Day Seventeen - Jan 17, 2019
Time to say “goodbye” to the little village and start making my way home. My flight was scheduled for Saturday, but I’ve just switched because of the incoming bad weather arriving on the weekend.
So I’ll have my last little sleep here at my other aunt’s home in my hometown of Leeds before heading back to America.
It never fails to take me by surprise what amazing things we can discover when we’ve had a perspective shift. Whether it’s been a forced shift or a voluntary move... anytime we have the opportunity to get a different view of our life and our world - it is an amazing gift.
I once read a travel journalist’s take on this... He commented that he believed that the farther from home one goes - the greater the ability to to see their world from a different perspective.
Having lived all over the globe has given me this gift and it never ceases to disappoint.
I wonder how different my life may have been if I would have grown up in this city instead of America... Would I know the kind and dear friends I have today... ? Would my family look the same? Would I know my Creator in the same way??
I don’t really know the answers to all those suppositions but what I do know is that from this side of the ocean... looking westward is where I am blessed to call home.
In a little house, situated amongst many others just like it, with five or more silly people and a wild GSP dog and I am blessed. Blessed to have a community and network of people with whom I do life. Blessed with friendships and platforms with which to honor my Creator... Blessed with teachers, neighbors ... Blessed with a world where God has me specially positioned for this season.
We will always be filled to the brim with “what-if” questions... But I wonder if the secret to understanding is simply by taking each question and gently, yet firmly, sorting it through with a God who cares even more than we do about the details...
...but also isn’t afraid to pick up behind our silly messes and still love us dearly.
So it’s goodnight from this side of the ocean where my “auntie” has made me a little hot water bottle to keep warm ... and I try to outrun the snowstorms on their way!
