This blog isn’t at the end of December and tbh I’m not even going to talk about December bc YAY its a New Year!! If you know me even a little you'll know that New Years is a BIG deal to me. I love the chance to begin afresh. Who doesn't love a chance to dream of becoming a whole new person the second the ball drops? Who doesn’t love a vision board? But all of that has me reflecting on what it is to grow, and what it is to have spaces where I can grow.
I’m starting this blog from my childhood home (not my childhood bedroom though bc my brother stole it from me when I moved out) after a week of working my high school and college summer job. And tomorrow morning I head back to the camp where I’ve worked the past three summers. Yet in a lot of ways those spaces don’t feel the same anymore. I’ve spent a lot of time pondering this. Because I’m not one to move on from a space. I like tradition. I like things to work forever. It makes me sad when spaces don’t hold the same emotions they used to. But my cousin put it so clearly tonight as I tried to articulate my mixed emotions about a weekend back at camp. She just said “you’ve outgrown it, that's good”. I struggle to hold the tension of the fact that things can be good for a season. But I can so clearly see it here. I am not the same 16-year-old girl stepping into a nanny job needing to learn her voice and how to stand up for herself. I am not the same 19-year-old girl stepping into a summer at camp at her lowest point, so desperately needing to relearn what it was to have a friend. Those lessons were so needed in those seasons and it was so good and gracious of God to put me there. And its gracious of him yet again to pull me to say goodbye to those seasons and step into the next ones.
That’s a really really long-winded way of saying that I’m grateful to be in Raleigh. I’m grateful to have outgrown past seasons and spaces and get to step into new ones. And how glad I am to have a community that surrounds me so well as I step with shaky legs into new seasons. So this is really a thank you to each one of you. Thanks for helping create a space that I’m excited to return to, a space that I’m confident I will grow in, a space for my current season.
Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 are words I have read with frustration for most of my life. But all thanks to God little by little I am learning to trust the wisdom of seasons.
Prayers for 2025
That I would learn a little more what it is to be held (my word for the year!) in the arms of a loving father.
That I would lean into the wisdom of seasons- thanking him for past seasons, being present in my current season, and trusting his kindness for all future seasons.
JOY in the second half of fellows!
The Lord’s faithful guidance and provision in next steps
December Statistics
Christmas Parties: 8
Cries: 8
Glasses of Eggnog: at least 8 (shoutout my dad)
Live nativities: 1
Gingerbread tabernacles: 1
That's what I’ve got for now! Surely His goodness and mercy will follow me!
All my love!
Lola