this is always kind of a strange time for me. summer is over and it is time to switch modes to the school year. it doesn't really slow down, it is just different. i like it, but it always takes me a few weeks to get into the swing of the schedule and the differences.

so, to ease the pain of letting summer go, i'll try to recap some of my summer adventures... one of my favorite times this summer was funyaking with some of my girls at whitewater ranch. last fall a few of us went to a clinic to try out kayaking and ever since then we've been waiting for a chance to do it again. so when i found out we would be funyaking (inflatable kayaks), i was pumped. even though it wasn't the real deal, it was close enough. so, monday morning we set out on the might hiwassee river in our funyaks. for those of you who don't know, the hiwassee is basically just a floating river, with a few tiny rapids here and there. this did not keep me from falling out of my kayak twice, however. once i was attacked by an overhanging tree branch and the second time i just got dumped out. it wasn't a big deal that i fell out, the problem was i couldn't get back in. fortunately, whitney, mandii, lindsey, and april were there to try to help me get back in. even with their help it took me a while. i couldn't seem to find a foothold and i kept slipping back in. it was pretty hilarious - until i started hitting all the rock that were just under the surface. i left with a few bruises, but a lot of laughs, so it was worth it.

last week and this week i've been working on rewriting my job description and thinking through what i really want to be about. it has been harder than i expected to lasso all of my thoughts and feelings and try to express them and work them out. i was reading sandra mccracken's journal today. she was writing about the difficulty of working through her latest project and she says, "I'm discovering (again) how important it is to lean into the hard things. I'm remembering how it feels when the things we work for bring sweat and tears. And I have a sense that it's making me more alive, more courageous, and more free. Free to fail, free to break, free to fly. Whatever the case may be, it doesn't matter as much how it turns out, as much as it matters who we are becoming in the process." i'm encouraged and blessed by that. as tired as i am of working on this, i'm trying to "lean in" and work it out. peace.