What is and is going to be home.

Today I had my first thoughts of homesickness.  Ya ya ya, I know I brought Jeremy and he is my home, but there are some things you don’t think you care about until they are gone, things you don’t even notice while you have them.  Like the option of heating in your home, or eating a bologna and butter sandwich, or being able to order papa johns and know that I can have some breadsticks and pizza if I have a rough day.  Now let me clear the air, I’m not complaining, I’m just….surprised.  I feel comfortable here, I enjoy it, I like the people, and the food, but there are bits of home that call to you, reminding you that you have a place in another part of the world.  Is that supposed to keep me grounded?  Remind me of where I come from?  Am I supposed to encourage these feelings, and become moody, or suppress them and resent everything around me.  I feel the answer lies in just accepting it as something that happens, and adjusting. Although I call our house home, something still hasn’t set yet.  Whether it’s time or me, I don’t know.  This brings into question the rest of my life, will I have multiple homes, a place in my heart for each place I’ve lived, for each place I’ve tried to leave my mark?  I assume so, but it’s interesting to question.

There was a few stories I want to share with you that I heard this week that have brought me to this pondering.

There was a elderly man fishing on the beach, when the tide would rise he would cast out his reel and immediately a fish would bite, he’d bring it in, roast it and eat it.  He’d relax on the beach, and enjoy the day, when he was hungry again, he would cast out again.  After a few months of this, a young man approached him and asked if he could catch fish like this all of the time why didn’t he set up nets and get money from all the fish so he could sit around fishing all the time.  The old man looked at the young one and said, “Why?  I am doing that right now”.

The second story I was told the other day,

There was a couple, mid to late 40s.  They both had high jobs in corporations in a big city in America. One day they looked at each other and said, “what are we doing?”  They quit their jobs and started traveling to complete their bucket lists, which included sky diving, working as a chalet during the ski season, volunteering for 6 months, as well as many other things one can only imagine.  They were approached about volunteering in South Africa, they started an organization called Zama SA and haven’t left since, and I believe that was a few years ago.  I’ll start volunteering for this organization through Unity For Africa, and I start next week.  I wouldn’t have this opportunity unless they followed their hearts and did the unexpected.

I've been thinking alot about the future, and what I'm to do, or how I'll make a difference, and who I am, and who I want to be, not just job wise, but on the inside, what type of person do I want to be.

 I want to be someone else’s story that they share. As I look for what to do in the coming months when I return from South Africa I am impressed by the sheer number of things to do, however I’m determined to seek God and see what he has planned, because if God has it planned, then I know I’m going to have a great story, and possibly many places I call home, or not.  I will just have to wait and see.

God bless,

Aj