Home Again

"Without limits, our purpose in each place we plant our feet is more difficult to discern.  Our life's current, and those good works God prepared in advance for us to do, are much harder to find.  When we pray for guidance, perhaps God's answer is every way he hems us in, like a river." 

 ~Christie Purifoy, "Placemaker:  Cultivating Places of Comfort, Beauty, and Peace"

This is our home for the next several months.  We're slowly adjusting after an absence of two years.  I'm choosing to allow myself to grieve and to recognize the hard things, but then retraining my brain for gratitude.  It looks like this...

"The smoke from burning trash is making my face feel like it's going to explode.  The noise from the howling dogs and the neighbors is keeping me awake at night."

Renewing my mind and retraining my brain:

"The open windows and houses tucked in closely here help facilitate community.  I love the authenticity of doing hard things together and the heart connections that are forged quickly."

Or maybe it looks like this..

"Argh...It's so hard to wash my hair in cold water with only a tiny trickle coming out of the showerhead!"

Renewing my mind and retraining my brain:

"Do you remember when you were bathing in the river with a bucket?  With no privacy?  What a gift to have a bathroom with a closed door in addition to indoor plumbing!"

I'm choosing to plant my feet in a different place.  I'm listening for God's guidance and looking for the ways he directs and hems me in.  I'm discovering those limits that He is setting that make me lift my chin, look at Him, and practice thankfulness.