(I actually wrote this little ditty a week or two ago, but then it got lost in the recesses of my computer... So you're getting it now... And, fyi, I'm still not really sure what this settling business should look like.)
If you know me (or, I guess, if you've been reading this blog long enough), you know I don't like to do things halfway.
In a leadership book I read, the author called it the "hedgehog approach" (or something very much like that). I like that word picture. It suits me. Basically, it's focusing on a certain thing and going after it with all your energy.
Right now, I'm hedgehogging on settling into La Salle-Peru.
My deal is, though, what does settling into a place look like? I've never really done it before. It was college—a new place each year and summer—then a quick stop in Decatur, then a whirlwind handful of months at home preparing to leave, then a mud/dung house (maybe the very definition of impermanent?) in Sudan. And then, bam, I'm here. And staying. (Yeah, still funny…)
So, what is settling in, exactly? I mean, outside of hanging picture frames. Or buying an area rug. Or stocking up on stuff in bulk.
'Cause that's all I can think of, and none of that is really an option. My mother sat looking at me mournfully the other day, when I dared to set up a little table for my computer in my nephew's room, which is what they call what is really my room—the nomenclature pointedly and purposefully unwelcoming. So picture frames are certainly out of the question.
I'm suddenly wide open to take responsibilities and make on-going commitments. To get involved. Yea even to get employed (Lord willing!). To belong—whether it is at a church or in a group of friends or at the Y or a Scrabble club.
And that's exciting. That's big. That's something to hedgehog toward.
But it's also a bit overwhelming and I don't know what it should look like here.
And that might be reason enough to concede to something as simple as picture frames and area rugs and jumbo-sized boxes of… whatever.
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