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Nothing makes you love a thing like being without it. I have missed home. I try to pretend that Emily with her big girl life doesn’t need anything but the life she has crafted with her own two hands. But it isn’t true. 
We are, whose we are. I belong to Jesus, my Mommy and Daddy, my brother and sisters, and Ben. I love that they help make up who I am, and I make up them.
How sacred it is, the feeling of home in a heart: deeply comfortable, free, and honest. It was so good to be home and in the sun with all my family this weekend.
I got to see my sister Ella go to prom, followed by my brother. My picture was on the front page, laughing at my handsome boyfriend as we ran in the park. I met the new Pastor of our church, and laughed in the hot tub with my best friend. But nothing was as spiritual or as beautiful as flying a kite.
My parents, baby sister, and I ran barefoot in the grass, chasing each other, squealing and panting. We lay on the grass and belly laughed. We made lemonade slushies and stained our mouths red. We gave long hugs and took deep clean breaths and stopped for a moment. We stopped and saw the beauty that is around us. We paused, and the joy of the Lord crept in.
The joy that is asboundless and simple as a blue sky, and as complex as family finds us in these moments. It fills us up to happy tears and it reminds us that life is fullest outside our planners and watches and to-do lists. Somehow, it is a hard truth to remember.
So pause friend. Breath deep the big world you live in. Find God there. Be healed and be filled in the present and the simple.
“Let’s go fly a kite
Up to the highest height
Let’s go fly a kite
And send it soaring
Up through the atmosphere
Up where the air is clear
Oh, let’s go fly a kite!” – Mary Poppins