"And thinking about life as a journey reminds me to stop trying to set up camp and call it home.  It allows me to see life as a process, with completion somewhere down the road.  Thus I am freed from feeling like a failure when things are not finished, and hopeful that they will be as my journey comes to its end.  I want adventure, and this reminds me I am living in it.  Life is not a problem to be solved, it is an adventure to be lived." -John Eldredge

Last week my sister and I went back out to camp to help with a few meals for a retreat that they were hosting. 

Do you have a place that feels like home?  Maybe even more like home than home does?  That's how camp is for me.  There are so many poignant memories on what feels like every square foot of the place that it almost hurt to be there.  But at the same time, it filled me with joy.  A joy that shouldn't even belong, if you look at it realistically, but it was there all the same.  Of course I felt like crying, turning around and expecting to see people that aren't even in the state.  Sure I was hearing the ghosts of songs from the dinning hall, worship practice from the pavilion, shouts from the field... even though the whole place was silent... silent in the way only falling snow can be silent.  It was strange how natural it looked blanket down for the winter, the lake frozen over and snow collected on the tether ball, but I think it's because the beautiful Spirit never leaves, even after the kids and summer staff are gone, it's just waiting and blessing those who stop by.   And that's why the joy meets you there, even when you want to cry, even when it held everything you wanted, and everything you had to leave. 



I got a job, I'm now a part-time teacher's assistant at the Montessori school in town.  It's a wonderful job, in fact I wish I could work there more than I do, which is only ten hours a week.  But it's okay.  I have lots of time for other things and that's nice.  Baking, reading, thrifting, writing, cleaning, knitting...
I just finished Beauty today, it was my second time to read it and I loved it this time, instead of just liking it.  It's one of those books that casts a spell over the reader in the very best way. 

Here's my tattoo.  I got it back in July, which is beginning to feel like a life time ago.  I love it.  It says "live freed" if you can't read it.  There is so much meaning that it holds for me, with so many verses that it brings to mind.  Matthew 6:25-27 & 12:28-30, John 14:27 & 15:9-17, 2 Corinthians 3:17, Galatians (yes, the whole thing), Ephesians 4:31-32, Philippians 4:6-8, Psalm 84:1-4,and more, but the verse that seems to sum it all up the best is this one:

"So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus.  And because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death."
-Romans 8:1-2

One of the most beautiful things I've heard in a long time.

In Christ alone my hope is found
He is my light, my strength, my song
This cornerstone, this solid ground
Firm through the fiercest drought and storm
What hights of love, what depths of peace
When fears are stilled and strivings cease
My comforter, my all-in-all
Here in the love of Christ I stand

There in the ground His body lay
Light of the world by darkness slain
Then bursting forth in glorious day
Up from the grave he rose again
And as He stands in victory
Sin's curse has lost it's grip on me
For I am his and He is mine
Bought by the precious blood of Christ

No guilt in life, no fear in death
This is the power of Christ in me
From life's first cry to final breath
Jesus comands my destiny
No power of hell, no scheme of man
Can ever pluck me from His hand
Till He returns or calls me home
Here in the power of Christ I'll stand

Till He returns or calls me home,
Here in the power of Christ I'll stand