Where the Heart Is

This journey in the Northwest has been a fruitful one. I honestly cannot stress how important, exciting, challenging, and wonderful it's been to leave home and live in a new place. There are certainly days that I miss the old ways and comfort of who I was in Pittsburgh, but over the last month or so I have had the opportunity to really embrace life in Washington. While I certainly questioned God's plan several times over the last 8 months, I knew for a fact that I was brought here for a reason and am thankful for seeing that more clearly every day.

I'll warn that this post will be scattered. There have just been signs of Seattle/Tacoma becoming home over the last few weeks. Spending intentional time with good friends, playing music, seeing live music, enjoying work, having real impact on students' lives, finding a new apartment, and simply enjoying a new chapter of life has been a real blessing. The weather has been amazing recently, which has helped to enjoy getting out and riding my bike around town.

In talking to my friend, Dana, who is visiting from Pittsburgh, I made the realization that even though I'm living 3000 miles away from home I've essentially found a way to continue life the way that it was except with new people and places. I still go to shows, drink PBR at dive bars, and journal in coffee shops. The difference is that everyone does that here, too! Shows are abundant. 

There is always good music to be seen and heard. Last night we saw a show in Tacoma (Ages and Ages, The Local Strangers, and James Apollo) and today we saw a free in-store performance in Seattle (Barcelona). Local bands playing local venues, except that these bands are fantastic. Don't get me wrong, there are some great bands in Pittsburgh (New Shouts and The Whiskey Holler, to name a couple), but there are just SO many great bands between Portland and Seattle. And the play these towns a LOT. 

For this reason, Seattle is exactly what I was hoping for. For this reason, I cannot imagine leaving any time soon. I don't know what the future holds, but I do know that I'm thankful to feel so thankful to be here that leaving soon is no longer on the horizon. There were certainly times when I thought about leaving after this year or next year, but I am starting to reach a place where Tacoma is becoming home too much for me to really want to leave soon. For this, I thank God.