always give thanks

Thank you for the sky.  Thank you for the sweet scent of summer air and the cool feel of clean water.  Thank you for songs.  Thank you for the hearts who relentlessly love my own.  Thank you for the changing seasons and the uncertainties that make me want to curl up in my bed and stay there.  Thank you that I am alive and that life is always good with you.  Thank you for the revelations that you have yet to open my eyes to.  Thank you for those who have gone before me and for the creativity and hope they inspire.

You are good...may I always remember.

momentum

I just want to travel.

There is nothing quite like breathing in the air of a different place on the planet.  Seeing breathtaking sights that don't exist in your own reality.  Feeling the double-edged pang of being so vulnerably far from home, yet desperately wishing you could fully soak in every tiny detail of where you are in the moment.  But you can't.  You can't soak it all in until you're home, far away from the adventure, back in the mundane comfort zone, back where the most important memories gradually set themselves apart from the general thrill of the ride you had 'that one time'.

I had some decisions to make at the beginning of this year.  How was I going to proceed with my life?  I had been back from Africa for over 6 months, during which time my eyes had started to open to the rawness that is reality to most people in the world.  I felt so inadequate to do anything.  Helping costs money.  Helping requires skills.  Helping, long term, means solid visions, massive networks, and people who have the same painful passion you have.  I needed education.

I wanted education.  I wanted to be able to travel for a living.  Have a reason to traipse the globe.  Leave a trail of kindness and Jesus wherever I found myself.  Create solutions to problems bigger than my heart could ever comprehend.

So I decided to stay.  I decided that I would ask for help to start the train moving.  You know, the more momentum a train has, the more unstoppable it is.  It wasn't going to be enough to work, travel, work, travel.  The vision was going to have to be self-sustaining, self-propelling.  I need momentum.

It's a sacrifice, one that honestly makes sense to me.  Even though part of me says TRAVEL NOW.  YOU'RE YOUNG AND YOU CAN but the bigger part of my heart says, 'It will be so much better if you wait a little bit longer.'  This season is about pulling the rubber band back as far as we can.  Soon God will let it go and I know the adventure my heart so craves will be more incredible and satiating than I could ever imagine.