August 28 // Thankful for...
Wide open spaces out the windshield in front of me, sun shining, scenes changing, music blasting, fingers tapping, wind blowing my hair around my face.
Standing in a room full to the brim with no empty seat to be found, colored lights shining from the stage, and hundreds of voices joining together to sing, to praise, to worship, to know we aren't in this alone, to know there's One who is worthy of all this and so much more.
Hot coffee in a handmade mug cupped in my hands, the steam rising to meet my lips, the flavor sweet but not too much so.
A new journal, the pages cracking open, the scent of the paper, the smoothness of untouched grids on that creamy background, the glide of an inky pen over it all as the words start coming.
Her little arms wrapping around my leg to squeeze me tight, because I haven't seen her in three weeks, and she missed me, I can tell. Her bigger sister sandwiching me in another hug too, giggles and wild streams of words flying everywhere.
The words in small black type, surrounded by smaller black numbers, whispering words of life and love and redemption to my soul.
Sitting at my desk, the new one my dad built, in the new room I now live in, in the new apartment with a new roommate, with new art on the walls, but typing on the same old computer, feeling the same old need to write but same old procrastination pulling me away, the same old heart learning so many new things and finally, finally, putting them into words.
The afternoon sun shining through my windows, shadows of tree branches dancing on my floor, the wind outside carrying faint hints of the fall I know is coming.
Trying to hammer in nails to our new walls, and laughing harder than I've laughed in a while when all they did is bend and bend and bend again.
The ache of muscles so sore from moving everything I own from one home to another, reminding me I should move like this more often, I should push myself harder, I should be thankful for a body that works and should strengthen it better.
Phone calls with an old friend and wine+Bachelor nights with a new one.
These are the things that make me feel alive. These are the things I am grateful for.