I am so blessed with the people around me.

In fact, when I think about it, it makes me feel quite foolish for wanting to be alone at times, when one of my greatest treasures is the people I get to live life with.

The past few days I have been thinking how grateful I am for friends who I can count on, people like Tyson, Joel and Theresa... all three I know would come through for me if I needed them. I saw an older woman walking out of church yesterday with this little rain bonnet on and it reminded me of a dear memory with Tyson. Dear, because we laughed so hard, and because of the conviction that I gained that he'd look out for me. Riding the bus home one rainy day our Freshman year, we saw this sweet old lady wearing a rain bonnet, waiting at the bus stop. For some reason, I think I teased that would be me, and after a good laugh, Tyson assured me he would never let me be an old lady riding the bus.... no matter what. And that's how he is. When Kris and I needed a ride home from the airport this week, and he had a meeting planned, he said, "let me know- if you need- our meeting will be a drive to the airport." Joel, also committed to something else (and who drove us already TO the airport), let me know he'd make it work if needed. But it wasn't, because Theresa came, and in her gracious and funny way, didn't even make me feel bad about her having to make that long trek. I'm so grateful for these people- that I can call on, that I can inconvenience. There is a certain quote of friendship, which I have long loved "It is the severest test of friendship to tell a man his faults. So to love a person so much that you cannot bear to see a stain upon him, that is true friendship." But, I think the severest test of friendship may actually be if you can call on them in need... knowing that you can inconvenience a person is perhaps one of the greatest, and strangest comforts there is. You still feel bad for inconveniencing them- but you feel more warmth and gratefulness for them then if that need had never arisen, so in some way, you are grateful to have a need that you cannot yourself fill. Oh how brilliant God is. :)

I'm rich I tell you. I saved my graduation cards 'til I returned from Vegas, and boy was I glad. I loved taking the evening alone to read through each one- enjoying the way each person wrote my name on the envelope and trying to guess who it was from. Words are certainly the clearest path to my heart. I even received cards in the mail from those who couldn't come (and one from a person I carried an invite around for days for and never saw! sad day!!). I am blessed to somehow have been given the friendship of a group of amazing women in our church, Kim Rankin, Linda Cline and Lynn Roberts especially- all three of whom seem to inspire and encourage unique passions in my heart. I have a remarkable young woman as my discipler and small group leader. It is these relationships and so many that surprise me with the Lord's remarkable attention to the daily steps in my journey. I love that he plants people like light posts along our journey to encourage certain devotions, water hearts, introduce ideas, grow passions. How much more complex to weave with human hearts, other human hearts. What beauty His ultimate and initial design must be. I sincerely cannot comprehend it and it brings me to tears. He is so much more careful than we think. He is so much more faithful to us than we believe. He is so much more invested in the threads that seem unravelling in your life than you are. Wait, He is the mastercraftsman. (As always- this is for me as much as I hope it is for you.)

Thank you all for what you invest in my life- the richness you bring. I am blessed.