reach.

First, let's start off with the fact that I absolutely LOVE the elderly.  I think grandmas and grandpas are really cute, and I sometimes want to walk up to the ones I see around town and start talking with them and be friends... They are so smart and have so much life experience that I honestly find them very intriguing. 


Do any of you ever go to restaurants or coffee shops (or anywhere) and see an elderly man or woman sitting by themselves, eating dinner, or drinking their coffee?  By themselves is the key part to that sentence.  When I see them looking lonely, it makes me really sad.


Last night, Josh and I were with his grandparents at a restaurant, and in the booth next to us, there was a man, probably in his 70's or 80's, who sat by himself and ate alone, and kept trying to hear our conversation.  Not in a creepy way, but more like he was just really lonely and wanted to hear some sort of adult conversation, and wanted to make some sort of connection with someone.  


I guess the reason for this post is that I wish I could gather the guts to walk into a restaurant and go sit with one of these people.  I think a lot of these people look and feel really lonely, and I don't want that when I am their age.  I want to do this someday.  


I wish we didn't see age, and could reach out more as a generation...

rain.

I just went for a run in the rain.  


Yes, it did make me think of Portland... just a little bit.  Not that it EVER rains in Portland though :)


On my run, other than thinking about how cold I was, I thought about the next five years.  


I'm kind of just giving things to God.  Sometimes I start laughing and think about how insanely crazy and unpredictable the last five years were.  I tried to plan those five.  I'm not going to plan out the next five.  


It's going to be an adventure, I'm sure, as usual, what God will do with these next five years, but I can't wait to see what crazy and unpredictable things God has for me in this five.  


The last five's major events consisted of some pretty unsuspected events.  Some of them were amazing.  Some of them were the worst events of my entire life that I never, ever saw coming.  I don't regret ANY of the decisions that I have made.  


I probably learned more in the last five than in my whole life.  I grew more than ever and have been able to look at myself and find out why I do things and why I am the way I am.  Yes, sometimes when things get hard, I tend to run from them.  Now I go running and think about how to deal with those things face to face.  


The things I hope to do in the next five years, are:


Live in New Zealand.
Maybe go back to school.
Run a marathon.
With Josh-work together through everything.


I have control over that last one, but the other three and everything else, God has control over.  


It's going to be awesome to come back to this post in five years and update, to see what all really happened :)

Portland.

I miss you.