I am constantly reminded of how important it is to live right in the moment. I try so hard to skip ahead and I am always snapped back to the “right now”, as if on a rubber band. The lessons I’ve learned and continue to learn are SO important to who I will be for the rest of my life – I can’t regret them. I can’t deny them a place in my life. The complexity of what I have been through is sometimes breathtaking. And the simplicity of it too: My life fell apart and God saved me. He was always the only one who could.

So I keep learning my lessons. I run ahead and am pulled back and I remember why that is so important. I remember that I am safe and that I am taken care of. I remember to trust, to walk forward, one step at a time instead of in leaps and bounds, even if I can’t quite see where I’m going. I remember that if I keep my eyes on Jesus, I won’t sink.

I’m just so thankful.

My friend Rickelle, who lives right behind me, is an amazing therapist. I’m always in awe of the way her brain works and how in-tune she is with people. Having her as a friend has opened me up to so much of myself that I never knew about. She is always so good to tend to her heart and to the hearts of those around her. She has a way of holding a mirror to your face that I have never experienced with any other person. There is so much to say about her, but for now I’ll just say, it was no accident that she and her husband moved in right behind us. I think about Rickelle living in my back yard and I know that God loves me.

Last year she started a tradition of making Dream Boards. One night Rickelle, Carrie, Amy and I got together in a flurry of magazine clippings, glitter and glue. We made posterboards filled with magazine clippings that inspired us. The next week we gathered to share what each image on our board meant to us. Last year I was in a rough place and struggled to find the perfect words and pictures to define myself and my dream board ended up with a lot of white space.

This year dream boarding involved lots of indulgences (hello Peach Margaritas) and took us a little longer to make. But last night Amy, Rickelle and I were able to get together to share. I found it so much easier now that I’m in a really good place to fill a dream board. So much easier to say what inspires me. The theme of my board was “The Art in Everyday” – a little quote I found in an Anthropologie magazine. I think that speaks to my insatiable need to create everyday and definitely defines this point of my life.

It isn’t an amazing work of art that I’d frame and hang on my wall, but each year I will keep each one, and look back and remember who I was back then and remember the girls that I share my life with. The girls that speak life to me everyday. The girls who love my beautiful mess of a life and who love being my friend as much as I love being theirs. And I will remember how thankful I am to have them and how blessed I am and how loved.