 It’s been a while, I know, since I’ve written a post. There are many reasons for this, chief among them being that my son had yet another surgery and the Christmas season is busy. Another reason is that I still feel as though I am trying to really dig in and find my voice for this blog: Who am I, and what am I about? Who am I writing "stuff" for? And, what’s the point of writing on a blog in 2019 when most everyone feels far too busy to be reading articles? The voice-for-this-blog dilemma is a microcosm of my current life. Who am I? What is my purpose in this world? Am I living my best life? These are questions I have been wrestling too, which have also stalled my writing. I am one of those people who can envision myself in a variety of careers, wearing a variety of different hats. In other words, I have a great imagination. When I was a child, I had endless ideas. I remember exploring a new career each day (usually one employing creativity), imagining myself becoming “great” in that area. Then, I would either become bored or disillusioned with my lack of natural talent, and move on to exploring a new idea for future-me. I always dreamed of being great and making an impression on this world. I also love children. I love being a mother. I have loved playing with my babies and watching them morph into tiny human beings. Lately I feel as though I am straddling an imaginary line between the small beautiful world of my own little family and the great big world of possibility. Children do not choose to come into this world. They are much smaller than us and ridiculously powerless. They grow and change every single day. I am not sorry I have focused on my children for these years of their young childhoods. I believe I will never regret this choice. Now that the little ones are getting bigger and more independent, I have this burning desire to figure out what I want to do with myself, though. I want to inspire my children by working hard at something. I want them to see that men and women can wear many different hats throughout their lifetimes. I want them to see that choosing themselves and choosing their children are not mutually exclusive: different phases of life might require more of a focus on one or the other, but everyone in a family (as in life) is equally valuable. I know I am rambling here…but can you empathize? A few months ago, I decided I wanted to pursue a master’s or doctorate degree. Returning to the classroom as a teacher is not something I want to do, though I loved my years of teaching. After exploring my options, I have tentatively landed on a master’s degree in applied anthropology. I have always been fascinated by culture, and I also have a heart to help the immigrant and the marginalized, which applied anthropology would give me excellent tools for. While I am literally clawing at the starting gate, other pressing matters have reared their heads: I don’t want a bunch of debt when I’m finished getting a degree, my family could currently use some extra income, and I have to take the GRE, which I won’t finish on time for next fall. Following that thread of reasoning has led me to the decision to build a business teaching online and writing curriculum for fellow homeschool parents. Sometimes I get excited about all of these "things" I want to do. My husband, thankfully, believes in our equal partnership and will be there for our kids as I become busier. Other times, doubt makes an appearance, warning and condemning me to failure. How will I find the time to do all this? What if I spend lots of precious time trying to build a biz, and then it all falls apart? What if going to school “takes me away” from my ever-evolving children too much? What if our family can’t handle all the stress this will bring? What if my son’s cancer returns or another one of us gets sick or something costly in our house falls apart? But I know I have to proceed, one step at a time, making the most of every moment as I go along. What is my point in writing this post? First, to say to other friends who are looking at big changes in their lives, "I'm right there with you". But also just to process where I’m at and why, and to say I will absolutely keep blogging...it may be sporadic, but even if no one’s reading, at least I’m getting in some great writing practice. And eventually, I think I will begin to iron out what my voice in life and on this blog is, as well as my purpose. To anyone out there reading these posts, thank you for hangin’ in there with me. If you don’t mind adventure, incongruence and wild random thoughts on life that connect in strange or surprising ways, then definitely stick around, ha! Finally, Merry Christmas to all. If you are feeling more heartache than joy this week, I get it. Just know that you are not alone; reach out to others, let them carry hope's torch for now, know you are deeply deeply loved.
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 What does hope mean for the hopeless?
For me in my cozy Americana life, it's easy to feel like “hope” is attainable. Yet if I'm honest, hope for me is more like anticipation. I anticipate Christmas. I anticipate road trips, meeting career goals and the next fun outing. A few days ago, I tuned in to an NPR special on slavery and Ghana. Did you know this year, 2019, marks exactly 400 years since the first boat of approximately 20 enslaved people from Africa was brought to American shores? The NPR program focused on Ghana as a center of the slave trade. It traced the history of the slave trade, pointing to the deep-rooted guilt many Ghanaians carry because of their ancestor’s part in helping to capture their fellow Africans to sell to greedy foreigners. During the program, one woman, an archaeologist, mentioned that at her dig, an old castle used as a holding cell for slaves, people refuse to work at night because they can hear screams and cries for help. At another point in the program, a woman shared what it means for African Americans from Ghana to return there and see both where their ancestors came from and the horror they went through. She shared that many Ghanaians are holding ceremonies in which they apologize for their part in the slave trade. In the process, these African Americans are finding peace with their heritage by tracing their roots and realizing their ancestors were people of enormous strength and courage. When the archaeologist shared how her slave-castle dig was haunted with screaming pleas for help, I choked back tears, for momentarily I too heard the hollow anguished screams piercing the stench and the darkness, screams that would never ever be answered. My heart ached for the women who were raped repeatedly and then, instead of rescue, healing and hope, gifted a lifetime of ravaging dehumanizing slavery. I felt an inner tormented crazy-making helplessness at the mental image of children screaming for their mothers whilst being sold and shipped far far away, robbed of identity, heritage, home, safety, belonging. I pictured the men, beaten and humiliated, translated as cattle, their very human dignity violated, lost. How the hell did these people have anything even remotely like hope? Even a glimmer of freedom-light was assuredly snuffed out within a week or two of capture. Yet, somehow, miraculously, as they heard tidbits of the word preached by their persecutors, they absorbed ideas like salvation, and rescue. The stories of Daniel and of Moses were written for them, to them, weren't they? God was on their side. God saw. God cared. God would rescue. They wrote songs and they sang: https://www.loc.gov/item/ihas.200197495/. And their spiritual songs paradoxically displayed both torment and impossible HOPE. Isn't that theme, after all, of salvation, of deliverance, all over the pages of the word? Save me, rescue me, deliver me, we cry out... And I am left spinning, dizzy, wondering if I've gotten hope all wrong. I search for it and reach for it. Sometimes, I try to manufacture it from the empty stores of my own cavernous interior. And when I can’t find it or feel it, I do what I can to forget about it, the thought of its un-attainability impossible to hold. Friends? What if we are living in the upside-down of Stranger Things, seeing hope all warped and wonky, ever-reaching, stretching, grasping, clawing? What if the very nature of hope, though, is that it is always there, regardless of our striving? What if hope isn’t something we attain or create? What if it isn’t something we discover or buy? What if, instead, hope is simply "The Thing That Is". What if, like the slaves of old who wrote the spirituals and sang them jubilantly as they plodded through endless days full of torment, we simply acknowledged hope's existence as longing's perfect parallel? What if hope has always been about the seeing rather than the grabbing, the holding, and the hoarding? Light a candle, friends, right now, in the darkness, right there in the middle of the cancer diagnosis, the uncertainties, the insurmountable injustices. Breathe. Accept. For, “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” https://www.allstays.com/Features/haunted-cape-coast-castle-in-ghana/ https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/27/africa/ghana-elmina-castle/index.html https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/ghana-slave-trail-year-of-return |
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