Last month, I spent eight glorious days in Greece with nine amazing women; It was a bucket list trip to celebrate a dear friend’s birthday. Greece is a spectacular example of the beauty and wonder in God’s creation, and yet, the trip left me questioning my very existence.
Faced with the splendor of the vistas, the historic significance, and the resilience and positive spirit of people living with a crumbling economy, I had to ask myself exactly why and what I was doing in the DC suburbs.
Have you ever gotten a glimpse of something that told you in plain language that you were meant to do and be more? I’ve gotten that message several times over the course of my life. Tragically, I’ve run from that message every single time, afraid that it wasn’t true, yet more afraid that maybe it was.
Greece was transformative. Yes, spending eight days with nine women in a place filled with a beauty and history that spans millennia did something wonderful and terrible to me.
This trip wonderfully forced my introverted self to open up and engage with new people. It provided me with much needed rest from my often hectic life, and it made my greek mythology obsessed since childhood self’s dreams come true.
Alternately, this trip also brought me to a place where I was required to own my gifts and stop hiding them for fear of seeming confident, competent, qualified, and able. Why would I or anybody be afraid to be and be seen as that?
My big revelation got a dose of reality when I returned home and excitedly told my husband that we should move to Europe and live an amazing life. He said: not gonna happen, my love. Womp-womp. In my mind, my fabulous life would only start if and when we moved to Greece, or France, or Italy, or anywhere but here.
So now what? While my long term plans do not include living in the DC suburbs for the duration, I am going to bloom where I am planted until I can bloom in a more beautiful, picturesque, and historic place.
Like this one above, perhaps.