I heard the phrase, “Transformation is beautiful” in my head while I was entering into the most majestic fall scene I have yet encountered. Dillon Bell Georgia Bulldogs Jersey Pure yellow everywhere I looked. Mahdi Hazime Jersey And I didn’t just look at this yellow, I immersed myself in it. I entered the woods. It’s one thing to see beauty or goodness and appreciate it. But its another thing entirely to go further, desiring more. Expectation of depth.

For me, there is no denying that God brought me to where I live now, that He is all things lovely, and that me being here is also lovely. What I get hung up on is the transition. Old to new. Good to … better? Georgia to Tennessee. We always forget about the change – the actual stickiness of the process, the footpath between two places. Yet it is amazing how our feet discern a path at all– that I don’t get lost.

I need to learn how to live now. Ryan Shazier Jersey To breathe the air I have to breathe. To be content. To be quiet. To be loud, sometimes. Gabriel Brownlow-Dindy Jersey Instead of always looking to the left or right, comparing and evaluating. Or looking back to what was familiar, or eagerly anticipating the next season. I never like where I’m at. What I need to get my mind around is that change is constant, and it brings me good. Consistently. In a way, humans are enamored with non-personal change. The day after Thanksgiving we all zap into Christmas mode. Zach Shackelford Jersey Little girls daydream of the day they transform into captivating ladies. We marvel at the green leaves turning to vibrant yellows, reds, and oranges… Clay Swinney Jersey eventually fading to brown. We know the cycle but we are continually in awe of the effect. Tiny green buds appear on bare branches. Liam Shanahan Jersey A delightful blue sky quickly turns to thunder and gray. We’ve seen it before, yet we are always impacted. Startled. Impressed. Pleased. Keita Bates-Diop College Jersey Relieved. Zack Sanchez Oklahoma Sooners Jersey Should we not embrace personal change with the same eagerness? Instead we always seem to get caught up in the muck of it, a muddled perspective feeding us unhappy thoughts over the instability. We like to be rooted. Alex Padilla Jersey It’s taxing to be in transit, to not have a resting place. Yet how will we ever see that these times of being “uprooted” allow for the magic to happen? If I’m going to be uprooted, I want to be planted in better soil. John Butler III Jersey I want to see and believe that my heart is a forest of golden yellow when I embrace change. I won’t need to take leaves home with me as mementos because I’ll be chock full of them. Brimming from the inside.

In the morning I return to Savannah to begin my last quarter of college. The very last go-round. Classes start Monday. Wyatt Wilkes Florida State Jersey As in, tomorrow (technically).

Home has been so good to me this spring break. (My last spring break!) Transitioning between full-throttle work and then endless rest is always a jarring shift in gear, no matter how desperately the rest is needed. But returning home to my family, to spring, and to restful contemplation of my future has been very good preparation for the quarter to come.

Spring is absolutely my favorite season. I love all of them for different reasons (though I only dig winter if there’s good snow), but every time spring rolls around, there’s no question. Green. CJ Wiley Georgia Jersey Life and color springing forth from where I forgot it used to be. Winter’s deadness gets to me sometimes. Deslin Holmes Jersey Bare trees. Cold sky. (Not so much in Savannah, though!) Dormant life. Carius Curne LSU Jersey Back in February I was home for a weekend, and I remember walking in the woods and being struck by a scene of towering, skinny tree trunks covered in ivy. These trees stuck out to me on my walk because of the green amidst all the bare trunks. Sam Huff College Jersey I remember praying for God to clothe me like He brings the leaves to the trees. This week I have seen daffodils bloom, tulips come up from the ground to their full glory, leaves bud, trees put forth new green shoots visible from the second story of my house, and majestic flowering robes of wysteria hanging in branches all over town. Jordan Mitchell Jersey The trees are now being clothed. And God will clothe me too.

I want to keep blogging. I never intend to put it aside, but things get in the way. Mainly school. Malik Willis Auburn Jersey Dominic Lovett Jersey I will try to stick to a goal of one blog post (at least) for each of the ten weeks I have left before graduation. This is a precious time for me. I’m in Savannah living with my dearest friends, and these are the weeks before we all scatter and part ways to begin our lives as adults. Somewhere. These are the last ten weeks I spend as an (undergraduate) student at an amazing art school. My dream school. The last ten weeks before I enter the work force. Before moving on. Moving out.

I’ve had to deal with a lot of fears this break, and some that immobilized me for days. I went walking in the rain today. I looked at those trees with the ivy-covered trunks. A tiny brilliant green inchworm descended from my umbrella into my hand. As I attempted to get him onto my finger so I could put him safely on the ground, promising that I wouldn’t hurt him and that I knew what I was doing, I felt God’s reassurance. I am that inchworm in the hand of God. I’ve got a plan for where I’m going. Marc Mondesir Jersey But ultimately He knows where I’ll be landing. And He sees a much bigger world, a fuller plan than I could ever prepare myself. Worlds.

I will trust in Him, and He will act. Kevin Dodd Jersey And I’m going to keep on reveling in all this green. Stanford Cardinal Jerseys It’s gorgeous, vibrant, and full of all the life surrounding me. All the time. Life: that’s what I’ve got in front of me. Will Cowart Georgia Jersey And He’s the giver of life. Constant. No matter what.

I don’t think I’ve ever done a Christmas Eve post before… earlier this evening I had the pleasure of sitting down and reading my favorite annual Christmas card. Yep, you heard that right – pleasure. You know all those letters you get with way too many details about kids of relatives you barely know? Or worse yet, a neighbor you rarely even say hi to? Well, this one is different. I had the joy of visiting the Wolnski family home/lodge tucked away in the woods outside Birmingham, Alabama back in April 2011. Brayden Zermeno Jersey This is a family friend of Mason’s… long story. Nick Basquine Oklahoma Sooners Jersey Anyway – they are a unique and incredibly blessed family with eight children. Their mom, Grace, writes a beautiful booklet-style letter brimming with gorgeous photos of each of her kids. Jared Walsh Georgia Jersey The woman is incredibly insightful, wise, and observant of the personal growth taking place in each of her children’s lives. Caleb Herring College Jersey And every year my family can’t wait to get her little update in the mail, even though we’ve never met them (not really). There’s just something different about them. Michael Irvin Jersey Something very genuine. Grace notices the smallest details as well as the larger picture… and is always thankful for it all. It makes me want to be a part of their family, or to have my own amazing family of eight kids one day. I don’t know. But I’m amazed, inspired… in awe? Of a family I barely know? Yep.

I absolutely adore my own family, no question. There’s just something so powerful about reading an adoring momma’s thoughts and impressions about her family’s life, growings, beginnings, struggles, overcomings… and told so honestly and yet so beautifully. I would love to get the chance to meet them all, to sit down with Grace and get to know her. And MaryGrace for that matter, an amazingly talented painter, calligrapher, and beauty of a person – the one person linking my family to theirs through a friendship with Mason.

But in the meantime… I find myself just… inspired. Nate Kibble Texas Jersey And thankful. I am beginning to believe gratefulness is contagious. Infectious. It brings hope. Kindles new perspective. Warms us up with goodness that just is good at its core, not fluffy substance-less ideas or notions of hope or gratitude. A grateful heart puts weight behind those over-used and over-commercialized words and concepts.

What am I grateful for? Yesterday. Dillan Gibbons Notre Dame Jersey We all have busy lives, and even though Mason and I both live in Nashville… it is rare all of our schedules align to get home to NC at the same time. Christmas is great for that. We went on a short road trip to see my Uncle and our cousins. And my grandpa (who lives in MO) went with us! It was such a great day. Latrell McCutchin Oklahoma Jersey Such a joy to see my Uncle’s new home, team up fora family frisbee golf expedition, share a warm meal, and teach the boys some of my basketball moves from back in the day. They are my family, and I love them all.

What am I grateful for? Today. Going to throw some (non-golf) frisbee at a nearby soccer field on a cold and calm Christmas Eve – all 4 of us. Balsa Koprivica Jersey Chasing the frisbee around like crazy because it had a mind of its own, but still having a blast despite the sting of cold air in our lungs. And spontaneously going to buy fancy cheese… Robert Knowles Jersey because my brother loves cheese and because my parents love my brother. Coming home and sitting all together listening to Mason play our piano as he and Dad had some fun finagling some mics for an experimental recording. Every experiment of his is beautiful. My family is so cool.

What am I grateful for? The most generous parents in the world who have sown so many seeds of radical generosity and continual, unwavering love in my life. And the most generous God there could ever be. He created other glorious beings called angels. Jake Merklinger Jersey He made me. He chose to come as a baby and bring hope to mankind, fully God and fully man. Jesus showed the ultimate display of God’s unwavering love for us by dying for our sins… for yours… for mine. He rose. Francisco Nelson III Jersey He is alive. And what I am most thankful for is God’s motivation behind all of these actions: to know me. To rescue, for sure. And for me to know Him. His desire for me is to be known by the King – to be drenched, inundated, and immersed in a sea of love. Father God is generous. He has an unending supply of loving things to say to you, and He will never tire of saying them. Jayden Thomas Notre Dame Jersey He longs to dream with you, for you to trust Him to create your dreams in a bigger way than you could have penned yourself. Oh Jesus. You are precious. Ask God for the impossible this Christmas. Ask Him for more of Himself, evident in your life, nearer to your side, speaking loving things into the lonely places of your heart, soaring with you.

With you.

Thank you Wolnskis & thank you Grace for reminding me of the beauty of thankfulness. Thank you Lord for all that blossoms out of it. Thank you Jesus for a reason for ultimate gratefulness.