Handing Out Your Flowers Before Getting Some of Your Own

"Never suppress a generous thought."
-Camilla E. Kimball  


In high school, I wrote a poem that was published in a book, a collection of writings from Alabama students. The poem is about the irony of how we as a society lavish the dead with flowers. We buy hundreds of bouquets to place at their funerals, and we shower their graves in rosebuds. Yet the person who has passed on never gets to see these or enjoy them. The poem ends with how we should instead be focused on giving people flowers while they are living, celebrating, breathing.

Recently this poem became a great analogy in my life. I was working at the Samford Football Hospitality Tent as an Ambassador with my friend, Hunter Gibbs. I saw a lady walking by in the most beautiful blue, peplum top with jeans that fit her perfectly, wedges, and her hair done in the most gorgeous, high ponytail. She looked like Julia Engel, my favorite Instagram blogger, except with a few more curves. I looked at Hunter and said, "Wow, she looks beautiful." Hunter looked back at me, confused as to why I was telling him this. He asked, "Then why don't you go tell her?" It made me aware of all the times I have withheld compliments or encouragement, just because it meant that I would have to (barely) step out of my comfort zone. But aren't people worth that? I thought of encouragement as being like a bouquet of flowers. The irony is the same for both funeral words and bouquets. It makes just as much nonsense to lift up the deceased with honoring words that no one ever told him or her than to pamper them in flowers they will never see or smell. I want to get to the end of my life and have given away all of the encouragement and flowers that people whom I meet deserve to receive.

Go lift someone up. Go give someone flowers.



Infinite X's and O's
Claire

The Most Perfect Blueberry Cupcakes

My favorite holiday has always been Easter. Mainly because it is my favorite story of the Jesus whom I love. He conquered the worst thing that could ever happen to you and me--death, so that there is nothing holding us back from God's love. I just can't get over it. There was a story told in church this morning that gave me all the feels, and I want to share it with you, along with a recipe for some very tasty blueberry cupcakes. Enjoy.

There once was a priest, and every day he was haunted by a sin he committed while he was in seminary school. It ate away at him, and no matter what he did to cover it or forget it, there it always was, reminding him of his guilty, humanly self. There was a woman at his church who began to tell others that she saw Jesus in her dreams and would have conversations with Him. Skeptical, the priest decided to try out her "dreams." He requested that the next time she had a dream in which she spoke with Jesus, she ask Jesus what the sin was that the priest had committed in seminary school. The woman agreed, and a few weeks later the priest asked her if Jesus had told her his sin. She said, "Oh, yes. I asked Him what your sin was, and He told me that he couldn't remember."

What truth, right? How beautiful it should make you feel that God looked upon you with such sadness for your lost and weary soul that He sent His only son as the only offering Satan would take for your sins. Because of this, you and I get to live free and be in the House of God forever. When Jesus and God look down and see me, they see the best Claire McKee there is, no matter how I've messed up that day. What a sweet life it is. 

XX, 
Claire 


P.S. 
THE BEST BLUEBERRY CUPCAKES TO EVER TOUCH YOUR TASTE BUDS 




 Blueberry Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 2 hours

Yield: 12 cupcakes

Ingredients

• 1 2/3 cup cake flour
• 3/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup + 2 Tbsp granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened*
• 1 large egg
• 2 large egg whites
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup buttermilk
• 1/3 cup sour cream
• 1 1/4 cups frozen blueberries, plus more for topping (for topping get fresh)
Cream Cheese Frosting
• 8 oz cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup butter, softened (I prefer 1/4 cup unsalted and 1/4 cup salted)
  Coupons
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 cups powdered sugar
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Directions

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sift cake flour into a mixing bowl, add baking powder, baking soda and salt and whisk 20 seconds, set aside.
• In the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (I recommend using a beater blade, otherwise stop mixer occasionally throughout entire mixing process and scrape down sides and bottom of bowl), whip butter and granulated sugar until pale and fluffy. Mix in egg, then mix in egg whites one at a time. Blend in vanilla. In the liquid measuring cup used to measure buttermilk, whisk together sour cream with buttermilk until smooth. Working in three separate batches, beginning and ending with flour mixture, add 1/3 of the flour mixture alternating with 1/2 of the buttermilk mixture and mixing just until combined after each addition. Gently fold in blueberries.
• Divide batter among 12 paper lined muffin cups, filling each about 3/4 full (about 1/3 cup batter in each). Bake in preheated oven 20 - 24 minutes until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean. Allow to cool in muffin tin several minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Once cool, pipe or spread cream cheese frosting over tops and garnish with blueberries.
• For the Cream Cheese Frosting:
• In the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (I recommend using a beater blade), whip cream cheese and butter until smooth and fluffy. Mix in vanilla, then stir in powdered sugar and continue to whip until smooth and fluffy (if it seems slightly runny, chill then stir before piping or spreading).

Into the Grey

If you look up 'Type A' in the dictionary, instead of reading as "a personality type characterized by ambition, high energy, and competitiveness, and thought to be susceptible to stress and heart disease", it should probably just read "Claire McKee."

I like things organized because this makes me feel in control of my life and less stressed. I appreciate confrontation because it results in resolution. I don't like what I can't understand or when I can't figure out something. Lukewarm is frustrating to me. I like things right or wrong, yes or no, black or white. 

What I don't like is grey. 

White is good. Actually, white is better than good--it's great. White is when life hands you lemons and sugar water and cute little cups with colored umbrellas, and then you make a batch of lemonade and drink it with friends. White is when you worked really hard all semester and you got all A's. White is when you are not in a single predicament with anyone close to you at this particular moment. White is healthy family and friends. It's the job that you always wanted and you got. It's when you love the person you always dreamed of and he or she loves you back. White is sure and it is good. White is what everyone wants. 

Black is bad, but at least it's black. Black is the end of something great. It's a death in the family. It's your lowest point. Black is when you worked hard all semester and your poor grades don't prove it. It's that job you always dreamed of that goes to someone else. Black is when the person you love doesn't love you back. Black is no more cookies in the cookie jar. Black is certain and it's bad. Black is what no one wants. 

Grey is neither black nor white; it's the in-between. Unlike black and white, it is unsure. Grey can so quickly go black or white, and that's why it's scary. Grey is the waiting.

Grey is sickness. Grey is that friend who won't call you back. It's the anticipating your grades at the end of the semester. Grey is losing a possession that meant the world to you. It's the not knowing what comes next. 

Most people believe that black is where Satan works his magic, but I beg to differ, because unlike definite black, grey holds all of your "What ifs?", your worst case scenarios, and your biggest fears. It's where you start to give your emotions to lies about what the future holds. I've always hated the grey. It makes me nervous and anxious to not know what comes next. When I'm in the grey, I feel as though I'm in the middle of a foggy ocean. Even though God has provided millions of stepping stones in the past for me to keep moving, I suddenly stand still, unsure that He has placed another steady one ahead. Satan speaks, "But are you sure? I don't see one. What if He didn't?" So I stand still, refusing to even reach out my foot, and I let fear eat me alive. 

However, this past year I've learned something shocking about the grey. God has shown me that while Satan uses the grey for a playground, God uses it as a magnifying glass. The grey is where God sees my heart and my faith the most clearly. It's where I have no one but Him to rely on, and I can either trust Him and keep on moving, or I can doubt and fear and stand still. 

Black. White. Grey. They are all inevitable. You and I will make our way through each one, time and time again, during our human lives. As we all enter a new year, a new 365 days of black, white, and grey, I encourage you to remember who already has all of your "What ifs?" handled. God was behind you, He goes with you now, and He is ahead of you. He is always there, waiting for you to call His name. Patiently He waits for your summoning, to remind you that after the millions of stepping stones He has already provided, why would He stop now?

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