**I interrupt my FAM IN JAPAN posts to share a quick update**
Life has been very sweet recently. The weather is warming up, the flowers are in full bloom, classes are back in swing, events are lined up on the calendar, and each day really feels like such a gift!! And gifts are sweet.
My time here in Kashiwa is wrapping up. It is a very surreal feeling. Three years was such a mountain of time... and yet, here I am nearing the summit. The best part of nearing the end of a good thing though, is that you hold the moments much more tenderly. As if God gives us the strange ability to see the tiniest things as the brightest, most beautiful, most riveting shining gold gems on the planet. For me, those moments have been these photos above.
sipping slowly on hot coffee with dear friends
crusing my neighborhood farmers market
watching the reflection on the lake at sunset
chatting with students waiting for the bus
seeing popular Tokyo street views from new heights
savoring dinners with coworkers
spending nights around homemade meals with my Kashiwa family
embracing the emotions at farewell parties
This season I am in is a powerful and enriching time in my life. Every moment of every day is soaked in purpose, memories, meaning and...sweetness. That's really the beauty of living abroad, but more so, of living a life along God's greater plan and not my own. Had I stayed in my comfort zone, had I listened to my voice rather than the Lords, had I let my fear cripple me instead of lean on faith...I would have missed out on all this beauty and all this richness here in Japan. That is the truest sign of God's grace in my life.
He is good, all the time.
4 more months in Japan - let's goooooo!