Movin' On Up!

The high yesterday was in the 90s. In Boston that's HOT - especially because there is typically no a/c indoors. I had a dozen incredible friends and acquaintances help move Atherton to Pembroke. It was a sweaty day, but these folks were troopers!

It was pretty weird to move all of the stuff out of Atherton. That apartment has meant so much to me during my time in Boston. In the beginning, it was where my community group was hosted. It was the place I first got to know Gretchen, Emily, Anna Rose, Shannon, Wendy, Sarah, Bria, and all the other women to come and go through the B&B small group. These women walked with me through one of my darkest hours when my Mom died a month after moving to the city. They hardly knew me and yet they reached out. The following year would prove to be deeply painful as I had to turn to them week after week to hold me and carry my burden for me. They were faithful. Countless hours I spent crying on the couch at Atherton giving these women a front row seat into the depths of my despair. They were courageous.

Soon those friendships stretched beyond our weekly gatherings and I began hanging out with Gretchen and Emily numerous times a week. People would often ask me if I lived with them at Atherton because I knew where everything was and always felt comfortable walking in without knocking. They embraced me. They loved me so well.

When Anna Rose moved away for med school her room became mine and I was officially an "Atherton Girl." It was so exciting. I spent most of my free time there already and the fit turned out to be perfect. We knew Emily would be moving soon as she was planning her November wedding, but we relished the little time we had just the three of us. I am so thankful I was there for those few months of planning the wedding. The long nights of tying ribbons, folding boxes and walking into the unknown of marriage alongside Emily was and is a priceless precious time in my life.

Gretchen and I were so caught up with the wedding we hardly remembered to find a new roommate! At the wedding reception we got word of a girl named Meghann moving back to Boston from NYC. She had glowing recommendations from some of our closest friends. She turned out to be a far better fit than we had even anticipated. I can't imagine a time when I wasn't friends with her. Gretchen, Meghann and I quickly settled into a normal life together.

Now I find myself at a crossroads, a closing of a chapter, if you will. Atherton is no more. Gretchen is moving to Florida in two weeks... and I have Meghann and two new roommates I hardly know. I'm living in a big beautiful apartment, but I'm finding it hard to be over the moon excited. Life has changed over and over since I moved to Boston. This year I have said goodbye to countless friends and it seems the goodbyes are still coming. I'm not sure where I'm headed or what God will call me into, but I can see his faithful hand in it. sometimes. :)

I've shed tears this weekend. I've sat in shock at the quick changes around me... and I've been reminded that life happens in the valleys. This is what the guest preacher at church said today. He said our expectations of meeting God on the mountaintops means that the valleys hold despair and defeat God's love. If life happens in the valleys than that must be where God's love is and it must be where he intends for us to be. I don't know have any answers to why that's his call, but I can say from life experience that it is often the case. I spend too much time daydreaming about what next week, next month, next year might hold and too little time daydreaming about eternity. The real relief from the valleys - the real mountaintop of Heaven where life is free of pain, missing and saying goodbye... that's what I should be longing for more often.

I'm thankful for what God has provided in this community. I'm humbled by the hard working friends who loved me enough yesterday to sweat for five hours and carry a ridiculous amount of crap up two flights of stairs... for me. I'm not sure I know what to do with that gesture of love, but I'm thankful for it.