Packing up Portland

It has been six wonderful years that I have gotten to live in this little house with the red door, but now the times are a changing. I sit surrounded by boxes spread across the floor and piles and piles of stuff... or better known as memories. It is a strange feeling deciding what stays, what goes, what to remember and what to forget. My life has seen a lot of change and transition in the last six years, but my heart has undergone even more. I will treasure the lessons that I learned here in Portland because I know that I am leaving here a different person. Learning to live what I believe, in confidence and community, has altered the way I embrace each day. As I look around this little house my memory is flooded with moments that my heart will hold forever. The late night conversations that exposed glimpses of our souls, tears of joy and sorrow shed and shared, laughing till our sides ached and still not being able to stop, praying till we saw change, and resolving to never be the same. It is strange that the "things" you want to take with you are not possesions that boxes can hold, but only things that the heart has deeply felt, known, and owned. Thank you to all of you who shared in this stage of my life. You made it richer than you could have imaged and I am deeply grateful. You will be missed and will never be forgotten!