Precious {life}

1 For everything there is a season,
a time for every activity under heaven.
2 A time to be born and a time to die.
A time to plant and a time to harvest.
3 A time to kill and a time to heal.
A time to tear down and a time to build up.
4 A time to cry and a time to laugh.
A time to grieve and a time to dance.
5 A time to scatter stones and a time to gather stones.
A time to embrace and a time to turn away.
6 A time to search and a time to quit searching.
A time to keep and a time to throw away.
7 A time to tear and a time to mend.
A time to be quiet and a time to speak.
8 A time to love and a time to hate.
A time for war and a time for peace.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

I was given the awesome opportunity to go back home this past week and visit all my friends and family that I've been so missing so {so, so, SO} much!! It was so great seeing everyone, especially my little horse and puppy that my heart {so desperately} misses! Words don't describe how happy it made me once I stepped off of that airplane! Call me an emotional girl, but I started crying {tears of joy} when I saw my mountains! Oh, how I MISS them!!!! I literally feel like they are {engraved in as} part of my DNA.
Coming home also made me appreciate so much more the things my mom does! It's like being away and having my own family has made me realize how incredibly talented and creative my mom is. Seriously, being around her inspires me! I never realized {or appreciated} all of the thought {and details} that went into all of the everyday tasks that she completed. I wish that all of her {talent, creativity, inspiration, etc.}could just rub off on me! So now, as I get ready to head home, my creative {juices} have started flowing and I can't wait to try all of the new little ideas we talked about!
In my airplane ride between states, I didn't realize that I would be doing a sort of time-travel tug-of-war. Let me explain: When I moved away, I knew that life would go on without me, just like my life went on without everyone in Utah. However, when I came back to visit, it's like I expected things to be the same way they were when I left. It's sort of a shock when you see new buildings, new intersections, even new signs when you're driving down the road. It's even more difficult when you realize that relationships, though existent, are no longer the same. It's like feeling caught between two worlds: the one you live in now and the one you lived in then. Being caught between the person you were and the person you are. You don't really realize how much you change {in 4 months} until you leave a place and then come back. Then you have a decision to make: Will you embrace this new change, or will you {scare and} revert back to what seems safe? It's a part of growing up {an emotional tug-of-war} that no one warns you about. And although others before you have gone through it, you feel as though you're left to sort through it all alone. Luckily for me, Matt, having experienced this strange phenomenon before, has been my listening ear as I've been sorting through all my {mixed} emotions.

My conclusions? I'm glad you asked. It's reminded me of how {precious} life is, how quick time goes and how important it is to enjoy every moment! And even today when I was warming up my food in the microwave, I couldn't help but think of how I was wasting 2 minutes of my life staring at a bunch of buttons on a chrome box as the food inside spinned round and round.
The picture at the top was the best visual description I could find to explain my feelings. Each picture is taken in the same place, but in each one, something is different about the person featured. It's a perfect description of the season's of life and how swiftly we pass through them. Each season has it's own beauty and it's own pain. No one is exempt. We are {completely and utterly} powerless, yet we are given a choice to either trust God with the results, or rely on our own strength and be doomed to fret about the results. The point is, we have a choice and there is a sort of beauty and adventure in that!

"For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven."