Disclaimer: Sorry I’ve been a bit elusive of late. What with graduation & getting moved & grappling with all that is different & daunting about post-collegiate life, I let a few things slip for a bit. But now I back & ready to begin a summer of blogging like mad. Read on to find out all about it!

I’ve been thinking a lot about the word ‘seasons’ of late. Part of it is settling into this new season of summer, diving in with both feet to the slow-paced afternoons & sleeping in, to sunshine, bugs buzzing & the bright flowers of my father’s garden blowing in the wind.  But more than green grass & 80-degree mornings, I know I’ve hit a new season of my own, one that will last much longer than the summer. Something much more ambiguous, though it has mile-markers of its own. Saturday, I crossed the stage on the Great Lawn of Union University to pick up my diploma, cap-and-gown clad, & landed on the other side of life: Adulthood.

And as sentimental & sappy as I could be about it, most times I’m simply at peace, happy to be right here: getting just a glimpse of what’s to come, taking the tiniest of steps forward into what could only be described as the great unknown. And since you’ve followed me this far, cheri, I figured I owed you a little explanation of what’s next.

And that’s a summer spent under the same roof as one of my personal heroes, & true friend and guide, the amazing Angie Roberts (& family). Which means, of course, I’ll be staying in Jackson. Because sometimes your feet are nailed to the floor. And sometimes, they’re held there by a hundred hallowed hands.

So this summer, I’m banking on sweet tea & scones, star-gazing & staying up late. On all that is wild & crazy & sacred & silly about living in the middle of a house bursting with babies & boys. And in between all the post-collegiate soul-searching, I know there will be slip-ups. There will be days (in fact, already have been) when I wonder, what the heck am I doing? But as I begin to take my eyes off the Lord & the path I know he has set for me to follow & I start to focus in on the dark, on all that is frightening about a future unknown, I feel the tug of all the fingers that kept me where I’m staying, & I see the faces of all the people I’m just not ready to leave behind. And that’s when I remember I’m doing right. I’ve got a family, mismatched & maniac as it may be, in Jackson, Tennessee. And I’ve got to stick with my own.