Let’s never come here again because it would never be as much fun.

Tonight is my first night of school in almost 3 years. EEK. Feeling a little nervous, but mostly super excited. I really love school... I'll just have to remind myself that I said this for the next 18 months.. lol. All day today I was thinking about how much I'd love to just go on vacations all the time. (Crazy thought, I know. I can't imagine anyone else feeling that way, haha.) Not like resort-style vacations, though I won't complain if that's where someone wants to take me. I mean like an adventure, see the world, forget what my bed feels like, vacation. C and I are dying to travel. Scotland, Oregon, Asia, Costa Rica, Thailand, you name it. Whilst thinking these things, I thought I'd only like to go to places I've never been before... Then it hit me. It doesn't really matter. It will always be different, and it will always bring new memories.

You know the moment... the one where everything around you is still. Life has stopped long enough for you to enjoy every feeling, every smell, every person around you; for just a few seconds, life submits to you. Also in this moment, you realize that nothing like this can ever happen twice. Sure, we'll have more moments where we get to experience all of those things again, but never with the same feelings, or smells, or people. It can never be the exact same.

A lot of times my feelings and thoughts don't come because of my own experiences.

My brother, Adam, the eldest of the boys, is on a mission trip in Angola, Africa. I can just imagine the many feelings he is experiencing these two weeks. Even if he went back next month, things wouldn't be just as they are this time. There will be new people, new jobs, and because our God is constantly challenging us to be better, the lessons and the blessings will also be different.

Some things can happen millions of times, but are still very different.

Hugs from my brothers... I long for them. Their tight squeezes, and their sweet laughs, are the best! Each time is different. Each brings a whole new feeling of warmth that can't be replicated the next time.

Other times, the only way we can have that moment again is by reliving it in our memories and in our hearts.

The smell of the turf on my High School soccer field. My Mamaw touching me with her cold feet to prove to me that I do, in fact, need to cover up during our sleepovers. The taste of mango, and being reminded that it will never be quite as fresh and tasty as the ones in Haiti.  Reminiscing with an old friend, and the tinge of sadness that comes with knowing that that season in life has passed. 

These posts tend to be so random! I'm thankful for these reminders that life isn't as hard as we'd sometimes like to think. After all, a bad day does not equal a bad life.

H