Author: fearlessatheart

I am a tenderhearted female who desires to travel through life and enjoy each moment. I desire to share my travels with people and to glorify God through my life.

Trusting In The One Who Holds My Dreams.

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Trust and Faith. These words radiate through my journal entries over the past couple of weeks. This past semester has been a journey of learning to hold my dreams loosely as I hold tightly to the One who first instilled the dreams in my soul.

Almost 10 years ago, I left the country that I considered home. I moved across the world to a country that should be home, but felt hollow. I left my heart behind.  

Confused, I wrestled with accepting this new change. How could I be more comfortable in a foreign country than the country of my birth? Moving “home” should have been exciting, but I felt numb.

Confusion. Excitement. Frustration. Betrayal.

These emotions clouded my vision of America, and encouraged my desire to travel the world. Somehow, I felt that if I travelled, I would find that piece of my heart that I had left behind and I would be whole again.

Approximately 4 years ago, as I started on my college adventure, I made it my goal to graduate and leave the country for the great beyonds. I desired to move somewhere I would be interacting with people of different cultures and backgrounds.

I chose my major and minor with the intent that going overseas was my only goal.

These past couple weeks as I began to think about my future and the reality of my dreams, I realized that my dreams had changed slightly.

I had fallen more and more in love with the idea of going overseas and changing the world, but God convicted me.

Why?

Why did I desire to go overseas? Was it because I was trusting God’s plan for my life, or was it because I was more comfortable with dirt floors and no electricity?
If I truly analyzed my motives, I would find that my reasons were selfish.

In my heart, deep, deep down, I believed that if I was not going to fit in anywhere, it would be easier to live in a different culture because then my differences would be as obvious as skin color.

Selfish reasons regardless of the fact that the outcome was others-focused.

Something was changing within me. There are no words to convey how profoundly and deeply God touched my heart as I began to realize this truth.

Why?

As I searched for the answer to this question in my heart, God continued to remind me of the beautiful aspects of life where I am.

>>The beautiful Ohio sunsets.

>>The rain as it falls on a spring afternoon.

>>The vibrant colors as fall creeps in.

>>The sound of my residents laughing down the hall.

>>The thud of textbooks as I breathe a sigh of relief after a nursing test.

>>The companionship of friends

What if by dreaming big, I am putting God in a box? What if I am narrowing my view of God and life to only being happy in the mission field? What if God is asking me open my mind to different chapters in my life, not all of which includes overseas missions?

Four years ago, possibly even last year, that thought would have stunned me. I would not have considered any aspect of life but the one that took me far away to unknown people groups. Now, I am learning that my limited view of God and his plan for my life caused me to miss out on some pretty great things about life in America. I was so focused on going “home” that I lost track of the fact that America is also my home. Ten years later, God takes the emotions that used to cloud my vision of America transforming them with the grace radiating from the center of who He is.

Excitement. Joy. Gratitude. Serenity.

God transformed my view of both him and the world as I began to be content where He has placed me.

Throughout the past semester, my view of God grew as He continued to burst out of every box that I attempted to put Him in. Looking back, I should not expect less from a living, loving, saving, sustaining, almighty God who shapes my heart. He placed these desires in my heart for a specific reason, but it may not look exactly as I desire it to.

As I consider the idea that God is challenging me to step out of my comfort zone and live in America after I graduate, He places a new call in my heart.

I will follow you.

Where you go, I’ll go.

Where you stay, I’ll stay.

If this life I lose, I will follow you.

God is present here, just as much as in Haiti or Nigeria. Therefore, my call is to follow God as he moves in my heart and in the lives of those around me.
A year from now, I do not know where I will be.  Maybe I will be in Africa, South America, Montana, or Ohio.

I do not know where I am leading but I am realizing that God comes first.

Not my plans. Not my dreams. Not my desires.

Rather by letting go of these dreams, it frees up a hand which fits perfectly into the hand of the One who consistently show us how big He truly is.

Simply follow God first.

Everything else falls into place.

In the words of Sarah Bessey, “And this is where I learned that sometimes our most holy mountain-moving faith looks more like spending our whole lives making that mountain move, rock by rock, pebble by pebble, unsexy day after daily day, casting the mountain to the sea stone by stone rather than watching a mountain suddenly rise up and cast itself.”

Sometimes, the biggest blessings come not from restricting God to a specific dream, but by letting go of those dreams to hold on to the hand of the Creator of the Universe.

Your Will Done Your Way

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“God surpasses our dreams when we reach past our personal plans and agenda to grab the hand of Christ and walk the path he chose for us. He is obligated to keep us dissatisfied until we come to him and his plan for complete satisfaction.”
― Beth Moore

It is so easy to try and do things my way.

The most common questions I get asked these days are “What are you doing after graduation?” or “Are you in a relationships?”

These questions challenge me to think about what I am doing? Where I am going?

But, in reality, it is not about me.

It is about God.

What is God’s will for my life? Maybe you don’t believe that God has a specific will for my life.

I have no idea where I am going after graduation, or what I am even going to do this year?

I have no plans.

That is terrifying…..

And exciting.

This past weekend, I had a lot of time to think. I drove 6 hours to a conference by myself. Most people were shocked that I would drive that far by myself, but it was amazing to simply be still and think about my future.

My questions were not answered. I do not have any more clarity than I did a week ago.

I have a general idea where I would like to end up doing, but I have no clue what the next step is. For some reason though, I do not need to know. I felt a peace.

I knew deep down that God, the author of my dreams and desires, would be able to organize my life. My job is to simply take the next right step, whatever that may be.

Your Will Done Your Way.

I can’t seem to get these words out of my head. I tend to feel more anxious when I try to follow my way.

My Will Done My Way.

That is often the way I want to run things. The problem is that things often go COMPLETELY wrong!

Somehow, I think I am going in the right direction or doing things the right way, but often I find that my way is not working.

Your Will Done Your Way.

There is a lot of unknowns this year such as jobs, preceptorships, and life. But the awesome thing, is that no matter what I do, God has got it.

Sometimes, we think that if we give God our desires, passions, and wants, then he will trick us and give us something we don’t want.

That is the opposite of what he does.

He places passions, gifts and talents in my hearts and lives for a specific purpose.

He CREATED us for a specific purpose.

He may reveal his will for my lives in small amounts, and it may not look different than I initially plan it to be.

Ultimately, his plan is infinitely greater than anything that I could dream up.

I mean, he is the CREATOR OF THE UNIVERSE!

“It is about the greatness of God, not the significance of man. God made man small and the universe big to say something about himself.”
— John Piper

5 things I have learned from being a Resident Adviser

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  1. Life is bigger than just me.

I interact with people all the time as a student and resident adviser. When my life gets stressful, it is easy to think that I am the only one with these problems, but as I talk to my girls, or other girls in the building, I find that I am one of many. We all have the same stresses, and the same struggles. My life and problems are small in the scheme of things. Being an RA taught me that sometimes, I have to look past my struggles and share in someone else’s joy or happiness.

  1. I cannot do it alone.

Community is not simply a buzzword; it is a way of life. Try as I might, I cannot constantly go. I cannot be a good student, remember everyone’s birthday, plan events, and enjoy college. I learned how to ask for help, when I could not connect with a girl, or when I kept forgetting to celebrate people’s birthdays. Being an RA or nurse or student is not you against the world. It is a collaborative effort to allow all to succeed.

  1. Late night conversations are vital, and should be encouraged.

Some of the best conversations happened at 1 am, 2 am, or even 3 am. These conversations were unplanned and important. Sometimes the conversations were silly or serious. They were important and help me grow and be challenged in my faith. Wrestling with ideas and sharing thoughts is one of the best ways to practice the art of listening to others opinions and sharing yours.

  1. Programs don’t matter, people do.

In life, we will plan events and parties. It is easy to believe that bible studies or programs are unsuccessful based on the low number of people that attend. As a senior RA, having a low number of people can be disappointing, but the people who attend still matter. Having only a few people can end up being a good thing because you can have deep conversations with those present. It is a blessing because

  1. Love can be shown in many different ways.

People have different love languages. My love language is words of affirmation so I wrote a lot of notes to the girls on my floor. It took me a while to figure out that some of them did not appreciate the notes, but preferred face to face conversation. I had to figure out what each girls love language was, and how to reach out to them. I wanted to be an encouragement to the girls on my floor, and show them love.

The First Day of the Rest of Your Life

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I woke up this morning with a sense of expectancy. Today, my freshmen arrive on my floor. They come with their excited voices and beautiful souls, entering into a new stage of their life.

They are excited, nervous, scared, unsure, and worried. They have a lot of emotions coursing through their bodies as they take in their new surroundings. Even if they grew up in the area, they are still entering into something new. They are becoming college students. As I reflect back on the last 3 years, I think about the strangeness of college.

It is the only time in your life where you are placed in a community of people who are the same age as you for an extended period of time. You get to live life with other humans who have a similar purpose, but come from vastly different backgrounds.  I love cultivating community with the people around me because it leads to ministry.

Henry Nouwen writes, “Community is not an organization; community is a way of living; you gather around you people with whom you want to proclaim the truth that we are beloved sons and daughters of God.“

Living in a community allows us to call out in each other the aspects of God that we find in each other. The thing about living community like this, it that we first have to is to recognize in our belovedness. Nouwen shares that  ministry starts “because your freedom is anchored in claiming your belovedness”.

My freedom lies in believing that I am beloved.

As I prepared for the freshmen to arrive, I spent 5 hours in solitude. It was an amazing experience because I was able to sit, just me and God, after the craziness of training. We were given this article called “Moving From Solitude To Community To Ministry” by Henry Nouwen. The article reaffirmed the vast majority of what God had been teaching me this summer.

I sat there in solitude, simply dwelling in the silence and being with God and God alone. It was important for me to sit still and listen to the voice of the one who calls me beloved.

God calls me beloved.

The more that I dwelled with that phrase, God began to speak to the corners of my heart, the center of my being, and slowly I began to accept his love for me. I sat on the edge of a pond where a gaggle of geese were relaxing. I began to watch and study the geese. A group of them flew to the opposite side of the lake to feed.

I watched as a clear leader stepped out of the water.

He took one timid step, intently watching his surroundings.

He stretched his leg out as he took another timid step.

He was constantly on guard and he took small steps forward.

Sometimes I feel like that goose. I know what God is asking us to do or accept, but I timidly step forward. Kind of like this idea of being His beloved. I step forward timidly believing that I am loved, but constantly looking for the other foot to drop. It sounds crazy because you would think that being loved would be an easy thing to accept. Meanwhile, God had become so vulnerable in his pursuit of us. He became so little, so dependent in a manger and on a cross and is begging me, “Do you love me? Do you love me? Do you really love me.” How crazy is that? The God of the universe loves me.

It is a gift freely offered by the creator of the universe.

As a result, I am more prepared to do and capable of loving others when I accept that the King of the World and Creator of the Universe loves me.

As the freshmen start the first day of the rest of their lives. I am beginning a new journey.

One that reflects my belovedness.

Tenth Avenue North wraps this idea up well in their song “Beloved”.

You’re my beloved lover
I’m yours
Death shall not part us
It’s you I died for
For better or worse
Forever we’ll be
My love it unites us and it binds you to me
It’s a mystery

I am choosing to walk in the freedom of accepting that God desires me to be exactly the way he created me. He chose me to play in his story of redemption. I have a purpose in his plan.  I desire to choose to live in the freedom of God. The freedom that doesn’t worry about what other people think of me. The freedom that accepts myself for who I am—crazy, beautiful, smart, and weird. The freedom that steps out of my comfort zone. The freedom that loves God with abandon. The freedom that crosses oceans and roads to share the gospel.

I want to choose in to God’s desire to change the world.  I do not know what God has planned for this year, but I know that his plans are better than my plans.

One Year More

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One more year….

Of finals.

Of cafeteria food.image (5)

Of dances.

Of nursing school.

Of classes.

Of dorm rooms

Of college.

Tomorrow I leave home for my senior year of college. It feels like only yesterday that I was sitting in the same room, sorting my clothes, excitement and fear coursing through my body, as I got ready for my freshman year.

Now, sitting on the floor, I am feeling the same levels of excitement and fear. The only difference is that I am more confident.

I am ready.

It is hard to explain, but even in the uncharted waters of graduation, NCLEX examinations, and finding a job, I feel calm.

I am terrified, don’t get me wrong. I have no idea what the future holds beyond graduations and passing my boards, but I am ready for whatever the future holds.

Psalms 2:8 states, “Ask of me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possessions.” I may not know what the future holds, but I do know that God is in control. He has the reigns on my life and he will equip me for whatever he has in store. I do not have to fear.

Those words have literally defined my summer.

I do not have to fear.

It is easy, when things are unknown and uncertain, to tremble in fear, and desire to stay where life is predictable and straightforward.

I see God move in incredible ways when life is unpredictable, intimidating, and demanding.

Because, when I am uncomfortable, I turn to God to breathe, to survive, and to thrive.

This summer has changed me.

As I step back on campus tomorrow, I will not be that fearful freshmen, that shy sophomore, or that jaded junior.

I feel different—more independent, more confident, and more inspired.

I have no idea what this next year of my life holds and what adventures God has planned, but I am ready to take on the world with God at my side.

No Longer Slaves

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I am not a fan of being uncomfortable.

Stepping out where I have no control.

Right when I think I am figuring out where God has placed me, He pushes me and challenges me to step into the unknown.

It is like life is a map with undiscovered regions. God unravels a new section of the map as I step into the unknown areas.

It is like I am climbing a mountain. I follow the well-worn path, until I reach a spot where the trail is rocky and overgrown.

The way is no longer known or comfortable.

The trail travels on the edge of the cliff and I watch as a loose stone falls down the mountainside.

The trail is unknown and dangerous.

The path is uncomfortable, but necessary to continue to the top of the mountain.

The view at the top is breathless and beyond anything that I could ever imagine—but the journey is rough and often dangerous.
This summer, God continually shoves me out of my comfort zone into the unknown.

He challenges me and pushes me to the limits of my strength for the betterment of my existence.

This often means stepping out into untamed waters or pushing past the known path. It means doing things that are not comfortable.

It all started with the invitation to travel across the country for an internship. I left my home for a much larger city—our nation’s capital. That was a leap into the uncomfortable for me.

I went from a very small town with two-lane roads to a large city with four-lane roads.

I exchanged trickling traffic for rushing cars.

My surroundings changed, but my God remained.

Just as I became comfortable in my new role as intern, God pushed me to step out on stage. He wanted me to take a small break from the background where I am comfortable, and try my hand at speaking.

I sat on the stage in front of 70 eager, wiggling, listening 5th and 6th graders.  Their eyes stared at me, expecting great words to come out of my mouth. You know what came out?

Awkward sentences and lots of fillers—at least that is what I heard.

I rehearsed my vacation bible school lesson so many times in front of the mirror. I practiced the words until my tongue knew them backwards and forwards. I was prepared and terrified.

I am not comfortable on a stage. I love one on one conversations, but large crowds are petrifying.  I stared at the wide eyes and began to speak.

Standing up there, in front of a group of listening children, I realized that I had to overcome my fears. I could not let my fears hinder my actions, whether standing in front of people, or going to a new place. I stumbled over my words, but it was not about me. It was not about my own agenda or my own words. It was about God and his ultimate plan for His creation.

Stepping out into the unknown often leads to a greater experience than I could ever imagine.

You unravel me, with a melody

You surround me with a song

Of deliverance, from my enemies

Till all my fears are gone

These words challenged me to not let fear hold me back.

Fear of the unknown hinders me from stepping out in faith and pursuing the passions God has given me.

God, the Creator of the universe, surrounds me with His Grace until all my fears are gone.

He is gives me the strength to take that first step.

I’m no longer a slave to fear 
I am a child of God

I am a child of God.

There is no need to be overcome by fear because God walks with me, into the unknown.

No longer a slave to fear.

No longer a slave to a comfortable life.

No longer a slave to insecurity.

Does God ever make His people comfortable?

No, the reality is that God calls us to be uncomfortable so that we can be challenged and grow as we are stretched. ‘

A comfortable life allows us to rely on our own strength.

He calls me to be uncomfortable so that I have to rely on Him.

The same God who created the world, leads me into unknown waters, or on overgrown trails so that I could be free to live my life to the fullest of what God has planned for my life.

He erases my fear with love and rescues me from my insecurities.

You split the sea, so I could walk right through it
All my fears were drowned in perfect love
You rescued me, so I could stand and sing
I am child of God

I am a child of God.

My prayer as I continue to practice the art of stepping out into the unknown is:

“Lord, I give up my own plans and purposes, all my own desires and hopes, and accept Thy will for my life. I give myself, my life, my all utterly to Thee to be Thine forever. Fill me and seal me with Thy Holy Spirit. Use me a Thou wilt, send me where Thou wilt, work out Thy whole will in my life at any cost, now & forever.”

—Betty Scott Stam

As hard as it is, I pray that God continues to challenge my comfortableness, and continue to challenge me as I discover how my passions meet God’s plan for my life.

I touch the sky when my knees hit the ground

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My heart beating, my soul breathing

I found my life when I laid it down

Upward falling, spirit soaring

I touch the sky when my knees hit the ground.

Over the past 3 weeks, I have listened to “Touch the Sky” by Hillsong United more times than I can count. It speaks to my wandering soul and restless spirit. My week spent in Haiti impacted my heart.

I felt free and at peace.

My heart had found its happy place.

Haiti challenged me and broke my expectations of myself. I went into the trip with expectations to grow closer to God and to be challenged by His heart for people.

I did not expect to be sought so deeply by the Creator of the Universe.

I did not expect to feel God’s love in the smile of an orphan.

I ­did not expect my heart to be shattered by an abandoned baby.

I ­did not expect the lover of my soul to desire my heart, my dreams, my days.

I did not expect to dream for the impossible.

I did not expect my unfathomable God to speak life to my deepest, truest, and most honest dreams.

I wrestled with my identity, felt drawn to insecurity, and wanted to fill the holes within me. My view of God grew as he continued to burst out of every box that I attempt to put Him in. Looking back, I shouldn’t expect less from a living, loving, saving, sustaining, almighty God, who shapes my heart.

God met me somewhere within the depths of my aspirations, desires, unfulfilled longings and brokenness.

Find me here at Your feet again

Everything I am, reaching out, I surrender

Come sweep me up in Your love again

I felt free.

Free from expectations.

Free from fear.

Free from perfection.

Free from ambition.

Free from failure.

I felt free.

My heart beating, my soul breathing

I found my life when I laid it down

I had to lay down my longings. My desires. My passions. I had to lay down my plans at the feet of the One who shapes my heart. When I laid down my passions, desires and longings.

He gave me an unfathomable peace.

I needed to lay down my life and expectations in order to see what God had in store for me. He showed me glimpses of His heart in the smiles of the orphans and abandoned children. I caught snippets of His presence in Mickey and Liz as they worked to help children with malnutrition. I captured His glory in the sunrise.

God revealed that while I do not have control over my life, or future. He has an amazing journey planned.

I simply have to surrender.

The Beauty of Haiti

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As I mentioned my upcoming trip to people, they grimaced or questioned why I chose Haiti. Some smiled softly as they reminded me of the devastation, the disease, the trash and the poverty. My heart sighed as people criticized the country or warned me about all the apparent danger. All people could see was the devastation that the earthquake had left in its wake.

Haiti is definitely poor, I am not denying that, but Haiti is so much more than rubble and trash. It is the poorest country in the western hemisphere, but it has the more missionaries per sq. mile than any other country.

That statistic hit me hard.

Missionaries should help make a country better, but some of the missionaries are instigating the dependency of the people. Haiti is a country in desperate need of hope, but it is so much more. I was devastated by the vast poverty, but I was impacted by our leader who encouraged us to see the beauty in the ashes. Haiti is a beautiful country full of beautiful people. The beauty comes from their smiles and love of community.  The beauty comes from the ocean, the trees, and the sunrises. When trying to pick a moment that impacted me, I could not narrow it down.

The whole trip impacted me more than I thought possible. If I had to pick one moment it would be at the General Hospital. We had planned on going to the General Hospital earlier in the week, but plans changed. We ended up visiting the pediatric ward on our last day. We brought diapers and baby wipes so that we could be allowed in. When we first got there, we went into a large room with beds and cribs lining the walls and making aisles in the room. The nurses were helping people but they were outnumbered by the number of patients. The interesting thing about the General Hospital was the price. It was free to anyone. This means that they got the poorest of the poor coming through their doors. The hospital is free, but everything else is not. The parents need to bring sheets, food, and medical supplies. If or when, the patient needs a procedure, he or his family is in charge of acquiring all of the necessary supplies for the procedure or surgery. In the pediatric ward, the parent or caretaker is in charge of the basic care as well as blood draws. The parents take on many of the tasks that would normally be delegated to an aide in America. It was distressing to see how little resources they had, but how they were creative with the resources that they had. They cut up bandages and used as little as they could on each person. A challenging moment was watching them take blood from a patient. They did not have access to all the normal tubing that we have, so they inserted and IV and held a blood collection tube at the end of the catheter to collect the blood. I cringed because the whole process appeared to cause more distress to the patient. When they had collected all that they needed, the nurse put pressure on the IV site and removed the catheter. The nurses expertly used only one glove to treat the patient and helped the parents understand what they were required to do to help their child. The nurses use betadine to clean every wound. These are only some of the aspects of differences in nursing care that caught my attention. I will never forget the feeling of helplessness I felt when I observed kids with diabetes, and dehydration, sitting in the hospital because of a lack of resources.

Another relatively intriguing aspect was the idea of community responsibility and the importance of relationships. Haitians have an amazing sense of community. In general, people watch out for each other. Parents can let their kids wander around their community knowing that their neighbors will be watching out for their kids and will discipline them if the children misbehave. The community takes care of each other. The same goes for the hospital. At the general hospital, most of the patients are crammed into two large rooms, so parents watch out for each other’s children. If one mom needs to go eat, desires a break, or wants to shower, another mom or dad will watch the child until she gets back. They simply care for each other without expectations. Even when we went to the room that had abandoned babies and children, we noticed that as the older kids ran around, parents of some of the patients had taken them under their wing. They looked out for them and were not afraid to tell them if they were misbehaving.

Their attitude about community is beautiful and so different than American life.

I could go on and on about how this experience in Haiti impacted my view of medicine, the world and my view of God. In observing the way healthcare looked in Haiti, I realized 1) I often take for granted the amount of resources that we have access to, and 2) we look just as silly to Haiti nurses with our American way of doing things, and Haitian nurses look to us. Sometimes we want to go in believing that our way of doing things is right and our view of Healthcare and Medical care is the only way. I had to realize on my second day, that while it was easy to say that I would have done things differently, it was because I came from a different culture. I was not aware of how things worked in Haitian culture. There were some areas where I could see lack of critical thinking skills and education in newer methods and technology, but the nurses were doing the best that they could with the resources and education that they had. They also taught me a thing or two about how to treat Haitian patients who bring with them their own cultural ideas and expectations which are vastly different than mine.

Saudade

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Saudade is a word in Portuguese and Galician that has no direct translation in English. It describes a deep emotional state of nostalgic or profound melancholic longing for an absent something or someone that one loves. Moreover, it often carries a repressed knowledge that the object of longing may never return.

This is often how I feel about Nigeria. I long for life to go back to the way it was when I was twelve. I was young and oblivious to the dangers that surrounded me. I had friends and family in a country that felt more like home than my passport country. I do not know which is worse, longing for something you cannot have or a feeling like you are missing out on something.

As a third-culture kid, I do not feel like I have a home country, but I also feel like I missed out on something in my childhood. I understand that I am unique and privileged to have had those experiences of living in a different culture, learning about people and trying new things. I have a broader view of the world, and understand the poverty and brilliance of the world.

Life is not meant to simply to be lived, but rather experienced. i know I have some unique baggage from moving so much, and leaving friends behind, but I do not regret my life or the choices I have made. They have shaped me into who I am.

I am a NOMAD.

I am a restless spirit.

I understand airports.

I speak more than one language.

I can establish relationships quickly. I aspire to have deep relationships.

I have had a privileged life.

I converse well with people, but often cannot talk to people my age.

I adapt well and quickly to unfamiliar countries and people.

I live more in the PRESENT.

I am an excellent observer of other people.

These qualities and characteristics are only some of the things that my past has given me. I still sometimes envy people who have had a stable background and who have lived in one spot their whole life. They know who they are and where they come from. They do not have to wonder where they belong in the grand scheme of life.

Fearless Wanderings

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 I am a down to earth college student in Ohio studying Nursing with a Missions and Cross cultural Minor. I love helping people and learning about the different cultures in this wide expanse of what we call the world.I have traveled since I was 3 months old. My parents were missionaries till I was 12. We then moved back to the states. I started this blog, kind of on a whim. It seemed like a good way to organize my thoughts and practice my writing skills. I don’t pretend to be a good writer. I simply want to share my stories and the stories of the people that I meet on my journey through life. 

           I am an avid reader and have always enjoyed escaping life and journeying to new places though the books I read. This may be where my sense of adventure came from. I learned that stories make up life. This is probably why I love traveling so much also. Both reading and traveling take you places you never thought you would go. They also both contain stories. Stories have always held some sort of hold on me. They hold such romance, intrigue, passion, mystery, and life. Stories are what make up culture, and  culture defines people. People are interesting and each have their own unique story. We all have stories that define who we are. These stories are happy, sad, romantic, crazy, miraculous and everything in-between. Traveling and reading opens the door for you to discover other peoples stories as well as figure out your own stories. 

 The one thing that you have that nobody else has is you. Your voice, your mind, your story, your vision. So write and draw and build and play and dance and live as only you can.

                        Neil Gaiman

 

This quote shows that everyone’s story is unique and awesome in its own way.  I want to share my passion for stories and people with you. My story is different that yours. My story stems from the realization that I am the incandescently beautiful daughter of the One True God. My identity is not in this world, but in the fact that I am loved. There is freedom in love. This journey of life allows me to discover what it means to be free and a daughter of the King.

“He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”

Micah 6:8