A year of rebuilding and refining

Before I start: Its been almost exactly a year since I've updated this blog. To the people who follow and read this, thank you for supporting GeorgiaMud. Thank you to everyone who has made an order, dealt with my poor communication skills, waited weeks or even months to receive pottery, gently and kindly reminded me that you ordered something. To all those people who have handled me with grace and given me space to try and figure it all out. THANK YOU.

This blog is a place for me to take the time to offer an audience the things that matter most, the biggest updates, and the small, powerful lessons that I'm learning. I am more than positive that every single person reading this has a story that came out of 2020. Here is mine:

A college senior, amped and ready for the real world, the next big adventure, to move to Colorado and to ride horses in the mountains. It was all lined up: to share the gospel, to work with families at YL camp and hope to stay there even after the summer ended. These were my plans, these plans changed.

My time in college came to a strange and abrupt end with the first thing to be cancelled - spring break. The thing about Covid-19 and senior year of college, is that many of my friends scattered throughout the US, back home to their families, without ever having the chance to say good-bye. Obviously, like many of you, we did not think it would last as long as it did, but slowly but surely the months were swept away, and I never saw many of my college friends again. Our lease was going to end in Fayetteville and the safest option was to go back to Memphis and wait it out. I did my best to stay hopeful, and then my job at Trail West in Colorado fell through.

After this, I started making arrangements to prepare to stay in Memphis for a little longer, I would do GeorgiaMud full-time, prepare for the big August show, start coaching tennis lessons for little ones, and keep waiting to see what would happen. Early in the summer of 2020, my high school alma mater welcomed me to take a part time position for the next year. I also became a Varsity Volleyball assistant coach and settled in nicely to a new rhythm of life.

So for those who don't know where I am now, I teach high school Ceramics at Evangelical Christian School, while also working for GeorgiaMud as much as possible; I coach varsity volleyball and tennis during the fall and spring, and spend some nights teaching adult pottery classes at Belltower Coffeehouse. I coach tennis lessons for ages 8+, and also try to have a bit of a social life. I'm in 5 weddings in 4 months, including showers, bachelorette weekends, and rehearsal dinners. And I'm truly enjoying my day to day life. I love all my jobs, and wish I could spend more time focusing on one at a time. But we are all just doing our best, right? I'm busy, but I think its important to take some time and space to allow yourself to think, breathe, and recenter.

Here's the thing, the bottom line: The Lord has remained faithful, during my anger, sadness, joy, cancelled plans, family drama (yes we all have it), long distance relationships, friendships, and my journey into to this real world. The Lord has walked with me, closely alongside my every step, letting me know I'm not crazy for feeling scared, lost, or alone. I'm not wrong to feel angry towards the past year. But He has been teaching me to trust in the things unseen, to dwell with Him in the richness of his glory. To sit and listen to his kind words and divine peace. This is the fire that refines us, the pruning that causes more fruit, the pressure that makes something stronger and more beautiful. Pottery has too many beautiful connections here, I'll have to write about it in another post.

I've been doing some emotional and spiritual work around these stories and I've been going to counseling to talk about it. I hope that you know, reader, that your story is real and genuine, and that it is okay to feel the pain of loss and changed plans. I want to encourage everyone to seek out a safe place to communicate the swirl of emotions life has to throw at you, because I promise you are not alone in your fears or your dreams. And the pain you feel loses power when it is named and spoken aloud.

Thank you for reading, I'll probably write something else within the year:)

Georgia