It's been seven days. I've been home for exactly seven days, and they have flown by. I'm still adjusting (this means frequent naps) and still processing. I have loved seeing and spending time with family. I have also loved seeing and spending time with my church family. Both are an absolutely INCREDIBLE blessing, and I haven't come close to having enough time with either group.
Being home is odd. Really odd. It's all so natural. Ordering a coffee from Starbucks. Using a washing machine and dryer. Driving my truck with an automatic transmission and my cd's in the cd player. It's all so normal. Yet, at the exact same time, it is so incredibly foreign. I haven't had easy access to good coffee (yes, I'm considering Starbucks coffee good…a risky move I know.) I haven't had anything CLOSE to a washer or dryer for a year. And every car I drove the past 11 months was a stick-shift with an instrument panel that probably never worked.
Never has the Cambodian slogan of, "Same same…but different" ever been more true. This place is the same, but different. I'm the same, but different. It's weird…being in constant transition for a month has left me in a place where I have forgotten what it is to be grounded, stable, fixed. And honestly, it's hard to adjust to being back. It's great, it's incredibly great…but it is taking far more effort than I realized to "just be".
It's been seven days. I've been home for exactly seven days, and I am already battling the pressure to "move forward". I have given myself this month, the month of September to simply be. To see friends and family here, to go to The Awakening Weekend in Atlanta, and to visit friends in Nashville. I have allowed myself this month to be free of the pressure to quickly go on to "what's next". But just seven days in, and I am having to constantly choose to enjoy just being here. It's tough.
Whew that's a lotta processing. On to something a little more upbeat. I LOVE BEING HOME! I love being with my family and my church. Being gone…I just fell more in love with all of them. I came to appreciate them in a way that only comes by leaving. I knew my family and church (they're kind of the same really) were unique…but God has shown me they are precious. Absolutely precious. And to be with them and among them is a gift, a true gift…and that has been the source of almost all my joy since being back. Being with the ones I love. It's fantastic. I am so honored to be a part of the community I am, and to be a Mitchell. I am so grateful that God has allowed me to be woven into the fabric of the lives of the people I know. He picked good people. Great people. Really great people.
So, the question that's on most minds (assuming people are constantly thinking about me and my life and not their own…which I think is a pretty safe assumption right?) "What's next?" Well…
Stay tuned for the next blog that will answer not only that question…but MORE!
Until then, let me show you how awesome my community is here at home. Below is a video of me arriving home around 10:45pm on a Wednesday night. Look at how many people showed up to love on me, knowing they'd have to get up for work early the next morning. I love these people!!! Thank you TO EVERYONE who has welcomed me home whether in person or email or snail mail or however. Thank you very, very much! you are fantastic.
