SKIP TO MY LOU

Thursday.

1. I woke up too late to feel good about the day. I blame my vivid dreams for making it difficult to entangle myself from sleep. At the same time, I wish I hadn't dreamt last night.  

2. I lay in the late morning sunlight spilling onto the living room carpet and read an article called The Kind of Person God Uses, by Walter Henrichsen. This paragraph spoke loudly: "All that you hold dear to yourself--your family, your health, your dreams, your aspirations and goals--must be held with an open hand. If you desire to fulfill God's will for your life irrespective of the price, the sum total of all that makes up you must belong to Jesus Christ. He must be free to do with you and take from you as He pleases. You need not open your hand to God with a sense of fear, for God loves you with a perfect love and has your best interest at heart. But having said that, the faithful person is one who is willing to pay any price to have the will of God accomplished in his life." Pg. 12

3. As I ran the gravel, following the road to my cousin's, over and over I was overcome by the flooding fields, the scarecrow forests, the blue sea above my head, the gentle undertones of cow manure in the breeze, and the sun pouring onto my back. God you did good; Wisconsin is beautiful.

4. Bri, my-cousin-who-is-really-more-of-a-sister, taught me how to make quiche and homemade ginger ale. Both incredibly elegant and simpler than you'd ever dream, well simpler aside from shredding the ginger root. 

5. After the quiche and ginger ale, Bri, Barrett, and I took the dogs into Kinnickinnick where we followed the river between the thicket and fallen trees, bouldered a small falls of icicle and river, breathed deeply the crisp air scenting of pine, and spun in the dusk that spread itself out gracefully across the hay field until we tumbled over in laughter. What is better than good friends, big dogs, mud up to your knees, and a wilderness? 

6. Blaine, my-cousin-who-is-really-more-of-a-brother, is getting married in a little over a month to an incredible woman. This afternoon, he and Aharon, my big brother and also the best man in the wedding, went tuxedo shopping and tried on their tuxes (and Bri, her floral violet dress) for my aunt and I--and suddenly! seeing the three of them, the three people who have been knit into my life always... it swept over me; the reality of how life is changing, how we are all growing up and how many beautiful (and perhaps heartbreaking) things that are to come. It was deeply felt, a bittersweet, and they were beautiful; radiant. I am so thankful for them. They will never know.