A State of Mind

This has been stewing in my brain since I was in Texas a month ago. And by stewing since, I mean it’s come up from time to time but I’ve been ridiculously busy and just now wrote it down.

At the end of June I was so very blessed to be able to spend two weeks in Texas seeing dear friends and family, hanging out in my favorite places, listening to country music and southern drawls, and of course eating the most wonderful food on the planet. Seriously, two absolutely amazing weeks.

Then this past week two of my best friends, my roommates from college, came to visit! We spent three days walking all over the city, hitting all the major highlights (and some of my favorite places that aren’t quite so thronged with tourists). We ended every day so tired and sore (and hot and cranky) that we could hardly move, but it was so good to be with them. Plus, watching our favorite movies and having sleepovers every night because we kicked Jeff out for the weekend was lovely :)

So Texas has been on my mind, and I finally just jotted down what I was thinking. It hasn’t had much revision and I don’t even know how to qualify it (poetry, I suppose?), so no guarantees. But here it is.

Texas is not Bible thumpers, raging conservatives, and unbearable heat.

Texas is green trees,

red earth,

and wide, blue sky.

Texas is the dust of a rodeo

and the sound of the state fair;

it’s the roar of a city,

the bustle of people,

junebugs on an otherwise silent summer night.

Texas is smiling speech,

shootin’ the breeze

in that slow drawl,

that musical twang.

Texas is big family dinners

blessed by a deep family grace.

It’s comfort food and

comfortable conversation.

Texas is southern hospitality.

A smile, a wave,

wide arms and an open door,

friends and strangers alike.

Texas is,

it has been said,

an obsession approaching a religion.

It is home.

“A Texan outside of Texas is a foreigner.”- John Steinbeck

Starting Over, Part 8,067

Well, 2010 was one heck of a year. I graduated from the best university in the world. I said goodbye to the city that I've called home for the past four years, not to mention all of the amazing people I loved there. I married my best friend. I moved a thousand miles away from my family, my friends, and everything I've ever known. I started seminary. I got my first position as a youth minister. I was stranded halfway across the country as my family fell apart and struggled to put itself together again. I made wonderful new friends (without whom I wouldn't have survived at all--CD group, Dumbarton folks and Thursday night bunch, I'm looking at you) and managed to succeed in my classes despite taking a ridiculous number of them.

But with everything that happened, I feel like I slacked off in some things, like this blog (which, I'm told, "people actually read, you know!"). And in keeping up some of my relationships. And in remembering to take care of myself. So let's see if I can keep this up, shall we? Maybe if I share my resolutions I'll be more apt to keep them, or so I've read. So, in no particular order:

-Lose my newlywed weight. Apparently that's a thing? No one warned me!
-Do so without going back to looking as anorexic as I apparently did when I started college. Again, no one told me!
-Pay more attention to my readings for school. They're assigned for a reason. Mostly.
-Go to chapel more. Since I'll be in choir this semester that shouldn't be too hard, right?
-Work harder on serving other people, especially Jeff.
-Finally establish that date night we've been talking about since June.

And to that end, we decided to start the new year with a date day, which was wonderful. Actually, we started the new year with the wedding of some of Jeff's friends, then a day of catching up with some of our best friends before they/we head off again, and then we got to have a day to ourselves. Slept in, did a little work to justify taking the rest of the day off, then headed out to do whatever we wanted. Which meant getting a little dressed up, going to the gigantic playground in town, playing and taking pictures, getting some amazing TexMex while we can, spending almost two hours in Starbucks (next town over, of course, because Sulphur Springs is one of the few places in the world that still doesn't have one) just reading and drinking tasty warm drinks, and attempting to see Harry Potter again. I say attempting because turns out the theatre we tried to go to closes at 8 now, at least according to the guy who stuck his head out the door to ask if we needed any help. Despite the fact that the internet said they were showing HP7 at 8:45. But I'm not going to go so far as to say that it was shady, or allege that they were having massive drug deals behind the theatre facade, or anything like that... maybe.

All in all, though, it was a fantastic way to start off the year.  And now to get organized with work and doing reading for school, and we'll be back in DC at the end of this week. As much as I've loved being in Texas and everything that goes with it--family, friends, places I grew up, accents, friendly people, access roads on the freeways, warmer weather, Houston thunderstorms, Dr Pepper in every restaurant, TexMex, Bluebell ice cream, everything being cheaper--I'm also really excited to get back to DC and our life there.

I wanted to end with a picture from yesterday and one last thought. We were watching TV (also crazy, since we don't have it in our on-campus apartment) and saw a commercial whose premise was "What if we treated every day like New Year's Day?" I loved it. I've always loved that thought. Every day is a chance to make your resolutions again, to change the way you live or the way you look or the way you feel. So even though it's January 4, happy new year! Go out and be the person you wish you could be.