That’s what I told Jon at the beginning of 2019 when he was trying to put the Humpty Dumpty of his work life back together but it wasn’t working.
Sometimes there’s that voice deep within you asking that provocative question…“Maybe you need to think outside your box?”
Things are not working well in your life and you feel compelled to follow that bunny trail—something new, unknown, and possibly super scary!
I—the free spirit, adventurer, traveler—was proposing an idea to my self-preservation-Enneagram-subtype husband, that seemed so preposterous, I couldn’t imagine he would go for it! I told him, if things weren’t jelling for us here in the U.S.A., maybe we should rent our home and find jobs overseas?!
To be honest, I’m not sure where this crazy idea came from other than the fact that I have often felt I do not fit into American culture and I’m continually drawn to people from other cultures. In fact, Jon and I first met at an international dinner while trying to help international students build friendships with Americans.
Then I thought about the things that made me feel alive like speaking Spanish, interacting with people from other cultures, enjoying the natural beauty of our world. These are the little nuggets of me that I tucked away while doing my day-to-day life but there was something about Jon (a.k.a. “Energizer Bunny”) hitting a wall that made me unearth these parts of myself.
I asked, “What if? What if we took the top off the box of our little life and we dared to burst out to a big, ocean-size life? Could God be in that?” Having spent the last 5 years meditating on John 14:23, where it says Christ is in me and I am in Him, I finally have confidence that God works in and through me and my desires and longings. That shamed self is being dismantled, the weight is being shed from my shoulders and I am walking in greater freedom!
Thus begins the Great Experiment of our Spain Pilgrimage!
YOUR TOOLKIT: Whatever our experience of race, if we have unresolved pain or color-blindness or other forms of denial, it will either have been transformed or it will be transmitted. I encourage you to take some time to journal about your sense of racial identity or lack thereof. Is there a part of Jon’s story you resonate with? What have your BIPOC experiences or relationships been like? How is that similar to or different from others you grew up with? What would you want to leave behind or see transformed from your past? What one thing is yours to do going forward?
