[insert your life here]

So welcome to the past week in 5 minutes:

Whistler was amazing as has been discussed in the clear cut and various conversations. I climbed a waterfall, a small mountain, and the waterfall again. My two top moments of the entire weekend: stargazing on Saturday night (we're talking milkyway, mars, satelites, 5+ shooting stars, and worshipping God in the heart of His glory) and building relationships with awesome people. You can see people for months for minutes at a time but a truly meaningful connection is never* made till you have to eat, sleep, and breath the same air for days at a time.

The heart of what I took from Dave Sprinkle's teaching (which was awesome) was that I need to study more. I need to be so enthralled with knowing and getting to know God that my life is sincerely consumed by the task. And in so doing all the various activities of life that truly matter will fall into place. Key, foundational concepts in my faith were brought into a new light: something my spirit has been longing for.

Love Whistler. I don't think I would enjoy it as much in the winter though... I find excessive amounts of snow annoying to some degree. But Whistler in the summer! A beautiful dream come true.

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Tuesday Erin, Josh, Sarah and I went for a hike up to the Bat Caves on the Pacific NW trail in Anacortes/Bellingham. The Bat caves aren't so batty anymore. We strapped on our brand new head lamps and dived into (**note: diving would not be the correct word/action to use/perform here due to the sharpness of the rocks and unavoidable death/extreme pain that would occur as a result of diving) the caves. Now, I expected to be walking through some huge pirate cove but NO! We were crawling on hands and knees in small crevices, searching for foot holes and relying on all other forms of strength when legs and arms were not available for support. It was SO rad!

After shimmying out of the caves through a mere hair pin crack in the rocks we started climbing the boulders to catch the sunsetting over the Islands. I perched myself high on a rock and watched the sun falling from the clouds. The boats on the ocean formed some sort of grid, each keeping to their own space through the amazing power of the personal boating bubble. The oranges and pinks were breathtaking. I looked on as if someone had lit the whole western sky on fire and it would never be seen again. Then we hiked back down the massive hill in the dark (which was not the brightest task we have ever completed).

Hiking is amazing.

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I leave for Canada Tuesday morning! Only one semester then it's off to Lithuania!

oh the excitement!

PS: 1 John is awesome. Read it all in one sitting and just sit back and think about God's LOVE! mmm, so good.