I’m coming home…or at least that’s what they keep telling me. It’s a funny thing, though, because I’m not sure I know what home means. There’s something about living out of a backpack for 11 months, adjusting, and being welcomed into the daily life of families and communities all around the world that really screws up the definition of “home” that’s worked for me earlier in life. I have a “working definition” of home that seems to include the roadside of Malaysia, the Bolivian swamplands, the Bush of Zambia, and the arms of my squadmates.
I have some big transitions ahead of me.
I am currently in the Atlanta airport. Exactly one year ago today, I was getting picked up for training camp and meeting my travelling mates for the first time. Whoosh.
Genuinely, I don’t think there is a way to adequately prepare myself for the bigness of the transition that is about to take place. A friend of mine said: It’s like when you’re pregnant; You can prepare, read, and know what’s coming, but having the baby just catapults you into a whole new normal. I have a new normal awaiting me, and my brain+body+spirit likely can’t understand just how different “that” normal is from “this” normal until I get there.
So I’m trying to pray the right prayers and be present here. I am trying to communicate expectations (but how should I know what those are, anyways?!) and give myself some structure and freedom for the return.
But boy oh boy. Please pray for me & the rest of R squad. That we would continue to celebrate & start to understand the past 11 months, and that we would be swallowed up by grace as we transition.
Because let’s be real. I’m five hours in, and:
– The automatic flush of the toilet startled me so much I jumped off mid-pee
– Everybody around me just looks…so….white?
– The hyperbolic advertising for just about everything is unamusing
– There were 6 different automated instructions about how to ride an escalator safely.
– Every time I am hearing a new English conversation I look up, thinking it is one of my friends talking because we’ve just been surrounded by other languages for 11 months.
Welcome….home? J
