[hope]

Change is good. Change is good. Change is good. Or so the saying goes. I think we hear all the time that change is necessary, challenging, healthy... but that it may not always be easy. And yet the "may not always be easy" part seems to be quickly followed by a, "but it will all work out," as if you can't just stop to let it wash over you.
Change is hard sometimes. Period.

 3 weeks ago my love and I packed up our bags and bid New England and the Patriots goodbye. I'll have to write more about that incredible experience on another post, but needless to say we came back to Nashville, our families, and sweet Southern comfort.

But that change didn't feel so good at first. It hurt... it stung, and though our memories already seem like a vision of the past, it still hurts. It's for the better, we know it full well. It's in God's perfect, abundant plan for us.

"The Lord gives and He takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord."
(spoken from a man who lost everything... literally every.single.thing. How's that for perspective?)
Job 1:21

Ben and I are discovering each other in a new, amazing way through this changing process. We are literally growing up together, and I am so thankful. What's amazing to think about is how God created all of us in our entirety-our happy natures, our defiant attitudes,  and our grief-stricken emotions as well.  I suppose that's why it feels so good to let yourself just be sad, to let yourself weep, or to dance around the house like a crazy person. He created it all and it brings Him glory. There is freedom in change, freedom in grief, freedom in new beginnings. I think we will look back on this time as one of the most beautiful seasons of our hearts. What isn't amazing about that?

"Oh Great Light of the World, fill up my soul."

...