Place Peace

I've been reading a book called "Restless" with a wonderful group of ladies. The chapter we read this week was about Places. 

Where are you? 

Are you supposed to be there? 

Am I supposed to live in the middle of nowhere with my husband, staying at home, and raising children? 

The answer, I've discovered, is a resounding yes.

I always had a desire to "go"! 

In college, I had the amazing and incredible opportunity to travel around the world. It was an experience I will never forget and it spawned a desire to go and see. A few months after I returned, I was scheduled to spend a semester at a University in Thailand. It was an exchange program that I was very excited about. However, a series of events occured that kept me from going. The month after I was scheduled to leave for Thailand, I met the man who would become my husband.

Instead of going to Thailand, I stayed in my current University and took a ceramics class where, lo and behold, I would meet the man with whom I would spend the rest of my life. It's quite romantic and little bit "Ghost" with Demi Moore and Patrick Swayze, but all in all, I'm so grateful for the events that kept me in America and lead me to my husband.

There are many people who are afraid to go and travel; to spend years in a foreign country. I was never one of those people. I wanted to travel! I wanted adventures in foreign lands! I wanted to meet people and get to know their cultures!

What I didn't want was to stay in one place and live a "boring", "culture less" life.  

I was afraid I would be called to...wifehood. 

Motherhood. 

 I was afraid my desire to travel would be railroaded with a calling to stay at home and be a wife and mother. That was before I realized the huge blessing of being a wife and mother. 

I have traveled the world, been skydiving in South Africa, had a snowball fight on the Great Wall of China, served orphans in India, played ball with kids in Mauritius, and seen countless more amazing things.

But, I will tell you, being a mother is one of the greatest, most rewarding things I have ever done.

Motherhood has taught me selflessness like NOTHING else I have ever encountered. It has tested my character with fire (disquised as children). It has given me great joy.  I am intensely blessed because of the life I live now. 

 God has had his hand in my life from day one. Blessing me with things for which I did not ask. I thought my life would have been better spent photographing wild adventures across the world. Little did I know, I'd be photographing wild children in my own backyard. 

Sometimes, we don't know what is truly best for our lives. 

We can have incredible experiences and experience life with richness and fullness no matter where we are. We have to be willing to open up and allow life to BE rich and full. And, let's not confuse full and rich with EASY either. Some of the most rewarding things come from struggles and pain. Come from hard work.

Having peace in our places is key. Critically evaluating where we are in life is so important. Being open to God sending us someplace (or keeping us somewhere) we aren't expecting, whether deeper into our homes or deep into Africa, is crucial to fully utilizing our potential WHEREVER we land.

So, I ask myself these questions and encourage you to ask them as well:

Am I being fully intentional where I am in life? In my job, my home, my circle of friends?

Am I using every day with purpose? Or am I just biding my time?

I am so thankful for the women in my life who have taught me to truly love being a wife and mother. Those women who want to live a full and rich life in their circumstances have inspired me to do the same.

I hope everyone reading this sees their life as intentional and meaningful. And if it doesn't appear to be so, that you begin to start your days with intention and meaning.

Let's not crave what someone else has, but instead, crave to have peace in our places.

Wishing everyone out there Place Peace and, of course, Hair Peace.