26

Yesterday was one of those days. From the moment I woke up I was a grump. Mark forgot to tuck in the mosquito net, the bath tub stopped draining again, our ride came 30 minutes earlier than was expected, and....that was it, I was all set to be pissed off the rest of the day (and let me tell you, the day gave me ample reasons to be pissed off). I know this will come as a shock to you, but I tend to be a spiraler. Something goes wrong, or someone hurts my feelings, and I just spiral down and down. God blessed me with an incredibly patient and constantly positive husband (whom I am so thankful for and have a lot to learn from), and we're working on it.

By the end of the day, I tearfully and dramatically (sometimes I have the maturity of a 2 year old) exclaimed, "I just don't want to have my birthday here in Tonga tomorrow". Because clearly that's a reasonable thing to try and fix.

And today, on my 26th birthday, I have had a "perfect" day, as Vaiola said on our walk home from the beach. And I truly have.

The weather, the food, the speeches, the prayers, the conversations, the friends, the tears, and finally the moon. All perfect.

I know God is huge, bigger than I can understand, and that there's a huge world out there (which also, I am relearning, is much bigger than I understand). And there are wars and love and death and life and far more important things than my birthday, and far more important people than me; but for a moment, for one tiniest flicker of a most humbling second, I knew, not just in my head, but from the deepest place inside me, that He saw me. That the day was a gift. That Tonga was the right place. That I could rest assured he'd thought it all out. Sometimes I think life is worth living for the chance of a handful of those moments strewn across a lifetime.

Today I am thankful. Thankful for a lot of things, but above all else that my maker is a father, and most importantly, a teacher. I've got a lot to learn.

A grateful student,
Lisi