Lovely Things

I was in California this past week. Furthest I've ever been from home.

Pasadena was beautiful. I loved it.

I'd love to live out there someday. Maybe in a few years.
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Pasadena was lovely. It was busy and urban but it felt fresh. A lot of urban places I've been all have a very distinct feeling of being on the downside. Their glory days have come and gone. They have a slight feeling of rundown-ness.

Maybe it was because I was on the west coast, but things just felt fresh. The weather, the people, the houses, the buildings, the trees. It was all fresh.

And it was refreshing.
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I saw the ocean for the first time ever. I loved it.

Which is odd. I am normally terrified of the ocean, but I still loved seeing it, and hearing it, and smelling it, and touching it for the first time. It was really a cool experience. We got there at sunset, which made it even more lovely.

The ocean is a really big thing, and that's why I don't like it. You can't trust it. Especially when you can't see land. Then you are in big trouble.
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I don't know what else to say really. The ocean was lovely. And I love lovely things.

There are lots of lovely things in my life right now. Some more lovely than others. And some I see more than others.

But I am thankful for them all. Those things and the moments I get to see them or talk to them or touch them are the moments that make life worth living.

It's experiencing something I don't deserve at all. And that only happens by grace.
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When you experience something lovely, and you know you are only able to do that because of grace, it makes everything so much clearer.

It makes me thankful for that lovely thing.

And it makes me thankful for grace.
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Peace.