Sunday, January 2, 2011

because it seems fitting.

 last night the question of "what was your favorite moment, (memory, etc) of 2010?!"" was thrown around and being an incredibly indecisive person i struggled to come up with an answer. i'm quite terrible at answering questions that have the f word... favorite. (haha) i just cannot pinpoint favorite moments. i love so much of life, so many different aspects of it, and choosing a favorite seems to be unfair, it seems to cut something short, or discredit part of it, or something... (lame? perhaps. whatever.) 

so i'm not going to try to sum up this past year for you, i'm not going to use big words and colorful descriptions to try to paint this year for you. because 
1. that might be cheesy and 
2. it would be like stuffing a rainbow into an envelope,
 impossible.

so let's just say this.
i liked 2010.
a whole lot.

i can and will however, attempt to show you some of the moments that are held closest to my heart from this year. some of the times that made me feel the most alive, some of the people with whom i collided and walked away changed. but these do not even do complete justice, because life cannot be captured in a photograph and this year especially i took fewer pictures because i realized that when you're always taking pictures, you miss participating in the activities worth photographing. haha so yada yada yada, there's that. here's a snapshot of this year past, because it seems fitting.



the year began with a trip to the most delightful teahouse with the dearest of friends. 

and continued as we went sledding on cafeteria trays. 
(for these girls i am eternally thankful.) 




we may not have had any snow days but we did get one day off when the crazy apocalyptic storm came through and stole all our power for nearly 24 hours. we spent the day traipsing through puddles and planning adventures.

on spring's eve we found ourselves at singing beach playing frisbee and enjoying the sunshine after a long winter.



we met the sun early one morning, cold and brisk and beautiful.




we made cupcakes and carried out "the great cupcake surprise!" for our dear friends in the dish room.




these guys took my breath away.




these funny people i get to be related to continued to make me laugh.





i hiked this high peak in the Adirondack mountains with team oswald and lived outside for 2 weeks-ish.



the best brother in the world brought home this tandem surprise for me! 
adventures have not ceased since.




i spent the summer with these crazy kids. they taught me a lot about patience and love and joy.
this particular day was probably my favorite with them.




i also had the privilege of hanging out with this darling girl. she and her sister have a very special place in my heart.




i went cliff jumping in an old quarry for the first time. to this day, it was probably the riskiest thing i've done.




learned (and performed) the waka waka dance with these fun girls!




these cool kids came to visit for my birthday and helped throw me the best surprise party every. 
best birthday by far. 




we spent a lot of time in the kitchen making all kinds of random food and sharing it with people. (we ate a lot of eggplant this year, haha) 



one day genny and i biked down to the garden and helped move pumpkins around. it was the loveliest of fall days and we biked back with lots of fresh vegetables.  




i came home for quad break and dug out these potatoes with my dad. :)  




one crisp day we helped prepare the grounds for winter and then pressed apple cider; DELICIOUS.




sufjan stevens.
need i say more?




we had a pre-thanksgiving floor feast. 
there were tears of gratitude and love;
it was beautiful.
these girls are the coolest people ever.




to celebrate the end of a semester we went to my new favorite spot,
the cliffs of magnolia.



and then i came home to finish the year off with these incredible people.




and 2011 has marched in with barely a knock on the door to warn us. 
so here we are. in a year, whatever that  means. 

so here's to another year of learning and growing. here's to a bigger capacity to love, to eyes that see more clearly, to thoughts captivated by Christ, here's to more stumbling and challenges and trying again, here's to seeking God wholeheartedly and trusting him without restraint, here's to gracious giving (for to whom much is given, much is required) and forgiving with finality, here's to asking hard questions and being ok with not having the answers, here's to investing ourselves 100% wherever we are - to trusting that where we are, is where we're supposed to be. here's to being absolutely present all the time, to being child-like, to laughing and dancing and singing and being. here's to living full, and hard, and well. 

and here's to a unicycle, a harmonica, and a heart that wants to see the west coast. 

No comments:

Post a Comment