This is the weirdest thing.
Here I am, sitting on a balcony of the Grand Wailea in Maui, HI – a resort that represents more luxury than I have ever experienced in my entire life, and perhaps more luxury than I will ever experience again – and I’m just thinking. I’m thinking about how weird it is that I’m here. I’m actually here. And Sharaya is with me.
This is the weirdest thing.
But it isn’t just that we’re here, as remarkable as that is. It’s not just that we’re in Hawaii, the 49th state of our 50 State road trip, wrapping up an adventure that has been nearly two years in the making – planning and dreaming and executing a task that was sometimes too exhausting or exhilarating to even put into words. It isn’t just that we’re staying at this incredible place. That’s not all.
All of a sudden it just hit me as I was sitting here, clicking away on my computer, listening to Sharaya sound check in the Molokini Gardens below. The most remarkable thing about all of this is… we’re actually doing what we set out to do.
That is the weirdest thing…
If you’re new here, and you don’t know the story of Packing Light, the short version is this: My name is Ally Spotts and one year ago my friend Sharaya Mikael and I decided to do something crazy. We quit our jobs, sold everything we owned, moved out of our apartments and packed my Subaru to set out across the country “chasing our dreams…”
Our challenge was (figuratively) to let go of the baggage that sometimes holds us back from doing what we really want to do, and (literally) to pack my old Subaru Outback with all of our belongings and travel to each of the 50 States playing shows (Sharaya) and writing a book (me). One year later, here we are…
This is the weirdest thing.
We’re traveling with a company called Everlasting Tours on a trip designed for married couples called The Lovesong Couples Getaway. Sharaya is leading worship and playing music for the trip – along with artists Aaron Shust and Phil Wickham – and I am interviewing speakers, artists and couples, managing the social media and writing the “story” of the trip.
This is the weirdest thing.
Or, maybe it’s not. You know? Maybe it isn’t weird at all. Maybe what’s weird is that we don’t expect stuff like this. Maybe what’s weird is that I don’t expect God to be the kind of God who, when I act in obedience, when I keep going despite (big) bumps in the road, when I make sacrifices to follow Him… responds with “more than I could ever ask or imagine..” (Ephesians 3:20).
Maybe what’s strange isn’t that I’m here, but that I never thought I would be…
So here I am. A little sunburned, a lot tired, a little nervous about the writing tasks on my plate over the next few weeks, but mostly just completely overwhelmed with what is happening here. I am writing. Sharaya is singing. We are living our “dreams” and, even as we speak, our story is still being written.
Even as we prepare to hop a plan from Maui to Kona, from Kona to Seattle (Sharaya), from Kona to Portland (me) and then from Seattle to Anchorage (both of us). We are living our dreams. We are couldn’t possibly be more content or excited. State #50 is coming.
This is the weirdest thing.
People often ask me, “So are you writing the book!?” and my answer is always an emphatic yes.
But the truth is that I’m not really writing a book. The truth is that the book is writing itself. This is a story about adventure. About romance. About grief, and hope, and fear. This is a book about persistence and perseverance, about pushing through the hard times to get to the good stuff…
(Sharaya’s new single titled 3 Feet from Gold is all about this! You should buy it!)
This is a story about God’s faithfulness… and even though I get to be the lucky one who puts the pen to paper, I’m not really the one writing it.
Which is just the weirdest thing…
