“Everybody has a home team: It’s the people you call when you get a flat tire or when something terrible happens. It’s the people who, near or far, know everything that’s wrong with you and love you anyways. These are the ones who tell you their secrets, who get themselves a glass of water without asking when they’re at your house. These are the people who cry when you cry. These are your people. Your middle-of-the-night, no-matter-what-people.” – Shauna Niequist, Bittersweet
I feel like I could have easily gone my whole life without knowing community like I know now. I’ve had friendships, and I have friendships, that are real, and true, and raw and beautiful. Friendships that are irreplaceable. But I had never experienced the community that I have until the past 16ish months. None of us knew what was gonna happen when eight blogger girls decided, over twitter, to all fly out here last October. No one knew, even when we left Lake Placid, what was to come. But the Lord knew we needed each other. I mean, really, He made us for each other. I can’t believe I get to do life with these women. Via group text, and email, and facetime, and creepy google plus. And facebook chat, and phone calls that make me weep. I live with a heart that literally, I feel it every day, aches for two reasons. One: that we can’t all be together every single day. And two: with thankfulness and is-this-really-my-life thoughts of how this chick (re:me) ended up with the best friends a girl could ever, ever, ever, EVER ask for.
My home team. They’re all over the place. Seattle. And Oklahoma. Alabama, North Dakota, California. Mississippi and New Jersey. Little bits of my heart sprinkled all over the United States.
In late August I flew out to Seattle and Camano Island. November 10 seemed like the best day to share these photos, naturally.
A beautiful, life-giving, soul stirring, girls trip. Also known as The Year of The Food.
The best thing to hold onto in life is each other.
