{divine arrangements}

I've been home from India for 6 days now. I've talked for hours about my experiences and answered countless questions about how my trip was. And each time I talk about it the more I feel grateful for such an amazing life giving experience. For those brief moments I feel like I could close my eyes and be back in my room, #124.

My time in India was not always easy. There were countless days that I wished I could have been anywhere but there. I dread admitting my selfishness in that and I wish that wasn't true but it is. However, I know that my struggles and frustrations were primitive and critical for me to be able to lose my expectations and fully embrace circumstances and experience India to the fullest. 

Being in India taught me so much about myself; about the person I am created to be, the person I am and who I choose to be. It also gave me a new prospective on the happenings of life. 

I believed that my going to India was not something of chance. It was something I prayed and thought long and hard over. I even made lists being the type A person that I am, trying to decipher if I was supposed to go. But when it all came down to it I knew I was meant to go.

Like many things in my life I've simply known- had a sure bet or gut feeling that I was doing exactly what I was meant to do or was opening the correct door. I had the feeling when I first walked on Drake University's campus or when I knew I wanted to become a pharmacist. I knew I was meant to go to India.

I now like to call these moments or happenings "divine arrangements". 

After learning about arranged marriages and a particular one of a close friend, I couldn't help but think how divinely it was arranged. Being an American, my first thoughts about arranged marriages were "forced" and "lacking the power of choice". My perspective has changed. Now, I wouldn't say at this point I'd want to sign up for my parent to find me a suitor but I've realized that any and all marriages, in one way or another, have been arranged... divinely arranged. 

The more I thought about arrangements the more I began to see how so many aspects of our lives are arranged. And I started to see the divine arrangements of my life unfold before me.

So many parts of my life have been so eloquently arranged. And when I say eloquently I do not mean without their challenges. It has been a bumpy ride at times. But I now can see and appreciate that even through the journey of life how perfectly things have been arranged in the midst of our messes. 

I honestly believe my time in india was divinely arranged- that I was meant to learn from my experience, to find a greater purpose in life, to grow, to learn to love and to build strong friendships. India taught me more about the power of arrangements. It has given me a new found appreciation for the many divine arrangements I have been given.

I am truly grateful for friendships and people that I have happened upon on the winding road of life. For those that have changed my heart, walked with me through the thick of life and have filled my heart with so much love. My "divine arrangements", the people and the places, have changed me, molded me into who I am today. India has taught me everything happens for a reason, and opened my eyes to the divinely arrangements of life around me.

For some people that perfect job, person, opportunity, trip, etc is placed in our laps, handed to us by the universe. And we do not even realize how these happenings in life are so divinely arranged.