Having spent ages six to twenty eight in North Carolina, it has been ‘home’ as long as I can remember. Georgia, by birthright, also has the distinction in my life and I have spent much more time there since I moved to Florida almost ten years ago. Yes, I said 10. Gah. Proximity plays the largest factor in that fact, I suppose.
My visits to NC have generally been around the holidays, and as I drove over the state line on Monday, I realized I hadn’t seen the Carolinas in summertime in ten years. Ever since I have arrived, I have been stunned by their beauty and how, despite the ten years that have past, how much everything changes and yet, how everything primarily stays the same.
I guess I have reached the age where time is getting the best of me. It is fleeting and just goes by so fast, that I can’t be all the places I would like to be and before I know I it, I haven’t seen the deep green hues, and rolling hills, blanketed by a Carolina blue sky in ten years. How have I let this happen?
It makes me sad that I know there is so little hope of making more time to be here. While I’m immensely grateful to have this week here, the remainder will be in a hotel conference room. A fact that makes me want to ditch the reason why I came and spend the rest of the trip heading west into the hills that suddenly feel like a part of me. They are so close, yet so far away, and it brings tears to my eyes, that I can’t get there. ‘Home’ suddenly feels elusive. What I would give to feel the dampness of the forest and smell a hammock of rhododendron.
But alas, God has given me the opportunity to attend She Speaks in Concord, so here I shall remain amid the neon lights and commerce overload. I suspect, that my time here will become as much a part of me going forward, as those back Carolina roads. What God is doing in my life is nothing short of amazing, and I’m at a point where I can literally see how He has and is putting the puzzle pieces in place. It is a gift to be on this journey with Him and I can’t wait to see what He does with it.
I had the opportunity last night to join other women in prayer at the Proverbs 31 office in Matthews. On the conference room wall, hung this verse,
“. . . test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, ‘”and see
if I will not throw open the flood gates of Heaven
and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.”
Malachi 3:10
I’m beginning to feel like I really cannot contain it all.
just lindsey 