What a gift

I've been home for three weeks now, and with Easter tomorrow, I couldn't think of a better time to write about the incredible blessings that surround me.

Since arriving home, things have been more than wonderful. I have spent much of the past three weeks with friends and family, enjoying their company and appreciating their presence. I could not have asked for, or even dreamed of, a better welcome home. It has been very nourishing, encouraging, and in many ways very healing. At the same time, I know that I haven't necessarily hit the ground yet. I've had near a hundred different people cushioning my arrival, and guiding me gently back to this place. Soon, though, I know I will be entering back into the daily grind, which can be daunting or disappointing compared to the continuous fun I've been having during these initial weeks back. However, in many ways, I'm very excited to do so. Though "normal life" isn't as fun as simply focusing on spending fun time with friends and family, I'm excited to enter into daily life carrying some of the new lessons I've learned from my experience in Malawi.

Coming from Malawi, I am absolutely enamored by the abundant blessings we enjoy here in America, and here in the places we call home. Wherever our home may be, we have the assets of all of our friends and all of our family surrounding us, supporting us, and walking this journey with us. WHAT A GIFT!

I was speaking with a good friend of mine just the other day, and after he mentioned that "normal life sucks," I expressed one of the things I'm beginning to see as a major lesson from my Malawian adventure. Yes, it is true that normal life sometimes sucks. "Normal life" seemingly lacks the thrill, adventure, and glory that things like college life or going across the world to volunteer have. At times it normal life is monotonous. Other times, it is difficult and can even be painful. However, the beautiful thing is that here, at the places we call home, we have a network of family and friends surrounding us, supporting us when we are weak, celebrating with us when we succeed, and all along, walking this sometimes monotonous, sometimes painful journey with us. And when you have that, what else really matters? Life is going to suck sometimes. But if you have people who are willing to share in that suckiness with you, who are willing to hold your hand through it, are things really that bad? In someways, I think some of the sweetest experiences in life are when we go through something difficult, something ugly and painful, and we are accompanied by someone who loves us. By no means does this mean I'm going to go around looking for difficult, ugly, and painful experiences. I just got home from one of those, and I can do quite nicely without another one. But from what I've seen of life, it seems like those experiences just come sometimes. You can't avoid them. But how lucky are we that we've been given a life where even the darkest of moments can be transformed by the love shared with us?

The scary thing is that not everyone has that. That is what I think would suck.

With this life I have, whatever it brings, I now see the incredible treasures I have in my friends and family around me. Come what may, I am blessed beyond belief with the gifts of these friends and family. It took me being a bit cut off from them, literally a world apart, to realize the incredible endownment I have been given. That realization in and of itself is an incredible gift, not to mention the gift that that realization is about. As difficult or sucky as things in Malawi might have been, I am so grateful for some of the incredible things I have returned with as a result of my sometimes not so pleasant experiences. Even more so, I am so grateful for the incredible people to which I have returned, waiting with open arms to encompass me with love.







To all these beautiful people in my life and to more, thank you.

Life is beautiful, even when it sucks. It sometimes just takes us a little bit of work to appreciate the beauty around us.

What kind of beauty surrounds you right now?

Can you do a better job of appreciating it?

I know I can.