this book. this january.

"Perhaps you know what it feels like to dread the day at hand. Your plans have changed, failed, or come to a screeching halt and you are living in the in-between. Not who you were and not yet who you might become. Like driftwood, thrown into a river three counties over, you feel bewildered and broken. Standing–but all kinds of mangledy-bangledy."

My sister got me this book, The Road to Becoming, by Jenny Simmons, and gave it to me on Christmas Eve, when our families celebrate together, after all the gifts were unwrapped. It wasn't a "present" ... just something she wanted to give me as it was a resource that helped her through this past year. It truly was/is a gift. I could almost say it was the most treasured and meaningful to me this year.

I was crying half way into the preface, you know it's going to be good when that happens. And, near the end of the preface is where that quote at the top of this page came from... It was as if the author had read my mind or something. When she used "the in-between" .... I was gone.... And by gone I mean, immersed in the book and hoping Greta wouldn't wake up for atleast another half hour/hour or more (and streams of tears running down my face for the second time). I was enraptured by the rawness, the words were like water to a parched land. I read it during every nap for two or three days after that and then real life and work happened. I'm halfway through it and plan to dive in soon and process it.

Starting tomorrow, January 5th, I will be "off the charts" of social media. I will be posting my processing blog posts to my facebook account, but not going back to "check on it." So, if you have a comment you want me to see right away, take the time to comment here or... don't :) and I'll see it sometime later.

"There is a moment in each person's journey when leaning into the unknown becomes the only viable pathway to new life. It is at this weighty juncture that a person of faith must ask, "Do I believe the Storyteller knows better than anyone else how to repurpose a piece of driftwood?" If the answer is yes, pack your bags and get ready to follow God into the unknown. The road to becoming is not easy; it is certainly not for the faint of heart. But it is here that we begin to discover new life–life abundant–is alway, ever among us. Dancing on the horizon."