a simple life

That's the realization I've come to over the past few weeks... I want a simple life. A full-to-the-brim life packed tight with good people, good places, good food, good plans and intentions... but simple. In the past two years, I've accumulated a lot of grand clutter in my life. But with that life-changing, "Ok, God," when it came to making the decision a few weeks ago not to go to grad school, there came a word loud and clear above the rest: simplify. So while I let Plan A shift into focus, I took a little more and much needed me time away from the blog.

When I say everything happened at once, I mean everything. I've cried more in the past few weeks than I have in the whole of the past year; happy tears, confused tears, delirious, and grief-stricken. So much was being orchestrated at the same time and I couldn't tell what was going on, but the skies are clearing up now and I've got to say... It looks so good! The short story goes like this: I turned in my notice at both jobs and, thanks to a tip-off and recommendation from my best friend Ali, I now have a job working with teenagers lined up in August back down South where I belong. Last week, I was standing on the beach in Hilton Head with Ali, who I hadn't seen in person for a ridiculous three years, watching the sun rise. We stood in the waves and the morning light before I set off to accept the job offer and I just burst out laughing. God was having a cheeky 'I told you so' moment with me, triumphing in His Plan A for my life. And I was so overwhelmed with His faithfulness. All things came together; He had orchestrated it all in such a short amount of time. His plan was infinitely better than mine. Obviously. I had no idea that this was what I wanted, but on that beach that morning, I saw it was exactly what I needed. Good people? Check! Good place? Check! Happy? Check! etc.

Things are finally starting to settle down a bit, so I just wanted to check-in and say, 'Hey, I'm alive!' yet again. Thanks for hanging in there with me and for all your prayers and encouragement! Hopefully, I'll be around a bit more in the near future when the bulk of the chaos subsides. Until then, let's raise a toast to sweet tea, starry nights, BFFs, and beach sounds. Cheers!