Goshen here we go, here we go.

Wow.
Bags packed, room cleaned out.

I've spent 8 months here. EIGHT! My goodness. I feel speechless trying to give words to it. The only thing I can muster up is, "Wow. That was the best decision I've ever made in my life."

Thank you thank you thank you to every minute of grace, solitude, sleep, tears, laughter, and thought that has passed my way here...thank you, time, for stopping. Maybe that was what I needed all along, and couldn't have gotten it otherwise.

Home. So many places I will miss, still, but so glad I got to soak them up to the bone. My heart is overwhelmed with gratitude for the incredible time I've had here. Thanks again to you all for your support.

And so, Micah, time ticks on again...
Dominik's a senior, Jeremy's an 8th grader, and I'm back to school. Are you proud of us? You should be! We love you so incredibly much...

Today I am thinking about death
And how two people you know can leave the world in one day:

One, a family relative and my high school music teacher,
Jolly and warm and full of music
Until a brain tumor stopped everything in its tracks.
Dying quickly, he carved his own casket
And sat at his own memorial service
with his family by his side.
Half a year later and he passed away today.

Second, a distant memory of a face in elementary school
Our paths went completley different ways until
I noticed the paper today--
Missing 19 year old discovered today, a cliff, drowning.
Messages flood onto facebook and I'm
reminded of Micah's accident...
"How could this happen?!"
Friends are lost and come to each other in disbelief,
A bright light gone out so quickly.

Two lives---one sudden, one anticipated---one young, one already filled with years. And yet a death is a death, and it comes for both. I'm sad today for these families and appreciating the awakening that life is delicate and to be cherished.