Red on the Head

I came across this quote the other day, and it just stuck with me...
"I will not die an unlived life. I will not live in fear of falling or catching fire. I choose to inhabit my days, to allow my living to open me, to make me less afraid, more accessible, to loosen my heart until it becomes a wing, a torch, a promise. I choose to risk my significance; to live so that which comes to me as seed goes to the next as blossom and that which comes to me as blossom, goes on as fruit. " --Dawn Markova
I thought it very appropriate for me. It's dead-on, in fact. It's a very accurate representation of how I choose to live my life.
I am preparing for a new adventure. On June 1, I start a new job. Still writing and editing, but I'll be adding to my skills in ways I never even thought of. I'm excited and scared, all at the same time. Well...not really scared. Uncomfortable is probably a more accurate word. I'll be stepping outside of my comfort zone. I've been quite comfortable in a newsroom for years now. It's been home. And I won't be there come June 1. Uncomfortable...yep. That's me.
But with that discomfort comes the excitement of new growth.
I recently read about the anniversary of the eruption of Mt. Saint Helens. I saw pictures of the eruption and the devastation that followed. I spent a summer in Oregon when I was in college, and I got to see the area firsthand. It was beautiful. Our tour guide said when everything came back after the eruption, the mountain and the area around it was even more beautiful than before. From the ashes of devastation came something so beautiful, it took my breath away. God took something that was seemingly dead, useless...and turned it into something full of life and promise.
I read an article in the LA Times about the anniversary, and it said the first rumblings of that eruption took place nearly two months before...and nobody noticed.
I have rumblings...discomfort...excitement...
I don't know when the eruption will occur, I just know it's coming.
And I can keep moving forward, because I know that the same God who exchanged beauty for ashes is at work in my life...
And just like Mt. Saint Helens, I will emerge better than before.
Rumble, rumble...