Perhaps the weirdest thing about blogging it is the way it forces a daily morning check-in: am I feeling silly/happy/gleeful this morning? Or angsy/frustrated about something? I start most days digging around for some sort of step to stand on as I build a new post.

I’m telling you this because this morning is a mash-up.

I woke up thinking about how psyched I am that 24 year-old fashion designer Dom Streater won Project Runway. I loved her spunky attitude, and now un-angsty she was. She just took on each challenge like a cool opportunity, and worked hard not to doubt herself.  She stayed in her lane, not comparing herself to anybody else, which is a phrase that’s coming to mind a lot for me lately and a quality I admire.  I wanted to share this interview with you, because it just encapsulates so many good ideas for how to live life.

But I’m also struck by this blog post from a pastor who has had all hell break loose lately, and how he confronts the lie that God won’t give us more than we can handle (I agree with him: that line is bullshit.)

And this wonderful post from Elisabeth Klein Corcoran about how she loves to be alone, but finds it so difficult to go to church by herself. I was especially struck by her comment about how part of why she pushes past the loneliness to go on Sundays because she knows it’s good to be in community. And yet there are Sundays where she walks into church alone, sits alone, and then walks out alone. I’m not sure where she lives, but I’m tempted to show up at her church this weekend. She seems like someone I’d really like to sit with.

All of these things are swirled around together in my brain. I think this is partly because yesterday I had one of those catching up phone conversations with a friend I hadn’t talked to in months. Our chatting was exactly this sort of mash-up: one thing connecting tangentally to another, us jumping back and forth across all these ideas like two frogs on a pond full of lily pads. We’ve shared some tough times and some great times, now that we have a little distance it’s all easier to talk about, and we can look to the future with curiosity again, and even some expectation.

Maybe that’s where I am this morning, as we head into the weekend: I’m excited about how much creative goodness comes from staying in your lane and staying positive, and fending off the bullshit platitudes about the things that suck. And I’m newly aware, like some small mammal coming out of hibernation, that connection can be good and that I’ve missed it. (And that I may need to grab my friend and take a road trip out to surprise Elisabeth at her church).  Looking at the future with curiosity and expectation.

Which is good, because tomorrow I’m going to an alumni event at my college, where I think I’ve agreed to twirl fire baton while wearing a Laura Ashley dress.  I think the “mash-up” theme will continue into the weekend. Here’s hoping it doesn’t transition into “epic debacle” :)