the old and the new

Since the start of summer we've been moving something or someone without cease, and just two days ago all of that came to a pause, at least for a month or two. Now we can breathe and take the time to explore more and not see more than five cardboard boxes at a given time. Many things are coming together; many loose threads are falling into place. Finally. Thankful.

By far the most wonderful thing is reuniting with old, dear friends. Getting to see them never gets old. And I've been blessed, too, with opportunities to make new friends. New faces, new doors opening, lots of new. So it's become all the more important to me to make sure I hold onto the people and places that meant something to me before and ensure that they always do. I'm learning that loving people doesn't mean that you have to have a lasting relationship with them. That you can love them just as well even if you only ever exchange a smile at Bible study. Yes, words are good and needed often, but a smile counts too.

I have to admit, though, that even though we're well into school, living, albeit temporarily, in an apartment, and busy with other activities, it still seems as if this is all temporary. It feels as if next summer, or the summer after that, we'll pack up again and head back to Switzerland. It is temporary, of course, in more ways than one, but for the time being we have no plans to move back in the near future. (I wish we did.)

I really am glad to be back here, though. Don't think me ungrateful! The choices here are greater in many ways, and there are so many dear people here that I've missed a whole lot. It's just that now we have all the feelings that we've experienced during the past few years working the opposite directions, and are desperately home sick for the tiny western European towns we love so much and the crazy, kind people that inhabit them.

I'm learning, remembering, to take it one day at a time. To not stress too much about tomorrow, to not dwell too much on what has been, but to be thankful for the day I have been given and live out like it is the only day I have.

Today, I am filled with gratitude for the friends and memories and experiences, old and new, that I have the privilege of calling mine. Je remercie Dieu avec tout mon coeur pour son grand amour envers moi.