Learning.

This summer has gotten away from me. Next week starts my last week of work and officially the start of completing my teaching certificate on August 22. My summer has been unexpected. Full of highs and lows like I'm sure each one of you has experienced. Since the last time I blogged, I have moved into my new dorm room -a single @ 122 Stanson. (If you would want to write.) I also have been given my dates for Italy. I will leave January 3 and return May 3. I can't believe the planning is coming together. Yesterday, I looked at classes to take at Umbra Institute !@%&^! Unbelievable! In the next few days, I will be completing my application.

What I really want to tell you about is how I'm learning to be thankful. For a long time, I thought I was very thankful for everything that I had in my life. However, after a situation that happened to me and my family in January, I have become bitter. Even angry at God. I have struggled with letting Him be in my life in anyway. I have walked away but something rattles me. I travel to my hometown and I interact with people. People I've known for years, people that I know have struggled. Who could easily be angry at God -they might have lost their job, parents who have lost a child, homes that have been destroyed... And each individual has grown through that time and still finds God to be good and loving. So this prompted a question: How do you know God loves you? 

I asked this question to three individuals that I trust, find honest, and can always count them to be realistic with me. One answered, "I know from the goodness around me." At frist, this didn't hit me. I found myself connecting more to the other answers; however, when I travled back to my college dorm life from an unexpected trip home -it clicked. I thought about my time at home how a family allowed me to stay with them for two nights, how I was able to see friends who love me, to celebrate with them, to reconnect with former teachers, and how many of those teachers have been wonderful friends that bare words of wisdom. I realized that although I may be angry and having a hard time understanding why life unfolds the way it does. I have so much to be thankful for. I have a lot of work ahead of me. Lots of thought, writing, and reading. And maybe it will take years but I know I want to understand. I want to push through this time in my life and allow it be a phase. Just a chapter that I passed through and later in life, allow it be the change I needed. The change that brought me back and made me understand God's love. 

Just wanted to share where my mind has been today. I hope all of you can experience the love He has for you. I'm told, "Love has face." 

Below are photos from my summer. A summer that I am very thankful for. I thank you for being a part of it!