Project 52 | seven

Metadata: f / 5.0, 1/250 sec, ISO 200

We have had a magnificent long weekend; a very good reminder of the love and support our family possesses here in NashVegas. And it provided a great stage for this week's lesson of truth...

On Saturday we spent the morning picking out flowers at Import Flowers, a shop in Sylvan Park that Korey found thanks to a tip from a coworker. We wanted to pick out a few blooms to share with hosts of a dinner party we'd be visiting on Sunday. What a magnificent little shop: Lucas had a blast helping pick out flowers, chatting with the knowledgable girl who helped us settle on these gorgeous calla lillies and filler, and showing us how the gerbera daisy she gave him bloomed. It felt good to connect with a part of our city that we don't get to in our every day routine. It reminded me that we are a part of something intricate and impressive -- even if it remains hidden in my mind as we trudge through our day to day. 

We also got to spend some fun time with friends from my school and their kids (and grandkids). We are truly blessed to have made familial connections at work. In the hectic day-to-day, these ladies often act as our surrogate family members in times of need -- we are so lucky to have them to help us bloom in Nashville.

On Sunday we had the opportunity to cook for the Youth at church. Korey cooked another dynamite meal while I baked yummy deliciousness for dessert (I broke them and baked them). Our day of good fellowship began with sharing lunch and continued in the early evening with a dinner with church folks. We laughed, connected, and reveled in the shared joys of our families. It was great to share stories and find similarities between our lives that began hundreds of miles apart and were brought to the same moment in a warm home with divine nourishment -- both food and spirit.

And then this morning, Lucas and I shared an hour at the Red Caboose Park where he showed me just how much he's grown since we moved here a year and a half ago. Racing between the swings and slides, my hysterical boy leaped for joy when he courageously took on the moving bridge by himself for the first time. He begged for help but then conquered the tire ladder on his own over... and over... and over again. 

The lesson for our little guy this week is perhaps an add-on to our lesson from week one, and it echos the message I took away from our Sunday School class for new/inquiring members at Blakemore. Our pastor shared the three basic lessons of John Wesley and though I'd heard them in some form or fashion in college, their meaning resonated with me as I reflected on the events of our weekend: Do no harm. Do all the good you can. Stay in love with God. 

Our guy has known many places as "home". He was born in New York and spent the first two precious months of his life in my own home state. Then he spent two years in Danville, Virginia, a place I didn't even know existed until AU Volleyball took a chance on an '07 graduate with an unquenchable thirst to learn. And now his home is Middle Tennessee -- perhaps the first place he'll truly remember when he looks back on his early life and reflects on "home".

It's easy for me to see how he's bloomed in all of these places by the web he's cast on so many loved ones we've connected with in all of these places. If there were ever a precise moment where I could pinpoint the existence of God -- it would be in the relationships that have bloomed for us in all of the places we've been.

No coincidence. We connect (and bloom) because of something deeper than chance. Hmm... that sounds like a painting waiting to be created...

( ...word... )