i went with a group of friends this weekend to solvang to go wine tasting.

SUCH a great time. beautiful country, great company, fantastic wine and just what i needed to regain some perspective. and, as most of you know, my perspective on just about everything has been stretched, beat up, twisted around and transformed in the nearly two years that this blog has been alive. so a nice little outing to get a bird-eye view of life ... as i know it ... was just what i needed.

as we were driving back, i looked at the ocean with the same fondness that i had the first time it came into view when i arrived in california. powerful and enticing ... so new and thrilling ... everything was jumping around inside of my stomach as i came to grips with the fact that THIS ... this beauty was my new reality. that same enthusiasm made me smile and i turned to vince to tell him how much driving down the coast reminds me of my first taste of a decision that changed my life.

i hardly remember that girl. i remember she was crazy ... clearly ... who just picks up and moves from wichita, kansas to l.a.? i remember that she had no idea what her life would entail once she started unpacking her things in her new home by the beach. and i remember most that the person she thought she came here to become, isn't the person she is today. and there is something astoundingly redemptive about that.

i know i still have her fire, passion, desire for more ... i have her smile and her giggle as i drive along the beach on a sunny day ...

but there are so many things i have now that that person never even dreamed of. she had no idea what was coming :) no idea what adventure awaited her. and that brings me so much hope for what is to come.

as i stared back and forth between the ocean and vince, i thought ...

i'm so glad some things never change, but so thankful most things do.