free to be

Another week come and gone! I've said before that sometimes "life as usual" makes me feel like I have nothing of any significance to say or update. When I think back over the past couple weeks though, it's safe to say that besides the day to day routine of things, life has been anything but usual.

The same might be said for the weather!! Fall is in the air! I drove to Mountain City a couple times last weekend and as I passed by the lake, I noticed small patches of color, bubbling up into the vast expanse of green. In a matter of a few short weeks color will be everywhere. Lucky us! The weather is such right now that you can't help but step outside and take a deep breath; inhaling life and God and wonder all mixed beautifully together. Kyle is dying to get a camping trip in before the weather gets too cool. We didn't do very well at all in the camping department this summer. Poor guy. We may have to resort to pitching a tent in the back yard...our neighbors might make fun but we'll be the ones with the memories. :)

Kyle has been keeping busy working on a few projects. It's exciting to watch him create art with his gifts and passion-all within the walls of our home. The other day I asked if he is loving his new career and he continues to say, with a smile, "It doesn't feel real yet". Nonetheless, our spare bedroom is being transformed before my eyes into a makeshift office and I can tell that even though it may not feel completely real to him yet, he is in a good place with his chosen career.

Things we're contemplating: Kyle is reading "Sailing between the Stars" by Steven James. Steven and Kyle have worked together on a couple of projects. Steven is a talented guy with a huge gift for storytelling. I haven't read this book yet but I snuck a peek at a few pages and I can tell I'm going to love it. He paints incredible imagery with words. He writes the way I long to converse. The national storytelling festival is in Jonesborough next weekend. A longstanding tradition of the festival is that one night the town is lit with teaky torches and people congregate with their lawn chairs and bug spray to be lulled and enchanted by world renowned storytellers. It's one of those events that make the world feel just right.

Things brewing in my heart: a lot of inventory is taking place these days. Ever feel like you have a vision of what you hope to be someday--and it feels terribly far off from your present realities? That's where I'm at. When I think of how I want to grow, I have visions of a person who lives in the daily grace and freedom of Christ. What does that look like? Alive, congruent, relational, full. Having nothing to do with circumstance. It would make no difference if we had 3 kids, 5 kids, or no kids; if we are rich or poor. Sounds idyllic right? Who doesn't want to live there? But I look around me and I wonder, "How many people do?" We dream God sized dreams but we go on living the same ways day after day until one day we're grown up and the dreamer in us has long been put to rest; the wounds of our youth still bleed; we still blend into the crowd wherever we go because we never let God's love fill us to the point of not caring what other people think. I have no idea what it means to really live in that kind of freedom but I do believe we were created to abide in that place. I know I've mentioned all of this before and I don't mean to bore you with repetition but I can't stop. I believe we are meant to be free. I've seen a handful of people who are daily being transformed by God's grace and I long for that kind of living. Life is exhilarating AND painful right now. But at the end of day, I'm glad.