...and we're back!

Hello, friends! We are back from our wedding and honeymoon and settling into the routine again. I am still unwinding (and wishing I could rewind to do it all again!). I'll be back soon with some big old wedding, Greece and life updates! 

In the meantime, I will leave you with a few recs!:

Reading: I read The Boys in the Boat in Greece. Holy cow! So good. The first 100 pages are a little slow, but if you can get through them, you will n.e.v.e.r. look back. I learned so much, too!

Watching: We finished The People v. OJ Simpson on the flight home and I strongly suggest watching it. I learned things I never knew about the trial (tons) and couldn't believe the empathy I felt for the lawyers, jurors, etc. Chris and I are counting down for the OJ 30 for 30. We can't get enough!

Wanting: Sam Smith originals. Girls in Greece were rocking OG Adidas and they looked so cute. They'd be a real compliment to my slides :) 

Eating: Grilled papaya (and anything we can possibly grill, grilled). We made a recipe from the Superfood Kitchen that called for papaya and had a ton left over. We weren't sure if it was grillable, but we threw it on anyway. I think I prefer it this way! 

Feeling: So happy to live with Chris and pretty happy to be back in the swing of things. But! Still wishing we could go back in time and pause the glorious moment when so many of our loved ones were in Atlanta. This city felt so full with all of you here!

Happy Tuesday!

goodbye! // aντίο

Friends! I'm off. This weekend is our wedding, then Chris and I are headed to Greece! Thank you all for your continued love and support during our engagement. Thank you for sharing in our joy, embracing our story and making us feel especially loved!

See you in two weeks! :) Αντίο!

{this story was written for us all}

Last week, I drove home at dusk as the sun faded behind the clouds, providing the perfect light, I would think, if I were a photographer. The air smelled like pre-summer rain and it blew across my face as I drove with my windows down. 

I crossed through Emory's campus and it suddenly hit me that I was driving my old running route. I spent my first two summers interning in Atlanta living in student housing, pounding the same three-mile loop every morning in the dark before work. 

As I crossed over my old halfway point, my mind flooded with memories I haven't processed in many years. It hit me that, this week, Chris and I will get married just a little over a mile from where I spent those first few years in Atlanta. Where he planned the night of our proposal is right by the golf course where I once met a boy who I (incorrectly) thought I'd marry.  Where we'll dance into the night is just down the road from where we used take postprandial walks getting to know one another better. And, our wedding day is, almost exactly, five years to the day after I had my heart broken by him. 

These streets that once felt so broken, empty and painful, have been refreshed - paved with love and filled with abundant joy; so much so, that I almost didn't recognize them. The landmarks that used to make my heart ache, reminding me of what once was, have been resuscitated, new life breathed into them. 

I was reminded in the moment that this journey was written for us. Our wedding day and our story were by design; they were not by chance. It was a gentle reminder that there is a plan and, if we can lean into it a little more and trust more fully, we can find unprecedented joy and relief.

Had you told me, as I moved from apartment to apartment across the city, living in 10 different places, that I'd begin my life as a married couple with Chris just down the road from my very first apartment, I never would have believed it. If you'd told me that connections Chris and I both made at separate high schools, nearly 500 miles apart, would be the people who ultimately introduced us, I would have been flabbergasted.

But that's the thing about it. It's not our map to navigate or our story to fully understand. It's simply a beautiful life we're meant to live, if we can open up our hearts to trust a little more. 

Happy Monday, friends! 

Create the Life You Want

This morning before work, I took out the trash and noticed that Pedro, the man who maintains our property, had placed two chairs in our veggie garden so he didn't have to mow around them. The move was understandable, as the garden has been completely neglected this year.

As I transferred them back, I noticed the garden had become overrun by weeds. Our mint, which is abundant despite my neglect, was being strangled by weeds that had started on the outside of the garden box and now ruled the inside. I quickly began uprooting the weeds one by one. The more I pulled, the more I discovered. They had grown layers deep - intertwined between the mint and mulch and remnants of tomatoes and basil. 

As I dug deeper, yanking up more twisted, powerful weeds, I realized our 20s can be a lot like this garden if we aren't careful. We start out planting basil, tomatoes, mint and peppers. We're dedicated; we tend to it and care for it.

But, the summer ends and as winter nears we forget about the garden. It freezes over during the coldest months and in the spring it stands forgotten by us, becoming whatever we have left it to be. Years go by and suddenly our once diverse and vibrant garden is simply mint and weeds. 

This isn't to sound negative, but, instead to acknowledge that one of the greatest lessons I've learned in this decade is that we have to be intentional.

If we want a garden full of beautiful vegetables, we can't cross our fingers and hope it falls into place. Creating the life we want takes a lot of work. It takes prayer, practice, discipline and intention. It takes focus, trust and risks. 

If we want to be a therapist or a doctor or spend a year abroad, we can't simply sit at our desks, hoping someone will give us that dream. If we feel led to start a business, we can't grind on other work, hoping someone will lay that foundation for us. 

If we want a garden full of basil, tomatoes and peppers in the fall, we have to plant it in the spring and tend to it all summer. If we want a life made up of our dreams, hopes and goals we have to get out there and make it happen; we have to hustle and work for it. Before we know it, we just might find ourselves waking up in summer, surrounded by the fruits of our labor.