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| Well, the good ol’ Topaz has breathed its last breath and guzzled it’s last gallon of gasoline a few weeks ago and has now been replaced may she rest in peace…mean while I will enjoy the benefits of a newer vehicle which has a CD player, keyless entry, AC, electric windows and locks that actually work and gets glorious gas mileage!
My job is going well; I am constantly amazed at the blessing this position has been in my life. We are into the fall sports season, Soccer is currently going on and we will be starting Basketball next month. Then things will be quiet for a little while, and then before we know it the New Year will be here and the start up of getting ready for summer camp.
The fall season has started off well; I knew this was my favorite season for a reason. Just as this season brings the falling of leaves so also in my life have I gotten to shake off some of the dead and painful foliage of my life and growth for the year. I, like the trees now get to take in the cool air and see the beautiful sky without the pains of this year constantly getting in the way. Are problems still here? Yeah, but they are slowing decomposing like the leaves left on the ground after they have fallen and I do believe that God can use the hard times to nourish the roots of my life and I can see the strength in the limbs and branches of my life that were not present before the hardships came.
This year has had a lot of disappointments, tears, and laughter, and I have learned how to allow the people in my life to love me for just who I am. I have lost some friendships and deepened others, stood up for myself in ways I could have never comprehended a few years ago; starting the process of undoing a life of people pleasing isn’t easy but I’m committed to the change. I have learned that I can miss people deeply who found it easy to walk away and have probably not even given me a second thought and that others apparently love me even though they make no attempts to show it in the tangible ways that I can understand. Life on this earth is beyond confusing.
I have started studying captivating with a friend and am amazed at how much that book speaks to me, even after having read it more then once. I sometimes wish we could view ourselves through the eyes of others, because as much as I can bare witness to the beauty in another human being, and believe all of God’s promises for them are true, I still struggle to believe those same things for myself. I guess that’s why we need community, so that each of us can stand in the gap for the other and believe all that Christ has for them when they can’t and hope that someone can do the same for us.
So bring on the cool air, clear skies, leaves and long walks, I am more then ready! | | |
| Steel Magnolias
This weekend I had a truly southern experience, a good friend of mine is getting married next month and I received an invitation in the mail to attend a ‘minting’ party for the wedding. I didn’t think much of it, I have been to many wedding favor making ‘parties’ before, I have mastered the counting out of the perfect amount of jellybeans, mints or Hershey kisses to fit inside the small circular cut pieces of netting or Toole and how to tie them shut, by making tiny bows out of little pieces of ribbon. But this minting party was over any above any wedding favor preparation I had ever been a part of. We actually made the mints!!!! I am not kidding; apparently all you need is powered sugar, milk, butter and flavoring. I didn’t even know people made mints!
People under the age of 50 were in the minority, but all the older women were so inviting and fun! They have all known each other for a long time, and have made many mints over the years together for different brides. I loved listening to them talk, these women have seen so much life, and walked in friendship so long with one another. They talked about everything from children to MRI’s, chemo, previous wedding they’ve minted for and about they day one of them almost put a shoe on only to find there was the snake in it! They told jokes, ate imperfect mints instead of remolding them, Oohed and awed over the bridal portraits and put away a good sized lunch (you’ve got to love women who know how to eat!). This blog doesn’t even do justice in explaining how much I enjoyed myself this Saturday it was so much fun, I felt so invited and I also feel like I got to participate in a truly southern tradition. They told me that this Saturday was Minting 101 and I would have to come back for the upper level course next time! | | |
| Summer Nights Driving down the highway at night, windows open, music blaring....and for a moment all is well in the world, life is good. | | |
| The summer is almost over, there are two weeks of Camp left to get through at work, and then our office of about 60 will shrink back down to its original 4 until Camp season arrives next year. I took two summer classes this summer which I will be wrapping up in the next three weeks; the end will be a happy one. I will get a few weeks ‘off’ from Grad school and then start back taking my last course towards my Masters. I have never taken one class before and am really hoping that this will give me some extra time to spend with friends.
Some people have pointed out to me that I haven’t been posting much this year, its true I don’t deny it. But here is the thing, this year has been a deeply personal one, I joke “when life gives you lemons…make lemonade” but you know what? Lemonade also needs sugar, and this year that seems to be in small quantity. The things on my mind have been a little too personal to share on the World Wide Web. The hours of my life are jam-packed I work full time, go to Grad School, teaching Sunday school, Church, try to keep up with my Community Group and at the end of the day there isn’t much time left. When life gets crazy unexpected things happen, when my heart aches I don’t even have time to deal with it, it has to be shoved aside because there are no extra hours or minutes to take it in, understand my own feelings, or to go for a head clearing walk. Every second and minute seems planed and I am so tired of that, I have forgotten what it feels like to wake up in the morning and not have ‘things to get done’. I only have another 6 months of this craziness to go, and that thought alone is enough to keep me from going insane. Right now, I should be showering, making breakfast and starting on one of three different projects!
God is shaping me, I understand that, but how I long for green pastures and still waters.
Peace | | |
| Friends
Recently I have realized how richly I have been blessed with friends, good friends, some old, some new but all a blessing to my life. I have friends that I have known since the age of two, who I don’t even remember meeting, they have just always been a part of my life, friends from elementary school kept all the way into adulthood, college friends which span across the three colleges I attended and my newest set friends born out of this crazy mid-20’s post college life.
So to all my friends, old and new, this is just a post to say thank you, thank you for laughing, listening, staying up until the sun rises, for “be a girl days,” Scrabble dates, coffee runs, hugs, for crazy dance parties with sparkly hats, for the road trips, late night chats, running through the soccer field sprinklers and for allowing me to be human and emotional sometimes. Thanks for caring how my day is going, for asking if there is anything you can do to help and for challenging me to grow and not shrink back. Thanks for the smiles, phone calls, e-mails, texts, the notes in the mail and the prayers you’ve said, they mean more then you will ever know!
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