and she is even more lovely in person than she is online. such joy!

I'M A HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATE! | #classof2015

[spring 2015 - due to a technical difficulty, this post was reposted and reappeared in your feeds. whoops.] 

HELLO WORLD, I'M A GRADUATE NOW.

Graduation happened in a whirlwind. I actually didn't even have time to make a list to pack by and I basically ended up tossing my clothes in a bag, grabbing my camera, chargers, and laptop and leaving for Florida. But finally, after 12 years of textbooks and crying over math (let's be real okay?) and essay writing and exams and 5 years of online classes with teachers I hadn't met, but have made me in ways I don't fully know yet... it's over. accomplished. finished.

Florida was marvelous and I got some stellar froyo, white beaches, and sandy toes along with a diploma, so you know, the deal wasn't really terrible. ;) In total, we drove through eleven states (and maybe it's just me, but I'm 99% sure that nobody in Alabama and Mississippi actually use turning signals). And we tried new foods, like crayfish in mass amounts, and discovered the glory of booking hotels through the internet, "wait, what is that smell?". I also got to meet sweet Grace after almost five years of being blogging friends and we spent a few hours talking nonstop- she's such a dear heart!

This post is missing so much and these are just a few photos, but I'm publishing it anyways because wow. it's real and it all happened. wow wow wow. 

also two thoughts: I'm a free bird. whatta time to be aliveeeee. 

xoxo. -marcia

a rainy roadtrip.

[some rainy frames from the our quick little roadtrip to nebraska last week] 

"it will come sometime. some beautiful morning she will wake up and find it is tomorrow. not today, but tomorrow.  and then things will happen, wonderful things."

- l.m.montgomery

xoxo. -m

a zoo day | photo essay

FEBRUARY NINETEENTH, TWENTY FIFTEEN

our february zoo day was a bright and sunny, and a high of sixty-five degrees. (and two days later we had over 10 inches snow. trust colorado weather to blow your mind.) we tramped around the zoo, counting pregnant ladies and the number of double strollers and laughing at innocent children reading the signs and saying "mom, look. there's wild ass." (insert laughing/crying emoticon)

there were kangaroos and lazy cheetas and stinky ape dens. we ducked in a out of building avoiding the melting snow through the roof slats, (for the record, getting hit by a clump of snow right on the nose-piece of your glasses isn't the most pleasant experience.) and i almost tripped over a goose.

we met up with friends and missed others due to dead cellphones and going in opposite directions. the peacocks shamelessly flirted with each other and we made hump-day jokes at the camel, although it was thursday. 

i think i have decided that the elephants were my favorite and that it was all great fun, but i'm chill with not going to the zoo for another five years.xoxo. -marcia

currently + life stuff.

life lately. oh man. it's so crazy how waiting was the theme in my life and then suddenly the chapter closes and it seems as though everything is happening so quickly, i can't catch up. 2015 has already been a wild adventure and it has a ton more in store. a month ago, i turned seventeen. i'm going to be flying to washington in april for the delight retreat and meeting some absolutely incredible women. i'm in my last quarter of high school, which means when the second weekend in may comes around, i'm going to be a graduate and in florida. crazy things are bound to be happening this summer and just wow, applications are on my "to do list" along with a research paper, a poem i need to memorize, and working on new job stuff. this is life. and despite the bittersweet moments, this life is living, breathing, wild, adventurous, and full of endless possibilities. 

all photos via my instagram

listening:
we got a love - lennon & maisy stella
this is living - hillsong young & free
no longer slaves - bethel music
heartbreak dreamer - mat kearney
we'll keep running forever - joshua radin

reading:

bittersweet - shauna niequist

what katie ate - katie quinn davies

emily of new moon - l.m montgomery (reread)

quoting:

+   "keep good company, read good books, love good things and cultivate the soul and body as faithfully as you can." -lousia may alcott

+   "we are becoming by grace what God is by nature." -st. athanasius

+   "i believe still today what i have always believed: that God is good, that the world He made is extraordinary, and that His comfort is like nothing else on earth." -shauna niequist

how has life been for you? spill all the details. :wink: (no really i'd love to know!)

xoxo.-marcia 

winter adventures | a photo essay

it's been a while, i know i know.  my laptop crashed a few weeks ago and i'm just now finally getting my old programs re-installed and getting around to photo editing again. life has been full of surprises and new adventures and old friends and midterms. but, it's good to be back in this little space of mine.

we are currently living in the mountains until spring and over president's day, the national park we currently live about two miles from, had a free day in the park. so even though it was snowing all day and our car has terrible snow capabilities, we grabbed our coats and coffee mugs and drove 20 mph through a whole loop and saw a lot of elk and frosted pine trees and mini mountain sheep along the road.good times, good times.xoxo. -m