I’m feeling particularly blessed these days. This happens every once in a while and usually leads to copious amounts of contemplation about the direction of my life and what I can do to make it even better. This time though, I’m remembering. The good times, friends, hardships, experiences and daydreams.
So instead of just letting them float around in my head for a while, I think I’m gonna share them. Little by little.
My favorite sunset – There’s a little dock just down from a small cluster of houses on the island of Eleuthera in The Bahamas. It’s mostly concrete and hasn’t been used for boats in years. The smell of seaweed and shells seeped into my pores as I sat there next to my cousin Julie and my friend from high school, Josh. We were there on a work trip, helping repair a house for a missionary. The days were long and a bit treacherous as we had to mix cement by hand, paint and lay tile in 110 degree weather. The nighttime was when the island came alive. It was the first time I’d been off mainland USA and away from all the hustle and bustle I was used to. The three of us slipped away after dinner to go lay down on the cool concrete by the water. Rays of pink, yellow, and magenta washed over us as we sat with our backs on the wet stone. The bright orange disc slowly sunk into the Atlantic taking my breath with it. Thirty minutes later came act two. Above was a sight I’d never seen, the cosmos. I’d seen plenty of stars, but none like this. The heavenly creatures were giving birth to other stars and seemed to be playing with each other on an endless dark blue canopy. I felt God in that moment, for the first time in a long time. He was the stars, and I desperately wanted to play among them.
My favorite meal – I had many good friends in Paris, but David took the cake when it came to living. He was one of those that wasn’t content until he’d squeezed every last little drop out of the day. Only then could he rest his head for a moment. We made plans to go outside the city a bit and spend a day like normal Parisians would. After jumping a few turnstiles in the La Defense Metro station, we were on our way There were eight of us in all; My group of four, David, Liz, Kourtnee, and our new friend Tricia. First things first, we went to the local market and grabbed a ton of fresh ingredients. David was the chef for the night and had something fun in mind. After walking for a pretty long while, we arrived at Liz’s host family’s house, a slightly idyllic country house just north of the bright lights of Paris. We began to make our own homemade pizzas. Dough flew everywhere, as did the jokes laughter. We ate pizza and drank wine until the sun went down and then capped it off by watching Beauty and the Beast on a projector. I don’t remember what was on my pizza, but I do remember it was one of the most memorable meals I’ve ever eaten.
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