Thoughts from the City

This skyline... Sigh.

There is a sense in Home that reminds... Who you are, where you've been, and how life brings unforeseen change. Riding bikes along the same lakefront path I rode from the Lily to the beach for 5 years - looking over the water to familiar buildings in the skyline that motivated me for all those runs - everything that was so deeply engrained in my everyday rhythm of life suddenly appears foreign and unknown. It seems that with Benjamin by my side, the old becomes new, and that constant longing for something More is complete. The Chicago I know holds the remembrances of youthful hopes & dreams, wonders about the future and glimpses into What Could Be. It carries a blindness to years to come and a playful energy with all things Adult. Exploring the city with Ben has changed my sense of this city I once knew.

This guy... I love him to the moon!

Adventures in Divvy bikes... Yikes.

In my thesis research, I'm exploring how our landscapes, simply the environment we live in, change us. It's a gradual effect that happens over time, so that we often don't notice until we Return to the place we started. Living in a place with sun and ocean compared to a place of fast city life brings a different perspective to the world. Adventuring around Chicago for a week after living in San Diego for 10 months allows me to see how this is true. New eyes upon a familiar place brings a sense of Freedom from what was... It also brings sadness and a grief for what can never fully be anymore; to repeat the past in the city - young & single - would be to recreate a chapter that has closed. It was simply so good it had to end in order to prepare the way for the next Good. Moving on can be scary at times, the familiar streets no longer familiar, and the road before me is one of constant change I can barely keep up with... But I know that it is Good. 

We happened upon a Cubs game for scalped $10 tickets!
Lemon Chills and Beer... mmmm...

River walks at golden hour

In a way, I think full clarity for most life situations happens when we remove ourselves from the environment in order to return with fresh eyes. Driving to California with the city in the rearview mirror was perhaps the scariest thing I have ever done. But with risk comes reward - and had I never gone, I never would've known the Great & Beautiful that awaited on the other side.

Gathering with this community of friends is the very very best

The Lily!!!!! I took Ben to my favorite of homes... :)