(i carry it in my heart)

This feels so much like "not enough..."



i carry your heart with me (i carry it in
my heart) i am never without it (anywhere
i go you go, my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing, my darling)
                                  i fear
no fate (for you are my fate, my sweet) i want
no world (for beautiful you are my world, my true)
and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows
higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart (i carry it in my heart)

e.e. cummings

❧

[Most profound thanks]

Hillcrest High School.
The Bama Theater.
Big Sandy Baptist Church.
CHOM.
The Church at Tuscaloosa.
Gilgal Baptist Church.
The University of Alabama
Frank M. Moody Music Building.
Shelton State Community College.
The Bean-Brown Theater.
First United Methodist Church.

These places served as the settings for so many wonderful memories (the good, the bad, and the ugly--each deserves a sense of wonder all its own).  And those are just the tip of the iceberg. 

HHS Choral Dept.  Show Choir. Musical Theatre.
Tuscaloosa Children's Theatre.  Hours upon hours upon hours of rehearsals, Talent Searches, and late night set construction and laughter.
The Storehouse.  My first VBS and M-Fuge.
Junior Docents (Teen Leaders).  Birthday cakes(sssss...), juice boxes, wrapping paper, guests, and sneaking an ice cream.
Praise Team and youth groups who "Finish Empty." Calico Street.
College & Career Sunday School class.  Wednesday night rehearsals and burgundy choir robes.
Football. 
Piano lessons. Opera Theatre.  Practicing.  Loitering.  Friends, teachers, and colleagues. 
Theatre Tuscaloosa.  Sometimes "plus five," usually "minus five."
Music making.  Family.  Teaching.  Fellowship.  Community.

This doesn't even begin to scratch the surface.  To make a truly comprehensive list of all the ways Tuscaloosa has served me to be able to make amazing memories, to forge forever friendships, and to help me "grow up" would be... an impossibility.  Tuscaloosa bore the vast majority of my growing pains.  It's probably seen me at my very best and at my very worst.  I can't say the same about it (not having known its entire history), but I've had my fair share of ups and downs regarding how I feel about T-Town—wishing I was somewhere else, but never able to really get away.  Getting away and living for the day I returned.

"My love for you is like this scar.  Ugly and permanent." 

-Grace Adler

It's a game of tug-of-war with you, Tuscaloosa.  God only knows who wins.  Ü 

There is so much unknown out there I am eager to discover, but that in no way negates the fact that there's so much I know here that I will miss and cherish for the rest of my life, wherever life takes me.

Thanks, Tuscaloosa, for being everything I want to keep with me and everything I want to leave behind.  No matter how far away I go, for better or for worse, I'll always have at least a toe in T-Town and won't be able to leave completely.

Most importantly, thanks for being my facebook friend.

❧

To all those in Tuscaloosa who have shaped who I am and who have helped me to get to this point,

thank you.

It doesn't seem possible that it's been 10 years since this chapter of my life began.  I left Grand Rapids and didn't think I'd be able to call Tuscaloosa home, and I have to say that were it not for the people here, I still wouldn't be able to call this city home.  I think we all feel that more acutely since "The Storm."  These buildings and places have no meaning without the people who breathe life into them.

Tuscaloosans—You, beautiful, beautiful people.

To each of you,

No matter where I go, I'll never be gone, and you'll always be with me.

For that, I'm eternally grateful.

(Roll Tide.)

♥