one thing I ask, and I would seek

Waking up this morning, drenched in sweat from a night underneath my suffocating comforter, I admit my attitude about the impending day is less than positive. ‘Stupid bloody annoying comforter’ I mutter as I throw it off me. The thing warms so wonderfully as I’m falling asleep, yet ends up smothering me throughout the night, waking me up in a hot sweat half an hour before my alarm is set to go off.

‘Go running’ is my change-your-attitude-Alayna mantra until I finally pull my shoes on and don a hat. Open the curtains – what sun! It’s a rare treat in Aberdeen to see the sun’s rays, and I’m determined to enjoy it – whether I like it or not.

Running turns into a stumbling, precariously tiptoeing sort of experience, avoiding icy patches on the road and trail. I run down to the River Don and across the Brig O’Balgownie and the Bridge of Don. The path is so beautiful in the morning sun: patches of green peeking out underneath the ice and snow, ducks gliding across the water, people out walking with their dogs and cameras.

Sometimes I catch myself wondering, ‘why go to church on a Sunday morning when there’s beauty like this to be enjoyed instead?’ But then I’m reminded that just as God desires relationship with us, He also desires relationship with each other. How blessed I’ve been with the incredible friendships He’s provided me – in Aberdeen, Holland, Sevilla, home.

But oh, the beauty of life. Beauty in Hope friends over for dinner; peanut butter and Nutella toast; talking about life over tea with my beautiful roommate; gargantuan snowflakes streaming down from the heavens in a torrent of swirling white; home-made applesauce (‘with a kick!’ says my flatmate Emily); a crisp, sunshiny morning in late February. The time-wizened, young-hearted man I passed on my way down a steep and icy hill, who, after seeing me move away from the security of the fence (so he wouldn’t have to!), quipped in his lovely Scottish accent, ‘I saw you hanging on to the fence there!’ to which I could only reply, laughing, ‘Yes, in fact I was!’

Now a walk in the afternoon sun with my previously mentioned beautiful roommate. It’s a marvelous day and I’m determined to enjoy it.

Seaton Park on a green day


home-made applesauce


seized by wonder at Dunnottar


Aftan texted me: 'OMIGOSH SNOW!'


our first weekly Hope Family Dinner