+so make the best of this test and don't ask why

A week of work under my belt, a Memorial Day weekend to recover, and an evening to just sit and relax. There is still no permanent bed or a sofa in my new place.... but there is a bookshelf in the living room, and leftovers in the fridge. I am not in class. I am not a student. I have weekends off. I have nights off. I have gone to dinners at married friends' homes. I have seen Devon IN PERSON nearly every day since mid-May.  I have Zumba-ed, run, and frisbee-d. I have hung out with my fam and with my fam-to-be. I have a line-up of amazing folks yet to see and a month of Orientation to tackle. It has been a month!

Graduation pictures. Dear oh dear - and this isn't even everyone that needs to be pictured, just the ones my Dad got on his camera:

Yes, it's THE Greta - at our Hooding Ceremony

with Dr. Wolf-Wendel

Dear sweet goodness, these ladies. No way to describe!

Only thing better than graduating? Cheesy.

Goodbye sweet Lawrence, KS.

Fiance!

Parents and Devon

One last Mirth Cafe adventure together

+i've closed enough windows to know you can never look back

My heart is so full. My God is so big and so good. I feel a little guilty or like I am cashing in on too much goodness lately, but deep in my heart I just feel immeasurably grateful. It is so good to be back in Nashville. I feel right at home. The sights, the smells, the feel, the weather, the roads, the people, they all just make me smile and remember a time when I was so much more confused than now. Now, I am so excited about working hard, loving others, and growing deeper in my friendships and my relationship with Devon.

Also, I can't stop laughing at how much this photo looks like that photo. Sweet Calvin & Hobbes.

+cause they both end in trouble and start with a grin

Tonight I am writing from my office. I am sitting in sort of a limbo of time.

My things are (mostly packed). My assignments are all turned in. I am on the eve of seeing my parents. Two days away from seeing Devon again, in Kansas again. My halls will close in three days and all that entails. I graduate with a master's degree in four days. We will say our goodbyes and hop on the road to Nashville in six days. I know... you're saying, "Heather, stop doing countdowns or reflections..." ("But guys....") it's next to impossible NOT to reflect and bookmark this moment in time. There is a lot of change. I am prepared for it, more than I have felt prepared for big transition in the past. Perhaps it is because the mental preparation started long before May 2012. And perhaps there is always some sense of finality when you begin living in a place with an end date that is already predetermined.

All I think I want to say can be boiled down to this post http://hlpie.blogspot.com/2010/07/this-is-real-long-distance-real-long.html and if I am about to experience it in reverse. Oh how fast the time goes!

+we get one story, you and I

The book that sat in Matt Burchett's office when I was a Freshman at Belmont was the same one that inspired me as I left for college. Through Painted Desserts by Donald Miller. Donald Miller was up and coming back in '06. So was Rob Bell. And I remember feeling the weight of the words of both in ways I had not before.

I noticed that book up on my shelf in my own office yesterday. I pulled it down, and opened to a place where I had dog-eared six years ago. Words are so powerful for me that as I read line by line, I couldn't help but situate all the words, for the first time, in a new context, and it was hard to not feel the tears forming.

"And so my prayer is that your story will have involved some leaving, and some coming home. Some summer and some winter. Some roses blooming out like children in play.

My hope is your story will be about changing, about getting something beautiful born inside of you, about learning to love a woman or a man, about learning to love a child, about moving yourself around water, around mountains, around friends, about learning to love others more than we love ourselves, about learning oneness as a way of understanding God.

We get one story, you and I, and one story alone. God established the elements, the setting, the climax and the resolution. It would be a crime not to venture out, wouldn't it?

Everybody has to leave. Everybody has to leave their home and come back so they can love it again for all new reasons. Leave. Roll the word around on your tongue for a bit. It is a beautiful word, isn't it? So strong and forceful, the way you have always wanted to be. And you will not be alone. You have never been alone. Don't worry. Everything will still be here when you get back. It is you who will have changed."

I got chill bumps reading this over again. The girl who read those words for the first time long ago would be proud of the girl who is reading them again now. After she left, and ventured out. And the quote is right. I have never been alone. I have no need to worry. And while everything is still back in Nashville, I have absolutely changed.