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