Embracing the Unexpected Journey
📷: My sister
It’s my birthday!
As I reflect on where life has taken me, I’ve realized that my mid-( dare I say, late???) twenties looks nothing like what I pictured. I figured that by now I’d be well on my way to a quiet little homestead, shared with a good, God-fearing husband, a blooming rose bush by the door, and a car that gets from point A to point B whenever called upon. Nothing glamorous, just simple, steady, a life built on hard work, love, and community.
Spoiler alert! That’s not where my path has taken me (yet!)
Single, living with the parents, driving a car on its last legs… yeah, more than once I’ve felt stuck, like I haven’t made any “progress” in life. Sure, we’ve all heard that life doesn’t have a timeline, but when the comparison game starts, it’s hard not to play.
But this year I’m trying to shift my mindset. Maybe it’s being older and wiser (HA!), but I’m trying my best to accept and recognize that growth doesn’t need to be visible to be real. When I look back on the past year, I have grown. A LOT in fact, even if I haven’t check marked any of the traditional boxes.
A lot of the work God does happens in quiet places, long before anything blooms.
📷: My mom
🦋 Caterpillars have to turn into mush in a cocoon before they become butterflies.
🐣 Eggs sit in an incubator ‘doing nothing’ for weeks before the cute little chicks hatch out
🌱 Seeds must be buried in dirt and grow roots before a single leaf is seen by the rest of the world.
🌾 A compost pile sits rotting before becoming fuel for healthy soil and bountiful harvests.
It feels like this past year held a lot of unseen, unglamorous growth for me. Managing a start-up small business, caring for my animals, balancing multiple jobs. None of it’s remarkable, but I believe all of it is building a foundation for the next step in my journey.
I’m learning to trust the slower path.
I’m learning that “not according to plan” doesn’t mean “going nowhere.”
As one of my favorite quotes from Lord of the Rings says:
“Not all who wander are lost.”
If your journey looks a little different than you’d pictured, I’m right there with you. One step at a time, we’ll watch the path unfold and celebrate every small, ordinary win along the way.