Wherever you are, be all the way there.

I haven't written on this thing in awhile and this post will be quick, but I have the urge to write and not finish my readings that are due tomorrow. I completed my first quarter at the University of Washington and went to Scotland this summer. During the eight week quarter I got extremely sick, cried a lot, and wrote about twelve papers. It was a horribly difficult quarter, but it made Scotland that much better. I originally planned the trip to visit this girl here:

Eilidh Power is this AWESOME Scottish girl that I got to spend 6 months with in Australia, Thailand, UAE, and South Africa. She also visited me in America...so this was our 5th continent together. I hadn't seen her for two years and although I had originally just planned the trip to see her I got to see so many other things :D I got to see Edinburgh, Stirling, Glasgow, the Isle of Skye, castles, sheep, the highlands, and a lot of other AMAZING things. This is Eileen Donan Castle. One of my favorite shots from the trip.

Not only did I get to see amazing scenery, I was able (if only for a moment) to see myself from a different perspective. Something I know about myself is that I get lost so much in my future plans and the right now that I overwhelm myself to the point of exhaustion. It makes me a bad friend, a bad daughter, and just not an enjoyable person to be around. I know it about myself, but seeing it from a macro perspective (probably not the right word...but you know what I mean) was really discouraging and convicting. There's so much I want to do and see, but that's not what it's all about is it? If you forget about the now in the process it's a waste of the now. Anyways, it was really good and I hopefully will be able to balance my time and energy and that will encourage a more healthy mind, spirit, and Shanna-in-general. :) I'm very thankful for new beginnings. Before I left I was very disappointed and discouraged. I felt stuck. God showed me that my 'stuck' doesn't bother him and quite frankly he couldn't care less about it. All he cares is what I'm going to do now. All I think I can do right now is love him. I'll start there and see how it turns out. As usual, I heard this wonderful song on the radio today and now I can't remember it. I can't remember one lyric, artist, or even what they were singing about. However, I do like this one and hope you will too. It's been very encouraging lately. All Sons and Daughters: "Alive" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-vmvVnRPlY Wherever you are, be all the way there. No regrets. Not wishing you were somewhere else. Make the right now not just tolerable but wonderful. -Shanna