A Warm, Cozy Monday

You know that part at the end of Willy Wonka (and yes I mean the Gene Wilder version, because I love Johnny, but seriously, what the heck?) where they're in the glass elevator spinning above the town and it's beautiful and Pure Imagination is playing in the back ground. Wonka tells Charlie that he'll be running the factory and his family can move in, and then says, "Now, remember Charlie what happened to the man who suddenly got everything he ever wanted." Charlie asks what. "He lived happily ever after." And then Wonka and Grandpa Joe and Charlie spin into the sweet, chocolately future.

A while ago I was basically offered everything I ever wanted. A long term missionary position in Glasgow, with possibly a job State-side while I fundraise. And then I freaked out, because what if it's not everything I ever wanted? My heart is my compass (something I love and hate about myself), and my heart just froze. It's like that moment on a speed boat when the engine cuts out and the boat is just gliding on the water from inertia and there's just silence and no control.

But I've got time, right? There are no deadlines for me. I'd like to have a plan. I'd like to have a crystal ball and play the guitar and make art with my friends into the sweet chocolately future. But somehow I think my future will be sweeter. Because my patch work life will continue to be warm and whole and odd in the way that having oompa loompas and making candy that never loses its taste is odd. Odd but wonderful.

So, here's to living happily ever after, and being willing to think that everything you ever wanted is possible. Or at least worth seeing just once.

Much love,
Em