From Beech Road to Lemans Lane

Today is Thanksgiving Day, and I had a fabulous time at my brother and sister-in-law's house. I am blessed in the area of family, as I have one that loves unconditionally. Therefore, there is no drama, but simply the enjoyment of each other's company. It's always great, and I never take it for granted because I know that not everyone has the kind of family that I do. I sit and wait for a spouse this side of Heaven, and I'm fine with it because I know that my family is amazing on all sorts of levels that I won't share with you now. Trust me though, I am blessed.

In my pondering of thankfulness tonight, I have pondered the past couple weeks I've had here at the "Resort." I don't really have a resort, I have a three bedroom town-home. *grin* This house has been more than I ever imagined when I was sitting in the last chapter of my life. For some of you that are new to my world, this post won't make complete sense to you. Honestly, that's fine. You'll get the gist of it. *grin*

While Karen is gone now, to be with family and friends south of here, she was here for a little over two weeks. I'll be honest, I prayed before she came, as I had a previous friendship that ended due to things that happened while we were housemates, and I didn't want a repeat of that. God answered that prayer on so many levels that I didn't expect. *grin* I love it when He does that! *grin*

Karen has always been a good friend of mine. While she's a little older than I am, she is wise in the Lord and also in relationships and other random things that I didn't know about. *grin* I didn't expect a repeat of the last chapter of my life, I just wasn't sure what it was going to look like having her here.

As it turned out, the routine was AMAZING. She was able to study and pray while I was at work. When I came home, we would talk, laugh, and just have fun. Sometimes we watched movies, and other times we just talked. My favorite thing that we did was laugh. We also ministered one night to a friend of mine, which was an amazing night as well.

Perhaps the thing that impacted me the most was the moment we realized we were close enough that we didn't need "thought bubbles" between us. In other words, Karen was a safe friend that I could share with, even though we didn't agree on everything. That was HUGE for me. The filter could be turned off when I was around Karen. The more I pondered that, the more awesome that was to me because I don't think I have that with anyone else besides the Lord. In the last chapter of my life...well...I will simply state that the past two weeks were amazingly cool in comparison to where I was at before now. *grin* It's human nature to compare experiences, I get that. However, I know that part of why Karen was here was to be used by Him to show me so many things.

I am so very thankful for Karen and her heart for the Lord. I'm a different person tonight than I was before she was here. He used her in ways she will never know or realize, and I think that's cool. That's the point of life this side of Heaven, to gain new perspectives, and learn through new experiences. I'm not sure if Karen will be back before she leaves for other countries or not, but I will say, in two weeks my life has changed for the better.

THANK YOU, LORD, FOR KAREN.

I'm also thankful for Lemans Lane. It's always good to be reminded that when one chapter of a life is character-building, it will end and something better is on the other side. The next chapter always holds wisdom gained from the one before.

*grin*
LIFE.
IS.
AWESOME.