Changes, changes

Well, here we are in our new apartment in Athens... It's definitely a change from the country life that I had grown used to and come to love, but you know, Athens is not a bad city. There are still places to escape to, but civilization is far closer at hand. Right now I sit here looking at boxes and naked walls, and wonder if this place will ever feel lived in. But of course it will--that just seems so far away right now, because so many other things take precedence over decorating your home...

How did we end up here so quickly? That's a long story... We really needed to get away from his parents, who were our neighbors. Parents across the ages have difficulty separating themselves from the lives of their grown children--it's uncomfortable to have pressure from parents to go in one direction, when you, a perfectly able and free-thinking adult, wish something different for yourself entirely. So we had to get away. I know things will be better now... although I will miss the ability to go out and escape into 100 acres of woods and pastureland, to look up at night and see the stars, unpolluted by the lights of the city. But those things are not gone forever, I have to remind myself. I will just have to find them in other ways.

So life has been outrunning me these past few weeks. I'm tired and I feel like my mind is just awakening from the numbness of constant wear and overexertion. Joy has escaped me--until a few nights ago, when I spent time with God like I have not done in a long time. I know He's in control of all this, and I don't have to feel like everything good in life is whirling away from me, out of my reach.

I'm enjoying writing about nature. I've started my long paper that is due at midterm, and I'm really having a good time with it. I know that nature has helped me get through some difficult times in the past because it is the only thing that is still pure in the world. The more we manipulate it the more it depresses me; but that's not exactly what I'm writing about. I can't wait to be done with it, so I can read it and find out if it tells the story I want it to tell. A story about healing.