I kissed my momma on the cheek and headed for the door. Luggage rolled behind me as I called “See you tomorrow, Majah…. in ELEUTHERA!” I heard her excited squeals just as the door closed behind me.
That was yesterday.
Yesterday, I was 23.
23 was such a good year. It was the year of chances taken. Filled to the brim and overflowing with countless failures, memories and moments that still drip from my consciousness. It was in that year that I fell in love with the art of community, and learned a thing or two about authenticity. 23 was the year of letting people in and watching what happened when they walked through the doors of my heart. Some, wiped their feet and were invited to stay awhile, others rushed in without warning, and left traces of themselves on certain memories that I still have trouble shaking.
23 was the year of living with my best friend and her 5 cats, of teaching 8th grade and getting connected with the ministry of Delight for the very first time. I graduated college with a degree in History Education, only to stick that piece of paper in a frame and leave it there to pursue my dreams of owning a small business.
It was within those three hundred and sixty five days that I learned what geo-catching was and watched my sister move into her first apartment. She learned more lessons in that transition than most learn in a lifetime. She taught me a few as well.
23 tamed my tongue. And opened my eyes to the importance of tasting one’s words before they are spit out….
You can’t unsay things, 23 taught me that.
Patience found itself in the shadows of each passing season.
But, 24.
24, I see you. I see how possibility wells itself up in you and pours itself over into the “what ifs” and “what could be’s” of the coming days. I see the way hope has been sprinkled in the cracks of former brokenness as if to say, “I’m gonna hold this together.”
24 holds her head higher, stronger, and laughs more. She doesn’t worry, about what isn’t happening, she focuses on what is to come.
24 drenches everything she touches in love laced grace…. because 23 didn’t do that enough. 24 lets go of more and holds on to less because the best things in life are wild and free, untamed and chosen.
Each day of this year, I’ll strive to roll with it- whatever “it” may be and if “it” ills over me- heck, I be a little smoother because of it.
Over this next year, I have no doubt that things will occur I didn’t plan for, and people will enter through the doors of my heart that I never expected. But I’ll let those things in.
I won’t avoid things that scare me, which means french fries are friends and running a 5k needs to happen. I think I just openly admitted that I’d run a 5k do French fries.
So today, as I begin adventuring through the next 365 days of what 24 has in store, I’ll take a breath and thank God for 23. Without 23 I wouldn’t be here, traveling to Eleuthera, Bahamas to meet my momma on a missions trip on my 24th birthday.
Ohhhhh that’s right ❤️
Happy, happy day!
Xo
Anna Filly
Loved your post Boo! Majah.