Welp. It’s over. My Hilton Head Summer of 2011 has reached its finale. By noon tomorrow I’ll be back in Utah and ready to dive into life post-”blah period.” That’s the official term, in case you were wondering.

The past four months were exactly what I needed. I needed to get away. From everything. I needed to empty. I needed to breathe. I needed to read. I needed to think. I needed to sit. I needed the sea. I needed my sister’s wedding. I needed one of the people who came to the wedding. I needed the sunrise. I needed to not write. And then I needed to write. I needed to pray. I needed time.

And I got all of that. And then some.

A friend I hadn’t seen in years said to me earlier in the summer, “You just don’t sound like you. It’s like your passion is missing or something. You used to be so passionate.” And he was right. But it/I (perhaps both) had been extinguished.

But y’all…the passion is back. (Do you hear me?!) And holy smokes. There are some big things ahead. Big, awesome, exciting, hard, things that I feel fire in my gut about.

(Finally!)

I know what I’m doing. And I know where I’m going.

And it’s right. Like the, “I-know-this-in-my-bones” kind of right. Which I haven’t felt in so long.

It will mean a lot of work and much about how it will all unfold is totally uncertain. But it’s what I wake up thinking about and it’s what I go to sleep dreaming about.

And is it weird to say that I can feel a lot of this in my eyes? Like there’s this familiar brightness, that has been missing–I’m not sure how to explain it–but it’s like my eyes, my old friends, are back. I doubt that makes sense.

But anyway, in less than 12 hours I’ll be on a plane. Headed back to life.

And I’m just really excited.

*Photo taken this morning as I mozied around my grand’s property. It’s what I saw when I looked up.