On Fridays around these parts we stop, drop, and write.
For fun, for love of the sound of words, for play, for delight, for joy and celebration at the art of communication.
For only five short, bold, beautiful minutes. Unscripted and unedited. We just write without worrying if it’s just right or not.
Won’t you join us?
1. Write for 5 minutes flat – no editing, no over thinking, no backtracking.2. Link back here and invite others to join in.
3. Most importantly: leave a comment for the person who linked up before you – encouraging them in their writing!
OK, are you ready? Give me your best five minutes on:
Grow…
GO
I never expected these roots.
When Peter asked my dad for my hand in marriage on a phone call from two thousand miles away his answer is one that echoes in my head still some days twelve years later.
“This wasn’t supposed to happen, you know. She was supposed to come home.”
Four years of college was supposed to be a jaunt. A runaway excuse to spread my wings. A flirtation. It wasn’t supposed to grow into a commitment with deep roots that spanned continents.
Continents and three kids that sleep in beds down the hall and dream of South Africa one night and Thanksgiving the next. They are children of cross-cultural genes and it’s their normal. Part of the package is the hurt of homesickness and part is the gift of seeing the world through two sets of eyes.
They grow in ways I didn’t discover until I was 18.
And our roots feel good and at home in this American soil. Welcome. Wanted. Beloved.
We bloom a Christmas tree family here this December. Here in the snow and hot cocoa out of earshot of the hot sun. We grow welcome here and it fits right. This is our season for now.
STOP
OK, show me what you’ve got.
Want to keep up with this here blog? Sign up to get my posts emailed to your doorstep right here Or delivered to your reader of choice. Or just like us on Facebook.
::
::
I’m sure the homesickness brings with it an aching heart, I can’t imagine how that must feel. You seem to be doing a great job of growing in this season you are in.
We will always have ties to where our roots are (EKHAYA) and there will always be a place supposedly. But we chose to grow and grow our families where we choose to settle. And God honors. Yet, I so know the ties.
Oh yes…that torn feeling…how I know this well…as a child and now as an adult. Growing in the NOW…in THIS season….my heart too.
You wrote: “Part of the package is the hurt of homesickness and part is the gift of seeing the world through two sets of eyes.”
Lisa-Jo, I so understand where you are coming from with the above quote, and yet I’m one who grew up the same way as your kids did. You see my parents were missionaries in the United States territory of Puerto Rico and the country of Honduras between the time I was one year old and the time I was eight years old.
I was always grateful for the expanded horizons and the global viewpoint living overseas at such a young age gave me, but I also felt like I lacked roots. So, I would encourage you to help your kids be rooted and grounded to their homeland as much as possible and at as young an age as possible so they have a place to call home. Also root them and ground them in the love of Jesus no matter what. Blessings!
Thank you, Daniel. It’s great to have the kids’ perspective. We’ll keep working on growing them roots in both countries.
help, where is the linky?
I can’t see it either… but I’m glad to know it’s not just me (and my vast cluelessness about all things techie) having a problem;-)
Lisa-Jo… can I just say how very much I love your writing? Here goes: I freeking adore the way you write!
Diane – you are welcome to say that anytime :) Lay it on me, sister. Makes my day!
I’m always homesick for New Zealand. I was only there for 8 months, but it did such a number on me. God does funny things with our hearts, things we never expect.
No Linky…
Oh what a story, Lisa-Jo, how you weren’t supposed to stay away… how God makes the plans that we do not… This was wonderful, and I love where God has brought you, how he has grown your heart and your family… ;)
Four years ago, after living in the same house for almost 25 years, I moved from the midwest to the east coast. Last night I cried because I am so homesick. I can relate to your feelings, and rejoice with you that you can enjoy this season and bloom where you are!
this so beautifully speaks the heartache and heartgrowth you all must feel!
As there was no linky, here’s mine for this week :)
http://pohlkottepress.blogspot.com/2011/11/five-minute-friday-grow.html
Great idea Tara!
Here’s my post for the week too…. I’m such a copy-cat;)
http://tomatosoupcake.blogspot.com/2011/11/five-minute-friday-grow.html
Here’s mine, too!
http://wp.me/p1uesq-da
Lisa-Jo, I know the ache of this kind of growth. I love your honesty, even when it hurts.
Here’s my link for the week if any of you fancy popping in:
http://www.findtimefortea.com/2011/11/five-minute-friday-grow.html
Your kids will have SUCH a rich experience to remember as they do grow. :)
First week joining up ~ linky wasn’t working for my Friday meme either {glad it’s not just me!!} ~ Jolanthe
http://www.noordinarymomentsblog.com/2011/11/october-and-november-around-this-house.html
Yay! So glad you linked up. Sorry about the linky. Bad bad linky. It’s totally going in a time out!
“This wasn’t supposed to happen.”
You always share such wisdom, Lisa-Jo, with a sweet dollop of warmth and humor. God leads us on journeys that we don’t always understand at first, but sometimes we embrace anyway, and later, every so often, we get to see the why and the wisdom.
Here is my post for today: http://www.toodarnhappy.com/2011/11/18/five-minute-friday-grow/
I’m glad you’ve made it home (“American soil”) for a while, so that you can rest up for the next adventure and your children can enjoy what home is to you. Hugs & Blessings :)
My post for the day: http://motherbabychild.blogspot.com/2011/11/five-minute-friday-grow.html
I didn’t see a linky either! This is my first week! thanks for the great idea!
Sorry about the weird linky gang – it does seem to be working now though :)
Hey, I linked up right after you linked yourself up! Cool.
I LOVE this: “They grow in ways I didn’t discover until I was 18.” I long for this for my kids. We’re planning to bring our oldest to our next trip to Africa, hopefully next year, and I can’t wait to see how it changes her (like it changed me).
I want them to grow deep roots, to know their place in the world by really knowing the world.
Great post. I wish I could get all my words in a row at first attempt like you do. You’ve got some gorgeous flowing prose there.
And thank you for the encouraging comment!! There’s something about giving our kids new perspectives on the world – isn’t there? It opens all our eyes.
Love how you put your own post in the Linky!! You always inspire with you words. Thanks so much for this linky on Friday. It has been a blessing to me.
WOW! IM not sure what happened to my picture that the linky request. Being new to this I guess Im not to good at it. Well anyway. Im having fun and love this link. Enjoyed my five minute write today. Many blessings
This is my first time joining in with you here on your awesome blog-home. Your words blessed and touched my heart. I said a prayer for you and your precious family. Love and hugs!
Lisa
Yay! Thanks for joining – the more the merrier :)
grow. I have to. I want to. I want to do it faster. I want to grow and absorb all that information that I feel I need to school my children and truly be their first teacher.
I want to grow. I want to outgrow all these feelings of inadequacy because I am not nothe perfect mother, not theperfect housekeeper, not the perfect wife and nowhere near the perfect cook, although I haven’t burned water in over 2 years now. not for alack of trying!
I want to grow, I want to be there for my sons, I want to know what to say and do, I want to know all those things I didn’t learn from my parents, I want to do things the way the children need them done, not the way otheradults need them done. I want to DO what I need to do for them, not think about it and relent and repent and reseed mydeas for th enext day.
I want to grow. I want to grow less weary, less tired, less bumped and bruised by my boys and my own clumsiness, and grow back some of myweight. I want to grow physically to keep up iwth them!
so much more but fiveis here!
LOVE that you left your writing here in the comments! I want to grow too. In all the great ways you describe.
My blog isn’t up and running yet so you said a few months ago I might post here. Hope that is still the thing! : ) five minutes. hah! I just barely got all that in, and my fingers were flying! keep up the fun!
Trying one more time to post a comment.
Don’t remember all I said previously but, GIRL you always bless with your words!
And I thought raising my kids 1300 miles away from all our family was tough! You are providing your boys (and that little lady) with such a rich perspective on life, and I pray that God binds their hearts together with their South African family despite the distance and separation. Loved linking up again with you today, Lisa-Jo! :)
I always love what you write out of your experience of being both at home where you are and homesick for the home you came from–you write my heart! You’re such a blessing Lisa-Jo!!
I love this. Roots that grow to forever connect us to our home. There is still something so comforting, so “normal” in walking back into my parents home. Because it is still home, even though I have built my own home with my husband and our little ones.
beautiful story of grow where you are planted…in and out of season…
THanks for hosting this fun place…I am new at this blog thing a non-writer in a writers world…God knows……someone told me I should try this…every Friday I think…no I won’t do it…but I don’t seem to be able to stop myself…
Have a blessed weekend…http://tuningmyhearttopraise.blogspot.com/2011/11/its-five-minute-friday-word.html
beautiful, as always! I love your writing. roots putting down unexpectedly…
Beautiful words from a beautiful girl.
Janelle
GraceTags
this is part of it, isn’t it? this is what life is, isn’t it? growing and growing and blooming where we’re planted and laying roots, until god sees fit to move us into new soil.
thank you for the reminder that homesickness hurts and the longing for loved ones doesn’t cease. i’m growing restless in my soil and change is imminent (eminent?…eminem? :)) but this is my deepest ache, the thing that keeps me from the greater growth of change.
uuuggghhh. why god, why. and thank you, god. thank you.
(and thank YOU, lisa-jo.)
xo
Aww you make me want to cry both happy and sad tears for you! I understand the homesickness, though my distance from home isn’t nearly as great as yours. I hope that you have a great night and a wonderful Thanksgiving.
My first time at 5 Minute Friday, and it wasn’t nearly as difficult as I thought! I am super careful with my writing–reading and rereading, editing and re-editing before posting; therefore, this was a huge stretch for me but something I needed. It allowed me to loosen up a little and just write what was on my heart! Thanks for the opportunity! Have a blessed Thanksgiving!
I made it! Phew. 3 minutes left of Friday! :) I know . . . the link is open longer . . . but I needed to write today!
I’m living on my 3rd continent of our 5-year marriage, so I hear you. But I know I have it so much easier because my parents and my husband’s live an hour and a half apart in Virginia.
On an unrelated note, HOW do you guys do this?? Almost every week I try, and after 5 minutes I have maybe 4 sentences and 1/8 of a complete thought. I’ve got brain constipation.
**tearing up**
I can SO relate as my dad said the EXACT same thing to my now husband. “She was supposed to come home.”
Oh “home” – how you have changed! And grown to be more than just a place.
Happy Thanksgiving! Enjoy the day. We’re celebrating (even though I will be the only American sitting around the table) – trying to enjoy the best of all cultures involved. :)
Beautiful words. I loved what your dad said; it made me laugh. My “jaunt” was a 3 1/2 month trip to Australia between my third and fourth years of university, and all my friends told me, “Don’t fall in love down there!” I didn’t – well, not with an Aussie… a guy friend of mine from back home started emailing me while I was there and when I got back, we started dating. Now we take “jaunts” together and have two daughters to take with us… :)