Marin

I was just thinking how much I miss living in Marin County, California. I miss going to Rodeo Beach several times a week. I miss people coming to my apartment and chatting and eating ungodly amounts of Ben& Jerry's. I miss going into the city. I miss the foggy hills. I miss the worship services in chapel. I miss the wonderful talks in Dr. Kim's class. I miss the freedom to think and search and talk and figure things out, and the freedom others had to tell one another if what they thought and sought was good or right or not. I miss the authenticity of worship and Christianity in general, the way that there was not a fear about being bold and out there and sharing with someone who really needed it. I miss all the laughter and the comfortablity and the real sense of family. Shame just didn't have a place there. We needed and were needed, and everyone's place was important. Everyone's place was taken. I didn't feel left out there. I felt loved. I felt challenged and sharpened. I felt refreshed and alive. I loved the cold, cold ocean on my bear feet. I loved Sunday dinners at the Tuinzing's. I loved Tennesse Valley. I loved laughing and learning and sharing. I loved driving around the corner every day as I went to sell shoes and seeing Mt. Tam staring back at me, the wonder of her as the princess, the beauty of her as I would think to myself over and over, "Man, I really live here!" It was an amazing year and a half, and I don't know who I would be now if I had not experienced it. I would not have known love like that. I'd have known love, but not like that. I am glad that I saw the Family of God there. I had brothers and sisters and Chicken had caregivers, brothers and sisters as well, sometimes they were moms and dads. I had those who were not afraid to kick me in the butt when I needed it, to love on me and encourage me when I needed it. I saw the hard stuff there, and having seen it makes the hard stuff now a little easier. It's ok for me to love the life I have now and still say, I miss that time in my life. Because I do. I miss it.