A couple weeks ago, I spent my Sunday afternoon outside.

The Graves Amphitheater was bathed in golden afternoon light as I moseyed lazily through some history reading in an ENO near a good friend who was talking on the phone with her family as she swung back and forth, laughing. The weather felt like spring, a song, a breeze. That evening I ate dinner with another sweet friend on Samford lawn.

Friendship has brought so much joy to my life.

I walked back through campus just as the sunset was fading and evening was setting. Older couples were holding hands on quiet walks. One corner of the sky was glowing pale yellow, streaked with purplish clouds. Everything was brought to even more vivid life by the Rend Collective music in my ears. Beauty arrested my soul, and stress was a forgotten shadow. I strongly felt my Father’s joy in my delight. I just about wanted to dance through campus shouting.

Before I headed home, I took a pit stop back at the amphitheater and lie there on a bench listening to music as I stared up tree trunks and watched the stars wake up to dance on the blue turned-sable field of the night sky.

Today, Auburn felt like home.

As the days flip by, more and more I realize that life ain’t so much about the place you live. It’s about what you make of the place you live, and it’s most about the people.

Living in a backwoods swamp with great friends is preferable to living in a castle without a single person in whom to confide..

In the past, I have been obsessed with moving to a certain place, and I’d still like to move there.

But I’ll keep open hands and open mind to my future and to God’s will.

What a blessing and love, for God to give grumpy and discontent ole me such joy in this place I have foolishly despised. I certainly do not deserve it.

We may think we’ve got the best plans and know the place we need to be, but truth is, wherever He is, wherever He leads, is where I want to be, whether I think so in the moment or not.

“Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere.”