sorry, but i don't actually like pumpkin spice lattes.

It is indisputably autumn here in Colorful Colorado. If the vibrant red and gold leaves and crisp, chilly temperatures weren't evidence enough, the Halloween decorations that have appeared over the weekend can certainly provide the proof. There are currently pumpkin lights hanging above the garage and a scarecrow sitting on the porch swing and a graveyard appearing in the yard next door.

Did you know that if you type in http://www.foofle.com/, you will still end up at http://www.google.com/? I'd like to thank the genius computer programmer who anticipated that typo.

I always like to play the one-year-ago-today-I-was.... game. I enjoy thinking back on my life and seeing the ways that I have changed and grown. So....one year ago today, I think I was on the first year retreat with Westmont College, hanging out with two of my favorite men:

Not much has changed since then, honestly...(but everything has changed...) I'm in a new state, a new home, a new job, and a new stage of life. But my heart is in a similar state of tenderness tempered with desperate dependence on God.

Two years ago today, I was in Krakow, Poland. I'm not sure of the exact day, but I was either at Auschwitz Concentration Camp experiencing one of the most surreal and difficult days of my life:

Or I was on The Crazy Communist Tour expreriencing one of the most surreal and entertaining days of my life:

Three years ago today I was, I'm sure, enjoying the confidence and contentment of being a sophomore in college.

The days pass slowly, but the time has gone by so quickly...

And right here, right now, in this year - I'm surviving. There won't be any pretty pictures or exciting memories for me to look back on that will mark this day. Frankly, this day is just another in a long chain of days that find me searching for contentment amidst the mix of courage and fear. But I hope that, one long (but really quite short) year from now, I will be able to look back on this day as a day that I lived fully.

That would be enough for me.



Thank you, Lord, for this gift of life.