Hello, October

I got back from Slovenia Sunday night and I'm in love! It's going to take me a few days to get through all the photos I took, but I can't wait to share!

In other news, fall came to Kansas City while I was gone. Also, my time away and subsequent return confirmed that I am definitely allergic to Kansas City. But it's so pretty in the fall! I hate feeling cooped up indoors.

I digress. While on the plane last week, I read Barbara Kingsolver's new book, Flight Behavior. I'm a fan of Kingsolver in general and the book was alluring, albeit mildly disturbing in its skepticism of God and marriage. But the story itself is about monarch butterflies and I liked it.

One line early on caught my eye and I thought about it all week:

...everything that came next was nonsensical, like a torrential downpour in a week of predicted sunshine that floods out the crops and the well-made plans. There is no use blaming the rain and the mud, these are only elements. The disaster is the failed expectation.

I just love everything about this and it hit a chord in my soul. Failed expectations have hurt me deeply in the last few years, but I feel like I'm moving into a place where I pack lighter and hold on more loosely. Having few expectations of my cobbled-together work situation, going on a great vacation I didn't plan and that I wasn't in control of, and watching the leaves change whether I'm ready or not reminds me that life without the constraints of my own expectations is so freeing.

That being said, the one thing I'm learning to count on time and time again is God. He is ALWAYS there, he ALWAYS keeps his promises, and he ALWAYS loves me. That's the one expectation I can count on coming to fruition.

Deuteronomy 7:8-9 gave me such a joyful heart yesterday:

It was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath he swore to your forefathers that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery... Know therefore that the Lord your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations...

I hope this new season finds you with a new song in your heart. I'm not sure what winter holds, but it's sunny now and I'm happy. Hello, October.