New beginnings

"One day you finally knew what you had to do, and began, though the voices around you kept shouting their bad advice-though the whole house began to tremble and you felt the old tug at your ankles. 'Mend my life!' each voice cried. But you didn't stop. You knew what you had to do, though the wind pried with its stiff fingers at the very foundations, though their melancholy was terrible. It was already late enough and a wild night, and the road full of fallen branches and stones. But little by little as you left their voices behind, the stars began to burn through the sheets of clouds, and there was a new voice which you slowly recognized as your own, that kept you company as you strode deeper and deeper into the world, determined to do the only thing you could do- determined to save the only life you could save". Mary Oliver

I've referenced this Mary Oliver quote before, it's something that I read and reread as I was discerning which seminary to go to, when to go, and if it truly was what I wanted to do. Now that I'm here and getting ready to start classes (8:30am tomorrow!!) I found it again. As I was getting ready to leave I said that I was ok with leaving because I knew that Richmond was where I was supposed to be. The night before I left and the morning I left were so difficult. As I said goodbye to my family and to my best friends and took off for a city I didn't know the reality really struck me. I was leaving everything familiar, leaving my home town, my loving community, and it was hard. It would have been easy to stay. To find something to do, to keep the momentum going as it was. But I know that if I had done that I would never truly find my voice. My identity at home is so enmeshed with certain things- family, job, church, friends. And while all those things are spectacularly wonderful, I think I depended on them too much. I'm ready to find my own voice, to have a city of my own, to live more independantly, to learn new things and to continue on this journey in the direction God is calling me. Tomorrow we start classes and this journey really begins. New friends, new languages, new theories, new grocery stores and traffic patterns. I want to say thank you to everyone for making this new journey possible. I wouldn't be where I am without each and every one of you. Know that I love you and miss you all a lot, and I look forward to sharing this new adventure with you. I'll try to make this the last super sappy entry for a while :O) I'll finish cleaning and put a few pic's of the room up and I'll let you know how difficult biblical hebrew is tomorrow :O)
Have a great day!
love you all!!! rach