A Look into the Future

One of the reasons I love electronic communication so much is it enables me to easily look into the past through pictures, videos and e-mails and vividly remember the moments in my life that have brought me to where I am today. I frequently do this with pictures that have accumulated on my harddrive. Recently, as Bruce and I approach our one year anniversary, I've gone back and looked at the e-mails that he and I exchanged early on in our relationships. It's been fun to look at the day's date and go back and read the e-mail that he sent me on that date, one year ago. I think about the past a lot. I think about the people who have come in and out of my life, the times where life seemed so easy and the times where I didn't think tomorrow would ever come. I think about the places that I've been and the amazing things that I've seen. I think about the conversations that have touched me and the moments where it seemed as if time stopped just for me. I know I've been blessed and fortunate to look back on my life and smile.

Earlier this evening, Bruce and I somehow started whistling some of John Williams' Olympic theme songs. Bruce asked me when the next Olympics were. We did some mental math and came to the conclusion that the summer Olympics would be this summer, 2008, and the winter Olympics would be in 2010. I stopped for a moment and thought about where I would be in 2010. At the beginning of the year I will hopefully be looking towards my final semester at Candler, hopefully looking for jobs and tentatively planning my ordination. Come fall there's a good possibility Bruce and I will be packing and preparing for a move back north and will hopefully begin to really settle down. Don't get me wrong - I don't spend my days thinking about what my life is going to look like in three years, but I'm realizing more and more that there are a lot of people in my life who are going to be crucial to my success as a girlfriend, daughter, sister, friend, seminarian and employee over the next couple of years. Some of these people I see every day - some I don't. Some I talk to frequently, some I'm bad about staying in touch with. But every one of these people are so important and so crucial to my success as a person. And I want to acknowledge this, I want to thank everyone and I want to give people an opportunity to see into my life a little more than is typically possible.

I'm starting this blog for a number of reasons. I'm hoping to have a good place to express my feelings, my hopes, my dreams, my concerns and my emotions. I'm hoping to make it easier for people to see what's going on in my life - what life is like in seminary, in Atlanta, living with Bruce and Lilly. I'm hoping to have a public forum where I can share prayer requests with those I love and lift them up.

Technology is a wonderful thing. I'm hoping that this form of technology allows me to connect with people with whom I've allowed my ties to fray.

That's all for now - I am retiring to watch the Packers play for a trip to the Super Bowl and to do my best to read for Pastoral Care amidst the screaming, jumping, yelling and anxst that is american football - GO GREEN BAY!!