all of this, a gift.

I'm in Seattle this week visiting my Lillian. I stepped off the plane into rain and into the smell of green. Green everywhere. Green in your hands, green in the air, green on the ground and the trees and the streets. It smelled sweet and clear. There's something so beautiful about the poetry of rain. Today we went rock climbing and walked through hard rain to the bus. When we stepped out to SPU, the sun

Right now, I'm sitting at a coffee shop (Lillian's favorite) drinking a soy lavendar chai latte (Lillian's recommendation), wearing some of my new friend Kelsey's clothes. I shouldn't have packed any clothes at all, I'm borrowing shirts and socks and scarves from people I've just met. New friends. Good people. Community is rich here. The honesty and authenticity of the people here is intrinsic. I have never felt so comfortable, so well-known in my life, by people who were days ago strangers to me. I think that's the most startling and settling sensation. I feel known, I feel understood, I feel comfortable as I am, I feel loved. Pretense out the door. People are people and wonderful. They love. They swear. They laugh. They eat Thai food with leftover chopsticks in dorm rooms lit by twinkle lights. They run to class. They get stuck in the rain. They buy rice and beans for dinner and no one bats an eye when you say, Oh, I'm gluten free. They weep in front of each other. They're at home with their selves, each other. And holy. There's a sacredness to this fellowship, this real life, real people, face to face relationships, this growing and doing life together. A jumble. A song. We may not know where we're going or how we're arriving, but we're together, and isn't that better? Isn't that best?

Seattle feels like home. Seattle feels like a poem you heard once as a child being spoken on the street. Seattle feels like a song you heard as a baby being strummed in the next room. Seattle feels like a picture in a large room with white walls and there is a wide sea and a wet sky and a wildness and the frame grows with you. Seattle feels like home. I'm in love with this state. I'm ridiculously in love with this place. I'm head over heels, heart in my chest, hands shaking in love, in love, in love.