Glorious Times!

Richard D. Barlett is doing something special for me and you will all know what it is soon enough! Ah! It's so cool! How I love my new zealand friends and their amazing talents.

Sorry I haven't written as frequent in the last week. I've been really busy, but it's been the good kind of busy. Would you like to know what I've been up to? Yes, you would.

For instance, today was packed full of goodness. It started out early. I was up at the crack of dawn, 4:00am, to get ready for work. I picked George up from his place and we drove to the store, where we met Josh, the morning shift, and basically "went to battle", which is how I refer to the days I open at Starbucks. We walk toward the store building like we're waging war against it. Sometimes, in my stride to the front door, I will sometimes think to myself, Yeah, Store. Prepare to die. You can't handle this. Wow, you had no idea I was that dorky! Yeah, I really am.

It ended up being a really fun work day. It's always nice when things go great and everyone working together is having a good time, laughing and telling jokes and such. It's such a great place to work.

After that, George and I hung out on the patio at Starbucks, drinking our green tea lemonades and talking about the differences between ministry in southeast Tennessee compared to ministry back home. It was cool to talk about the good things and bad things about both. Mostly, it felt fantastic to sit out in the sunshine, enjoying the warm weather and feeling at peace with everything. Just talking. I didn't think it could get any better than that, really.

But then it did.

Later that afternoon, I met up with George again and we went to a pool party for the middle school ministry that George works for. It's quite possible that I may get involved in ministry at George's church somehow. He told me that there were a variety of areas in which I could help out, including the art ministry, maybe teaching art classes or something for the kids. At the very sound of "art ministry," I felt my heart inflate. It felt like God clasped my shoulders from behind and gave me a shake, saying, "You'd rock at that, Car!" Not to mention the fact that Donald Miller even writes about it in Blue Like Jazz, how he feels like every church should encourage art and creativity as a ministry. And I couldn't agree more!

Anyway! Pool party! It was so cool! We got there and people were only just arriving. After a while, the adults encouraged everyone to jump in, but no one did. Someone mentioned something about "who was brave enough to get in first" and I figured I was. So I jumped off the diving board, having not jumped off a diving board since I was about 7, and ended up being "the first" one in the pool. And it felt fantastic. For the rest of the night, I dove and dove off the board, all the while hanging out with the kids and getting to know everybody. It was so beautiful.

To really top it all off, after taking George home, being thoroughly exhausted from all the fun we had at the party, I made one last stop to Starbucks to say "hey" to my best bud, Christy-Anne. While I was there, I ran into Ed, who has been my spiritual mentor since I moved out here. He's probably known me the longest amongst my friends here in Tennessee, and so he would definitely notice differences in my demeanor faster than people who've only known me in the last five or six months.

I was telling him about my life as of late, how awesome God has been in healing my brokeness, and he said something that absolutely made my whole day, week, and possibly month! It was such a blessing to hear him say it. He told me, "I've got to be honest with you, Carly. I feel like I'm meeting you for the first time. This is the Carly I've been waiting to see. I've never seen you this vibrant and you're smiling so big lately. It's like, 'There you are! Where have you been?!' I love it." Once again, here was a moment when a good friend was reflecting back to me what I really wanted to believe was happening to me. The fact that other people have been noticing these things has been such an encouragment and affirmation to the fact that God really helps to raise from ashes what has been broken and burned.

I wish I could go into all the stuff that I went through in the last year and a half, but it feels so far behind compared to how far I've come in just the last five months. I don't even need to revisit it, because it almost feels like it didn't happen. It did happen and I have become so strong from it, learned so much from it, become a better person for it, but I don't have to revisit it or dwell in it. It was good and bad and altogether crazy, but I'm through it and I am restored and am continously renewed everyday. It's been incredible.

So, okay. I know I keep promising video, especially since I have my camera now. But I still need to get ahold of Christy-Anne's iBook for editing purposes. As soon as I've done that, I'll post. Sometime this week. I promise. Or at least, I will try to promise.

Currently listening to:

Anathallo
Floating World

Can I just point out the fact that the above album cover is one of the coolest and prettiest I've ever seen? Okay then, I've pointed it out.