Pretty Little Lemons

Hi friends!

As a part of my personal mission to start writing more often, my friend and co-worker, Jamie, asked me to be a guest contributor to her blog, which she started in response to a gratefulness challenge and calls Pretty Little Lemons. Here’s a sneak peak!

 

“The life of faith must never stand still, for if your feet are going, your faith is growing.” – Warren Wiersbe

Jamie asked me to write about what I’m grateful for, and at the moment, the first thing that comes to mind is this: I’m grateful for being homeless.

Now before that gets misconstrued, no, I am not homeless in the traditional meaning of the word; I don’t live in a shelter or my car or the streets, nor am I impoverished, and I am in no way trying to compare myself to people who are homeless or minimalize what they go through in any way. But bear with me. In comparison with our society’s definition of home—a place to call my own; a constant place of stability; “putting down roots”—I am without. When a friend or family member asks me for my address, I’m hesitant because it’s constantly changing. And yes, I’m grateful for that. But no, it wasn’t instant or always that way. Yes, it was a process in which I had to learn to be so. Processes…I’ve learned to be grateful for those, too.

As a still-freshly-minted Overlander, I am in a season of working full-time on building my personal team of financial and prayer partners, so in order to save money during this time, I am living as a nomad, staying for periods of a few weeks up to a few months at a time with generous hosts who have an extra bed or air mattress or sometimes even just a couch. Since the start of my nomadic journey—which began in late August of last year—I have stayed in close to ten different places. Really though, I’ve been somewhat of a nomad my whole life, especially over the past several years; prior to August, I’d moved 15 times since birth. Do the math, and the amount of moves I’ve done thus far almost equals the number of years I’ve been alive, and I fully expect it to surpass my age in the coming years.

While I’ve always been able to appreciate the excitement and freshness that comes with a new place, I’ve also always had a yearning within me to establish roots, which I defined—and I think most American women do—as having a husband, a lovely, well decorated home, and an enjoyable career.

Six years ago, I was on my way to those things. I was in college and working on starting my own business. Although I wasn’t close to having a home yet, I was at least beginning to collect things for my future home. And I even had successfully gotten a man to promise to marry me.

You probably know where this is going…

Click here to read the rest on Jamie’s blog!