Gracie Girl Blog

I’ve seen a good bit of this in my life lately. The reality of being in this side of heaven means life can be so rough and so be beautiful.

My first example of this occurred on what was supposed to be a normal Sunday at work. It was- until one employee attacked another. Both guys were fine, but the police were called and everyone was a little shaken up. What’s crazy is I work at an ice cream shop, supposedly one of the happiest places ever. And it IS a fun place to work, but it’s not immune to our humanity.

The guy who snapped was immediately fired, the bosses handled it super well, and everyone recovered. What I’ve learned is that even though it was super scary and we witnessed a friend come to his absolute breaking point, people are good deep down.

Talking about it with some coworkers the other day, everyone seemed to agree that deep down the guy who snapped is a really good person, he was kind and helpful almost all of the time. He just has some awful circumstances, and really we are all just hoping he gets some help.

My next example of pain and joy together was a crazy Wednesday. Everything was normal, until I finished my test in ap government and my teacher signaled me to come over. I was honestly worried he thought I was cheating or something. He started talking, said he knew a guy in the army named Gene Farmelo.

I smiled and nodded and said he was my grandfather. He told me they talked a lot working at one place, he didn’t know he had passed away. It was a bittersweet conversation. I almost never talk about Poppa or Grandpa, especially not their deaths, to anyone but family (something I didn’t realize until this conversation). It hurt because I was not at all surprised he knew Poppa, but I so desperately wished I could have answered his question of “where is he living now?” With “not too far from here.” Heaven is better, no doubt, but here is where I am.

A few hours later I drove to meet Kreech at Starbucks. We both live 30 minutes away from this Starbucks so one person usually gets there before the other. I got there first this time, but she was stuck in some bad traffic so I had about 30 min before she came. I sat down by myself and decided to write out prayers for people (something I am bad at remembering to do).

She arrived soon enough and we settled at a table. She gave me a bday present, which was super sweet, then handed me another bag with a card. I was pretty confused.

I took the card and it had writing on the outside which was weird.  Being impatient I opened it, sorta saw the inside, but flipped back to the front to figure out what was going on.

It’s probably the best card I’ve ever read. Written inside was: “Will you be my bridesmaid?”

I put my hand over my open mouth in disbelief. I sat there for a bit in disbelief. I hugged Kreech. Then we jumped into talking about the wedding, Everybody Always (a great book, I recommend it), and people who are hard to love.

I went to bed smiling that night, it was a great day, and a painful day.

The more I think about it, the more excited I become to stand next to Kreech on her wedding day. I can’t put into words how surprised I still am and how loved I feel.

Life isn’t about being happy all the time, or avoiding pain. You gotta accept that life is freaking hard sometimes. Some days you go to work and one person tries to hurt another. You go to school and you have to tell a good ol’ military guy that one of his buddies passed away, and you have to sit in class remembering that reality yourself.

But also on those days, you may realize you have friends in places you never looked for them and that your job is super great and full of fun people. One of your favorite people in the world might ask you to stand by her on her wedding day. (Really she probably just realized she can’t get rid of me)

Life’s crazy. Crazy painful. Crazy beautiful.

In this world you will have trouble, but take heart!

I have overcome the world.

John 16:33