Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Too Good
I had a very special moment today. I was standing on the roof….There was a beautiful two o’clock breeze, whipping my skirt around and blowing the sheets into my face. As I reached up to pull a clothes pen off one of my shirts, I was suddenly bombarded by a plethora of thoughts:
WOW. I washed all my clothes by hand, bent over the washboard this morning before my day even began. And they’re actually clean.
I’m still wearing my apron, which means I cooked my own meal today.
I’m standing on my roof in Guatemala overlooking a beautiful village that’s actually on the side of the mountain.
I can’t believe I made it to Guatemala.
This is exactly what I always dreamed of.
Have you ever had one of those moments where you suddenly realized that life is everything you ever wanted it to be? That although it’s messy and difficult and exhausting, it really is just what you hoped for? Of course nothing is just how you imagine it to be, the details never match up, but going into a big life change you can at least daydream about how you hope you’ll feel. Well today was one of those days where—while I didn’t exactly visualize myself up the a roof on a beautiful spring-like afternoon taking down my laundry after cooking dinner—it’s the kind of scene I hoped for.
It’s one of those rare moments in life when everything slows waaaaaaaaay down and you feel like you’re outside of yourself, observing your own life from a distance for just a snapshot of a moment. It’s almost like you can stop time and reach out and grasp each thought as it leaves your mind and enters the atmosphere—“I can’t believe I’m actually here. I’ve thought about a moment like this once, in a beautiful day dream, but this is actually my life and it couldn’t get any better than it is right now in this moment. If it somehow managed, I might explode.”
Maybe this sounds a little sappy to you or maybe you have no idea what I’m talking about but I hope everyone gets to experience this feeling at least once in their lives.
While praying the other day, I started thanking God that I’ve been able to have several of these moments.
The first time this phenomenon happened I was a sophomore at Emory: I was with Manu studying outside at the picnic tables between the main library and the Business School. The sun was strong and the canopy of pink and white blossoms swayed lazily over the perfectly manicured grass. The sky was an unusually deep blue and there wasn’t a cloud in sight; a cool breeze occasionally danced through the patio. In that moment, sitting there with a dear friend at the University of my dreams, studying the wonderful creation we call the body, I was struck with the reality of the situation: I have everything I’ve ever wanted in this life. Nothing could make it more perfect.
Since then there have been more magical moments: stunning summer mornings in picturesque Maine, waking up with the sun at 4:30am to have an early Bible study to the melody of the ocean waves crashing against the rocks; traveling from the northern mountains of Thailand to the southern beaches with new friends from all over Asia; laughing with a classroom of high school freshman about a completely inappropriate but admittedly hilarious sexual comment as a sex-ed teacher after college; driving down the deserted highway at 2:00am with my sister, laughing boisterously about the night’s salsa dancing adventures and making snide and conceited remarks about all the “characters” we encountered; the whole family packed into the kitchen fixing the world’s best gourmet, semi-homemade pizza, watching movies and making ice cream creations on a Friday night.
One of my new favorite verses says God will outdo himself when it comes to blessing you. That He takes pleasure in making life good for you. Well I know this to be FACT. There is nothing to do but use the two most terribly inadequate words in the English language to express my gratitude to God. When He said “I want you to have the fullest and best life conceivable”, those weren’t empty words! Thank you God for being part of my world and for blessing me with everything that is good in my life.
WOW. I washed all my clothes by hand, bent over the washboard this morning before my day even began. And they’re actually clean.
I’m still wearing my apron, which means I cooked my own meal today.
I’m standing on my roof in Guatemala overlooking a beautiful village that’s actually on the side of the mountain.
I can’t believe I made it to Guatemala.
This is exactly what I always dreamed of.
Have you ever had one of those moments where you suddenly realized that life is everything you ever wanted it to be? That although it’s messy and difficult and exhausting, it really is just what you hoped for? Of course nothing is just how you imagine it to be, the details never match up, but going into a big life change you can at least daydream about how you hope you’ll feel. Well today was one of those days where—while I didn’t exactly visualize myself up the a roof on a beautiful spring-like afternoon taking down my laundry after cooking dinner—it’s the kind of scene I hoped for.
It’s one of those rare moments in life when everything slows waaaaaaaaay down and you feel like you’re outside of yourself, observing your own life from a distance for just a snapshot of a moment. It’s almost like you can stop time and reach out and grasp each thought as it leaves your mind and enters the atmosphere—“I can’t believe I’m actually here. I’ve thought about a moment like this once, in a beautiful day dream, but this is actually my life and it couldn’t get any better than it is right now in this moment. If it somehow managed, I might explode.”
Maybe this sounds a little sappy to you or maybe you have no idea what I’m talking about but I hope everyone gets to experience this feeling at least once in their lives.
While praying the other day, I started thanking God that I’ve been able to have several of these moments.
The first time this phenomenon happened I was a sophomore at Emory: I was with Manu studying outside at the picnic tables between the main library and the Business School. The sun was strong and the canopy of pink and white blossoms swayed lazily over the perfectly manicured grass. The sky was an unusually deep blue and there wasn’t a cloud in sight; a cool breeze occasionally danced through the patio. In that moment, sitting there with a dear friend at the University of my dreams, studying the wonderful creation we call the body, I was struck with the reality of the situation: I have everything I’ve ever wanted in this life. Nothing could make it more perfect.
Since then there have been more magical moments: stunning summer mornings in picturesque Maine, waking up with the sun at 4:30am to have an early Bible study to the melody of the ocean waves crashing against the rocks; traveling from the northern mountains of Thailand to the southern beaches with new friends from all over Asia; laughing with a classroom of high school freshman about a completely inappropriate but admittedly hilarious sexual comment as a sex-ed teacher after college; driving down the deserted highway at 2:00am with my sister, laughing boisterously about the night’s salsa dancing adventures and making snide and conceited remarks about all the “characters” we encountered; the whole family packed into the kitchen fixing the world’s best gourmet, semi-homemade pizza, watching movies and making ice cream creations on a Friday night.
One of my new favorite verses says God will outdo himself when it comes to blessing you. That He takes pleasure in making life good for you. Well I know this to be FACT. There is nothing to do but use the two most terribly inadequate words in the English language to express my gratitude to God. When He said “I want you to have the fullest and best life conceivable”, those weren’t empty words! Thank you God for being part of my world and for blessing me with everything that is good in my life.
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