Are you with me?

EDIT: I went on an adventure from May 2014-December 2014 where I traveled by myself to 7 countries doing a variety of things (some crazier than others). When I got home, I re-capped some of my favorite memories. Now that I’ve finished these blog entries, I have created a “table of contents”.
India
1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Africa
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
Spain
1
Costa Rica
1, 2
Panama
1
Honduras
1, 2
Nicaragua
1

_____
Last night, after we brought in the new year with buffalo chicken dip and mexican train dominoes, I headed home, east on 23rd street. As I entered into Choctaw I was already feeling sentimental, but then through some sort of bluetooth confusion I found myself being serenaded by songs I hadn’t heard in years. The lyrics, filled with teenage angst and heartbreak, fit me much differently now. I could recall the words almost perfectly, but it no longer felt as though they had been stolen from the quiet places of my heart.

In the exhilaration of a new year, change has been highlighted for me everywhere. I can look a decade back at an insecure, emo sixteen year old covered in smiles and see how she shaped the courage of a well rounded twenty five year old. I can also look one year back and see how a complacent, frustrated twenty four year old shaped a current revived and emboldened twenty five year old.

Last year as I bid adieu to 2013 a verse shaped, for me, where 2014 was headed. James 4:13-15 says, “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.’ Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. Instead, you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills we will live and also do this or that.’”

In many ways I have yet to process the impact that this verse had on my year – namely the 7 months I spent out of the country; my “this or that”. Choosing first thankfulness for life and then, day by day, trusting for provision, for the plan, for this, or for that. And in many ways I am still living all of it out.

So, I want to invite you to go on an adventure with me. I want to share with you everything from my jasmine scented stories of India to the magical, island tales of Honduras – Africa, Spain, Costa Rica, Panama, and Nicaragua sandwiched in between. Each Thursday, for the next six months, I am going to tell you stories that will exercise your laugh, force you to cry, and strengthen your love for humanity. I will also occasionally offer tips on packing and travel.

I am so excited to get to share these moments with you as I begin to fully digest them. Even if your laughs are forced, the tears never come, and you wind up a cynic, my hope is that through this all, I would continue to learn.

So, will you come?!

Next Thursday:
We’ll skip over the trip, just for one week, so that I can tell you about someone very special to me. Hope you’re up for a love story.

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