Miss Mary

I love this picture. I feel like it expresses the last two years. I've leaned on and "needed" Mary to get through the awkwardness of learning to live in Japan...

and in three weeks she will be gone.

It is starting to hit me that my closest friend Mary will soon be leaving Japan. While I am super excited for what the future holds for Mary, the selfish part of me wants to lock her up in her tatami room and keep her all to myself. I'm scary, huh?

I found this "advice" the other day and thought I'd share it with you all

~Accentuate the positive for each other. Although we face problems each day and should not avoid them, we do not need to hang on to a negative mind-set all day. Speak words, which view life's cup as half full and filling! Not half empty and emptier and emptier.~

Mary has done this for me. Whenever I wanted to give up or hide in our apartment, she would remind me of "life's cup as half full and filling". Mary and my friendship is not perfect. We have had our ups and downs. I've said some things that hurt her. However, because God is the common thread that binds us, our confession, seeking forgiveness, and grace has been an overflow. I've never felt hopeless in my friendship with Mary.

That's why as this page turns... and I let it turn, I remember that that same thread will continue to bind us, even though distance keeps us apart.

Mary will understand a part of me that no one else will understand...

and I am thankful for this time, even the ending of it...