{"id":379839,"date":"2016-01-04T19:59:31","date_gmt":"2016-01-04T19:59:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/staging.annahelizabeth.com\/index.php\/2016\/01\/04\/heartsongs\/"},"modified":"2016-01-04T19:59:31","modified_gmt":"2016-01-04T19:59:31","slug":"heartsongs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.annahelizabeth.com\/index.php\/2016\/01\/04\/heartsongs\/","title":{"rendered":"Heartsongs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Dear Journeyer,<\/p>\n<p>As I reflect on the photos of this past week, this early morning video stands out.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/annahelizabeth.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Morning-Bird-Song-in-December.mov\">Morning Bird Song in December<\/a><\/p>\n<p>One week after Christmas I woke up to birds singing outside of the bedroom window, something I haven&#8217;t heard in the month of December since moving to upstate New York thirty years ago.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">The last week was one full of events that filled my heart with song.<\/p>\n<p>Precious time with family&#8230;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/annahelizabeth.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Redneck-Life.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" size-medium wp-image-7202 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/annahelizabeth.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Redneck-Life-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"Redneck Life\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Christmas music&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Christmas spirit&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Christmas cheer&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Christmas lights&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Christmas camaraderie&#8230;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\n<p>And a celebration of my life!<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/annahelizabeth.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Birthday-Cake-2015.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" size-medium wp-image-7201 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/annahelizabeth.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Birthday-Cake-2015-300x212.jpg\" alt=\"Birthday Cake 2015\" width=\"300\" height=\"212\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>As I penned the title, I was reminded of the late Mattie Stepanek, a young boy whose body was riddled with disease, yet his heart was full of joy and peace.<\/p>\n<p>A young lad who could just as easily have focused on fear and frustration about the things he couldn&#8217;t or wouldn&#8217;t ever be able to do, instead concentrated on all that he could do.<\/p>\n<p>And in the process he inspired a world.<\/p>\n<p>If you want to be inspired, <a title=\"Mattie Stepanek Website\" href=\"http:\/\/www.mattieonline.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">check out all that he accomplished in his short life.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>All these things fill my heart with song, Journeyer&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>What about you? What moment(s) filled your heart this past week? Share something in a comment below and help heal a world of hurt.<\/p>\n<p>Until we meet again, yours in hope, healing, and happiness,<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/annahelizabeth.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Annah-Elizabeth-Signature.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-7123\" src=\"https:\/\/annahelizabeth.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Annah-Elizabeth-Signature-300x52.jpg\" alt=\"Annah Elizabeth Signature\" width=\"300\" height=\"52\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dear Journeyer, As I reflect on the photos of this past week, this early morning video stands out. Morning Bird Song in December One week after Christmas I woke up to birds singing outside of the bedroom window, something I haven&#8217;t heard in the month of December since moving to upstate New York thirty years [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":379840,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1034,1035],"tags":[316,574,113,317,1482,1483,223],"class_list":["post-379839","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-happy-happens","category-mental-health","tag-happyhappens","tag-christmas-cheer","tag-family","tag-finding-happiness-in-your-day","tag-heartsongs","tag-matty-stepanek","tag-relationships"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/staging.annahelizabeth.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/BW-Field-w-Daisy-and-Quote-about-Mattie-Stepanek2.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.annahelizabeth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379839","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.annahelizabeth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.annahelizabeth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.annahelizabeth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.annahelizabeth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=379839"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/staging.annahelizabeth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379839\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.annahelizabeth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/379840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.annahelizabeth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=379839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.annahelizabeth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=379839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.annahelizabeth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=379839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}