My life

In just two short weeks, I will be on a plane back home. It seems difficult to believe.

I was feeling a bit strange about it today. Obviously, my life is going to change in so many ways once I leave. And while I'm completely excited to go back and start spending more time with Andy, my family and my friends, I'll be leaving a life here. I've become quite used to it, and even though I'm going to something so great, it's hard to imagine what it will be like when this isn't my life anymore. As my very wise sister-in-law Sarah said, "It's not a choice between good and bad, it's a choice between better and best."

God was ready for it, though, because a plan set in motion about a week ago came to fruition today, just when I needed it. Andy suggested that we make a photo record of the things we do each day, places we go, people we see. He posted his today, and I was able to see all the things that I'll be a part of (or at least potentially be a part of) when I get back. An impromptu lunch at Spring of Life, making a trip to QT, pranking Jason's car... those are all things that I can do in a couple weeks. I got to see Andy with my adorable nephew, and know that someday soon I could be in that picture too.

As sad as I am to leave London, going to home to things like this is going to be amazing. I'm still trying to secure a job (or at least an interview) for when I get back, but I have complete faith that I'll get the right opportunity right when I need it. God has always arranged things according to amazing timing, even if I can't see it right then, so I just have to trust that He's going to do the same here. What matters is that I will be home, and the rest will fall into place.

I just finished reading The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, and I really liked it. It centred around following your heart and reading the signs that are given to you in life to realise your destiny. While it doesn't reference God in a specific way, I decided to insert His name for most of it. There was one passage in particular that I read at least three times:

It required no explanation, just as the universe needs none as it travels through endless time. What the boy felt at that moment was that he was in the presence of the only woman in his life, and that, with no need for words, she recognized the same thing. He was more certain of it than of anything in the world. He had been told by his parents and grandparents that he must fall in love and really know a person before becoming committed. But maybe people who felt that way had never learned the universal language. Because, when you know that language, it's easy to understand that someone in the world awaits you, whether it's in the middle of the desert or in some great city. And when two such people encounter each other, and their eyes meet, the past and the future become unimportant. There is only that moment, and the incredible certainty that everything under the sun has been written by one hand only. It is the hand that evokes love, and creates a twin soul for every person in the world. Without such love, one's dreams would have no meaning.

Thoughts like these are getting me through the next couple of weeks. I just hope I stay grounded enough to appreciate what's happening the present, as well.