Because These Moments are Fleeting
Throughout the past two and a half months, I've started to feel a little bit like a gypsy. Since moving to Colorado at the end of May, I've learned once again that the people in my life are the only constants that matter. Until my business's doors are open, I spend my days driving to Denver, Boulder, and all over Colorado Springs. I've traveled to Nashville and North Carolina and Kentucky throughout the past two weeks, and I'm now in the midst of my second road trip out to Colorado. My suit case feels like an appendage, and I am always a little bit confused about where I am when I wake up in the morning. Where is home?, I feel myself constantly asking.
This summer, I have learned something new about myself. I'm always longing for either comfort or adventure. As I sit on my best friend's couch in Tennessee, I find myself wishing that I could just stay. I wish I was 17 and could spend my summer Sundays lounging on the couch and staring at the fireflies by my pool in Kentucky. Then I go to Nashville and I find myself jealous of my friends about to begin sorority recruitment, still safe in the bubble of college, where no one is more than a phone call (and a 5 minute drive to Starbucks) away.
But yet, when I'm hiking through the mountains of Colorado and exploring the streets and skylines of a new state, I feel a longing in my heart for the adventures and unknowns and unwritten story lines that I know are waiting. As much as I wish I could mesh the two phases, I know that comfort and adventure are like oil and water. I know that I have to leave one to get the other, always, and it's rare that all the pieces of my heart can be in one place.
So, my best advice is to drink in the moments that are becoming increasingly rare as we get older. Dancing with my best friends at a Friday night wedding and waking up next to my college roommate are pieces of time that I only get to have for a little while amidst the changes that won't stop coming. Because these moments are fleeting, I save the snapshots in my memory a little longer, and cherish each moment of comfort a little bit more. In my gut I know it's worth it; that all of our changes and transitions and rough patches are worth something, because we are called to live a great story. Some lines will be easy to write and some will come with great effort, but it's the story as a whole that makes a difference. We just have to keep turning the pages.