"The truth is, I reflected, having done so much thinking by the clothesline, that if you look for the best in any place it is there.  If you look for the worst, you can find it easily.  And a swift piercing pang of homesickness is really what the Sunday school teachers would call 'a challenge.'  A challenge to experience every bit of beauty that is afforded by wherever you may be."  

~Gladys Taber, "Stillmeadow Sampler"

Isaiah 32:18 has been one of my favorite verses for a long time.  After we began moving regularly and ripping up roots and putting new ones down repeatedly, the thought of "undisturbed places of rest" became even more precious to me.  My third culture kids call several places home.  For Olivia and Katherine, who were five and almost one when we first ventured across the Pacific Ocean, home is most definitely in the Solomon Islands.  Last week, when we crossed the state line from Arkansas into Texas, I was surprised to hear Benjamin comment on how much he loved Texas and how much it felt like home.  Home for me is our little fixer-upper in my home-town.  But knowing that we will be moving again in a few months makes me really appreciate Gladys Taber's challenge "to experience every bit of beauty that is afforded by wherever you may be."