Living with Less

I first want to say welcome to everyone I have invited to view this blog! I appreciate your encouragement, and I promise to try to keep it updated, so keep checking back. ;) It is still a work in progress - please have pity on this first-time blogger!

So, I am renting out my condo furnished for the next few months to help pay my bills while I am away. This past weekend I put most of my personal belongings in storage, and I am spending my last evenings doing last-minute packing and organizing before I leave. As I've been doing this, it has occured to me that I am never going to fit everything I have left in two suitcases to take to Oklahoma with me. I am sending a box of winter clothes to my parents' and will still be squeezing stuff in my suitcases! This latest development has prompted me to reevaluate my own predilection for material possessions.

I don't really consider myself a materialistic person. I like nice things (of course, we all do), but I never thought I was overly concerned with possessions (at least, not in the American culture). But downsizing the past few weeks and planning a trip, where all I "own" for two months is on my back, has been somewhat refreshing. The truth is: most of us don't need nearly as much as we have, yet we are constantly bombarded with temptations to "get more." I admit, I too succomb to that urge more often than I would like.

So for my trip to Europe, I plan on taking the bare minimum ... a few pairs of pants, a few shirts, some basic toiletries, etc. It will be a nice reminder that we can survive (and perhaps sometimes, we live even more freely) with less.

Of course, I still want to buy a laptop for my trip. hmmm...

4 Days 'Til Lift-Off

I am finally down to my last days in D.C. before I begin my "odyssey." Although I have been preparing and packing for weeks now, I have still felt a little panicked this week, I think, for no other reason than I feel like I should. I know that may sound a little odd, but I am essentially leaving my job, moving away from my home, and altering my life completely (albeit temporarily, but nonetheless!). Every time I think to myself that I have things relatively under control, I immediately assume there must be something vitally important that I am forgetting to do. I admit this is a symptom of my sometimes-compulsive longing for control and yet another fine reason that I am doing something adventurous this fall. :) I suppose it is always a good learning experience to get outside of one's comfort zone, and bumming around foreign countries by myself will surely be that for me!

Despite a few last-minute things to be done here in D.C., I am ready. I'm looking forward to seeing my family and being back at home for awhile. I will be in Oklahoma for 2-1/2 weeks before leaving for Europe. This will give me some much-need time to destress, plus it will afford me the opportunity to spend time with my family, from whom I have lived apart for almost 5 years now. (I thought I would never say this, but) I think being back "home" will be fun. :)

Enjoying myself/ learning to "enjoy the journey" is really the whole point of this fall. I need to rediscover who I am and what I want to be and to explore what God has in store for my life. I came to the realization a few months ago that despite having almost everything I could ever want (within reason, of course), I am not happy with my life. I have a secure, good-paying job, a beautiful home, wonderful friends, a loving family, an awesome church ... the list goes on. Yet, I am not content. Granted, we can all learn to be more thankful for what we have, but I don't think my lack of contentment has (completely) come from not being grateful enough for the many blessings which have been bestowed on me. I believe it, instead, comes from God urging me to do something different with my life.

Since I completed a Master's degree one year ago, I've felt the urge to "make a move" (careerwise, mainly). But I just couldn't figure out what I really wanted to do next. I toiled with it for months and months until a church retreat in June helped me realize that I didn't really know who I wanted to be or what I wanted to accomplish with my life. Before making any more decisions, I decided I needed some time to explore these things. And despite a compulsion to "stick it out" until I had the answer, I felt like God was telling me to do something a little more drastic: to go off by myself for awhile, completely alter my life, and seek his peace and guidance there. So that is what I am doing - making my first bold step towards a new and improved me!

Here is my basic (tentative) itinerary for the next four months:
- August 31st - Fly to Oklahoma
- September 18th - Fly to Frankfurt, Germany
- September 19th through November 18th - Backpack around Europe (Sweden, Germany, Eastern Europe, Italy, and Spain)
- November 19th - Fly back to Oklahoma
- January 2007 - Back in D.C.