The Happy/Sad Truth About Returning
In her intensely thought provoking book, The Poisonwood Bible, one of Barbara Kingsolver’s fictional characters has just landed back in America after living in a jungle in Africa. She puts it simply: “It is impossible to describe the shock of return.” (p. 411) We spend a lot of time talking about leaving well, but what about […]
Who Said Returning Would be Easy
If I could write a letter to my weary self in the spring of 2015, as I was surrounded by 20 years of our China life, packed in semi-sturdy fruit boxes from the market… In that stressful season, when my sense of accomplishment each day was how many trash bags I could send down the […]
Losing Identity In The Return
I bit down on my tongue to stop the words I was thinking from flying out of my mouth. Staring across the table at my coffee date, I wondered how I had once been close friends with this woman? I laughed out of obligation, not because I thought her pop-culture reference was funny. While others […]
A Letter to the One Returning Home
Seven years ago, with all my earthly belongings bundled into two 50 pound suitcases, I flagged my last taxi to the airport. I dozed on the 13 hour flight arcing over the North Pole to return back to the U.S. after living in China for five years. I was returning home. If you are preparing […]
Diaspora Blues
I was going on my merry way, enjoying my caramel macchiato and quiet neighborhood, when it happened. I was supposed to be past the hump, right? I mean, I’d been back in the United States for almost two years. Sucker-punch. Sucker-Punch Definition: Primarily involves a closed fist contacting the soft underbelly of a person (beneath […]
6 Doubts of Life Overseas
Can I ask a very real and honest question here today? Can I ask it because I think it needs to be asked for my life and yours? Can I ask it here in this is a safe place, a place where we understand each other’s hearts? I wouldn’t ask it with just anyone, but […]