Today marks the one month anniversary of our return home from Europe. There isn’t a day that goes by that I’m not reminded of, thinking about, missing, processing or musing about 2 months of my life over there. I cannot tell you how much that trip changed my life. I know what some of you are thinking. “Oh, here we go… she’s gonna go on and on about old things, artsy things, coffee shops and vespas…” YES. That is precisely what I’m going to talk about; because everything had such a big impact on my life. So much, that, they’ve consumed my thoughts since I’ve been back. Okay, maybe not the vespas…

For starters, even though they ruined my suitcase wheels within the first day, nothing feels more ballin’ than strolling down a cobble stone road on our way to an authentic coffee shop.

Yes. The coffee is AMAZING. Amazing. I don’t think there is much else to be said about that.

The buildings? SO rad. And so old… we really were back handed with a reality check on how infantile our country is. It’s so new.. and it’s so modern. Much less like anything we saw there.

Every country we visited had its own vibrant culture saturated in all things art and music. Every one of them their own, every one different. We saw vendors on the street, selling something they just painted the day before, some, sitting in museums, painting what they saw. Painting people. Painting buildings. Impressionistic. Surrealistic. Romantic. Painting painting painting. I couldn’t get enough! I was honestly, so moved by everything that surrounded me, everywhere we went, that it inspired me to get back into the heart behind my art and photos.

It took me back to when I was a child, hovering over a piece of construction paper for hours and hours with my Crayolas, trying to make something perfect to hang on the fridge. It took me back into my bedroom, aka, the “studio” where I would spend days working on something I wanted to paint for Joey or something to hang in our future home.

I think I can speak for Joey as well, with his music. Since our return home, he has done nothing but devote countless nights in his studio to writing, drumming, playing, singing, and jamming. You name it. He’s doing it.

We were in a slump before our trip with both his music and my art, and we reached a point where the light was going out in each of us. I didn’t realize how unhinging this was to me personally, until I saw what it was doing to him… It was eating away at him. Music is such a HUGE part of his life, what would he be without it? And then I got to thinking, what would I be without my art? Without my photos? Sure, I love children, and can’t wait to start teaching, but will I truly be happy if I give up my biggest passions?

I guess you could say, we had a revelation. Maybe, we were relying too heavily on ourselves to make things happen for us, and not relying on God like we should have. I mean, He blessed us with this amazing opportunity to see the world, didn’t we owe it to Him to give Him some credit? To trust in Him just a little bit more? This is something we struggle with, but are keeping each other accountable for and learning to admonish together. As soon as we started making it less about us and more about Him, things started to manifest themselves, and life, has never been more beautiful. <3