I miss you.

Have you noticed a ton of songs recently have whistling in them? It's like they all heard one song with whistling and thought it sounded good, so they all coppied them. At the same time. So when they all came out with it they said, "Aww man! Now there's a bunch of whistling songs!" But maybe it helps the bad singers feel better that they can join in a song and not have to sing.

Someone once told me, "When you get rid of something, you can't just get rid of it, you have to replace it." It's been years since we had that conversation, but I'm pretty sure it was about how I felt at a loss my freshman year of college when all my friends moved away, I no longer went to youth group so my Sunday nights felt empty, and I was trying to kick some old habits. But that one bit of advice has continued to make sense in my life ever since. If it's bad thoughts or sad thoughts, missing someone, feeling mad over something in the past....you can't just "not think about it" at will sometimes, you have to replace it with good thoughts or realize what you are thankful for. When friends drift or flat out go away, you make new friends. When you no longer serve the same way or belong to the same stuff at church, you go find somewhere else to serve in the church or find where you belong.

Sometimes people aren't "replaceable." I LOVE the people in my life right now. But recently I have really missed a few people. Well, I say recently, but it's been more of a long-term thing with more thouht going into it recently. I think it's especially hard when you think certain people will be in your life for years and years to come and then suddenly they're not. I want to say, "Woah! Hey, I thought you were going to be around for the next 10 years or so....or 50, whichever." And that loss just kind of pops up randomly in thoughts or when I'm scrolling through facebook. In relation to "replacing" things, sometimes I just can't sit and dwell about a lost friendship because it makes me really sad. I have to replace the thoughts with something else and move on.

Hmmm...I see SO many people I know every where I go, so maybe I should pray extra hard that I'll run into some of those people I miss this week and next. Maybe God will allow our paths to cross just briefly again.