travelling dreams...

In just over 2 weeks I'll be heading back to South America for another 5-8 months of volunteering. It's going be great. I'm excited to get back down there, see the kids, and work on the streets.



But I'm also excited because for the past 10 months I have been saving money so that I can afford this trip, and also do a bit more travelling when I am down there. I still want to visit that salt flats and the Santa Cruz jungle, and I am even hoping that I can visit Peru and Machu Picchu for a few days for my birthday this year! Then, if I come back down to Bolivia in the new year, I'll stop by Panama and Costa Rica to visit my bestie afterwards, on my way back up to Canada in July. 

 I also need to explore more of Canada. I've been to the East coast many times and absolutely love it. I love the pace of life, the smell of the earth and the ocean, the small towns. City life just isn't for me. But my next Canada tip will definitely be out West, to the mountains. I absolutely love mountains. They just take my breath away, much like large bodies of water do. So I'll find a car and maybe some friends and we'll road trip out to BC. Cathedral Grove and Englishman River Falls Park are definitely on my list of things to see. So are Spray Valley PP and Lake Superior. I want to live with the mountains and the trees soooo definitely have to see those. 


Then, finally, someday I will visit Southeast Asia like I have always dreamed. Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Bangladesh and India - someday I will see your shores. 

Here's to hoping I get a half-decent job when I get back so I can pay for all of that!

life in the slow lane

I heard a song recently that reminded me of times past. 

The songs we sing bring back memories when we hear them again. They bring back every feeling we once felt; nostalgia sets in, but it’s this happy blissful type so we don’t mind. I love songs like that – song that tell the story of the moments of my life.

I once heard a song that said that fastest way isn’t always the easiest. Funny, that didn’t make much sense to me until now. I think we evaluate how hard or easy something is based on how we feel at any given moment, but our evaluation can completely change when we’re out of it. When we’re in the clear we get to see the whole picture and are reminded of how we have been blessed, that’s when we see things with clear vision.

Sometimes we make choices and they hurt, but that doesn’t mean they’re the wrong choice, just that they’re difficult.

Patience hurts sometimes. It can be utterly grueling. Sometimes it almost feels like you’ll stop breathing if you have to wait another second. But then you wait, and eventually the waiting gets easier and you aren’t so restless.

The fastest way isn’t always the easiest. It may seem that way, but then we reach the end and we see that if we had done things differently, if we had gone the fast way, everything would have culminated in disaster. So, we decide to take the longer way, because then we aren’t setting ourselves up for failure. We’re patient and kind, we forgive and we have compassion. We work things out. We give each other the chance to change; we see what will become of us instead of forcing one another to become things that we are not. We don’t jump in head first. We trust.

The longer way is difficult because we are not sure if, in the end, it is worth it. But I think it is. When we are patient and calm we can take things as they come. We wait for the best. We don’t settle.

Taking the fast way we are not prepared when, unexpectedly, things change and we all end up with broken hearts and jaded souls. That is no way to live.

We’re not being too careful. We’re not full of fear. We’re just being cautious, and as such we are being wise. We are not the type of people to throw ourselves out there and just let any old person or any fleeting feeling take hold of us and drive us into the dark. No, we’re better than that. So we don’t take the very first thing that comes along, and we don’t despair if, in the end, we’re still alone. Because we’re doing it right, and that’s what matters. We’re saving our hearts so that we might save our lives.

“Guard your heart above all else, for it is the wellspring of life.” –Proverbs 4:23

photo via (we heart it)

Psalm 139

O Lord, you have searched me and known me!
² You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
    you discern my thoughts from afar.
³ You search out my path and my lying down
    and are acquainted with all my ways.
⁴ Even before a word is on my tongue,
    behold, O Lord, you know it altogether.
⁵ You hem me in, behind and before,
    and lay your hand upon me.
⁶ Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
    it is high; I cannot attain it.

⁷ Where shall I go from your Spirit?
    Or where shall I flee from your presence?
⁸ If I ascend to heaven, you are there!
     If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!
⁹ If I take the wings of the morning
    and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
¹⁰ even there your hand shall lead me,
    and your right hand shall hold me.
¹¹ If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me,
    and the light about me be night,”
¹² even the darkness is not dark to you;
    the night is bright as the day,
    for darkness is as light with you.

¹³ For you formed my inward parts;
    you knitted me together in my mother's womb.
¹⁴ I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
    my soul knows it very well.
¹⁵ My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
    intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
¹⁶ Your eyes saw my unformed substance;
in your book were written, every one of them,
    the days that were formed for me,
    when as yet there was none of them.

¹⁷ How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!
    How vast is the sum of them!
¹⁸ If I would count them, they are more than the sand.
    I awake, and I am still with you.

¹⁹ Oh that you would slay the wicked, O God!
    O men of blood, depart from me!
²⁰ They speak against you with malicious intent;
    your enemies take your name in vain.
²¹ Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord?
    And do I not loathe those who rise up against you?
²² I hate them with complete hatred;
    I count them my enemies.

²³ Search me, O God, and know my heart!
     Try me and know my thoughts!
²⁴ And see if there be any grievous way in me,
    and lead me in the way everlasting!