step by step

my lame (& super low quality) attempt to piece together all the memories from my travels in taiwan!

looking back, i'm thankful for family & friends who filled my trip with warmth & love, for a less cluttered and slower pace of life that allowed me to enjoy beautiful sunsets & aimless wandering, and for the opportunity/conviction to push myself to try new things & go on new adventures.

life lesson? while it may have always seemed more appealing to do everything i could to keep my life (& heart) safe and protected and comfortable, there is something beautiful about courage — the courage to be stretched, to venture beyond what’s familiar and known, to know all the possible fearful outcomes and to choose to move forward anyway... to be vulnerable. failures and goodbyes may be inevitable, but there is hope even in the midst of heartache, and there are always new beginnings to embrace. 

“He observed how in the middle of many operas there was a crucial aria, a ‘sad and moving solo’ in which the main character turned sorrow into something beautiful. And Greg said:

‘This is my moment to sing the aria. I don’t want to, I don’t want to have this chance, but it’s here now, and what am I going to do about it? Am I going to rise to the occasion?’”

— Tim Keller

04.13.2017 || a letter to my younger self

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it feels heartachingly impossible that your laughter will ever feel true and full again, but it will. it may take a really long time, but it will. when it happens, you'll be so caught up in the moment that you won’t even recognize it right away. but the realization will eventually sink in, and you'll know then that it was one of the sweetest laughs you’ve ever laughed — because it was the kind you thought you'd never be able to have again.

and then you're going to look at this photo and not care that you're the only one who's blurry and looking ridiculous, that your blouse sleeve is bunched up in your sweater and your purse strap is too long. you'll love this photo, and you’ll cherish it for the glorious story of redemption that it tells.

“For many of you right now — and for others of you the time is coming — obedience feels like the end of a dream. You feel that if you do what the word of God or the Spirit of God is calling you to do, it will make you miserable and that there is no way that God could turn it all for good.

You have considered every human angle, and it is impossible that it could turn out well.

Do you desire God and his way and his promises more than anything, and do you believe that he can and will honor your faith and obedience by being unashamed to call himself your God, and to use all his wisdom and power and love to turn the path of obedience into the path of life and joy?

That is the crisis you face now: Do you desire him? Will you trust him? The word of God to you is: God is worthy and God is able.”