July 20: Writing Prompt #201-There’s No Place Like Home

If you had the opportunity to live a nomadic life, traveling from place to place, would you do it? Do you need a home base? What makes a place “home” to you?

Okay, so this just proves that I am not the only “writer at heart” who sometimes has trouble coming up with a new idea to write about because this prompt is ALMOST EXACTLY like the prompt I already wrote about on July 7^th (Rolling Stone: If you could live a nomadic life, would you? Where would you go? How would you decide? What would life be like without a “home base”? ) See what I mean?

So, either this is a bit of a typo…Oops! OR The Daily Post had various writers coming up with the prompts and didn’t catch that another writer had already used this idea earlier in the same month. There are other prompts I think have been pretty close to previous ones written about, but this one was SO SIMILAR, I had to stop and say, “Wait a minute! I already answered this one.” 

If you want to know what I said, go back to read the July 7^th blog entry, and as for me, I get to take a bit of a mental break tonight and go to bed early! Love you all and goodnight! J 

July 19: Writing Prompt #200 Fly on the Wall

If you could be a “fly on the wall” anywhere and at any time in history, where and when would you choose?

I would like to be a “fly on the wall” of just about any of the miraculous (and even not so miraculous) events of Biblical times….with the shepherds at the birth of Jesus, with the woman at the well, flying next to Moses at the burning bush, inside the fire with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego…there are too many events during this time period to chose.  What a fascinating piece of history all the Biblical characters played.  To sit and listen to Solomon in all his wisdom would be a treat. Watching David fight Goliath with a slingshot and a rock would be better than going to any action movie at the theater.  The more I think about it, the more Biblical events that come to mind.  What about you…where and when would you choose?

July 18: Writing Prompt #199-Flip Flop

Think of a topic or issue about which you’ve switched your opinion. Why the change?

Hmmm…I have done a whole lot of changing, learning, and growing up over the years, but I can’t honestly say that the basics of my upbringing, in terms of my beliefs and opinions about most major issues or topics have ever taken a full 360 degree switch.  I think I have opened my mind tons to the world and all its different types of people, cultures, and ways of thinking, but my core has remained rooted to the same tree of thought I grew up with. 

When you’re younger, you take what your parents, church, and teachers tell you and believe it, for the most part. And for most, that becomes what you believe and who you are. I was fortunate enough to grow up with two very opposite parents who have many of the same core values about life and family, but who view people and the world through very different colored glasses. That means I was able to see more than one side of things through putting on each of their glasses and looking at the world in varied colors.  Early on, I had the opportunity to take what others said or wanted to teach me with a grain of salt, partially because my father questions everything himself.  He never takes anything at face value, analyzing each situation and person before coming to any conclusions. Even the church I attended with my mom in my teenage years ensured their members were taught to weigh teachings given against the actual Bible and your own intuition or word from God.  I was taught not to just believe blindly in anything.

Because of this background, most of my opinions about any topic or issue were developed over time, analyzed, and weighed against what I had already found to be true and in sync with my own soul.  This means there would have to be a major upheaval or change in my life or the world around me to switch those opinions now. If I had grown up without this type of cautious, analytical compass to guide my development, I might have switched my opinion multiple times over the years as I learned new information to add to what I had just blindly accepted as truth to start.  There’s nothing wrong with that. It’s probably how many of us grow up and learn. It’s just not how growing up worked for me.

My upbringing had its own uniqueness, the same kind of life growing up is now for my boys.  I’ve always said that I hope (even though you never want any family to have to experience the trauma of divorce) the experience of having 2 such very opposite parents will give my boys a leg up on life. They will already know that families and people are all very much their own and handle life’s challenges in many, varied ways, and hopefully this will help them as they face these situations and are able to think critically about them before making decisions because they know more about people and the world than most and earlier on. 

When my parents got divorced, I was very involved in the church I grew up in with my dad, mom, and brothers.  My belief in God was already super strong, even at 12. I remember praying and finding this verse to comfort me, “And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.” Romans 8:28. After that, the clouds lifted for me, and I was okay, knowing that God would bring good out of the divorce for me. I remember thinking OR maybe God put the thought in my head, “There’s always a silver lining.” Maybe my own divorce will give the boys a stronger and more useful perspective on life, teach them how to be critical in their thinking and have more empathy for different kinds of people and so prove to be one of those “silver linings” for them as my parent’s divorce was for me. 

July 17: Writing Prompt #198-Stranger in a Strange Land

What’s your favorite part about visiting a new place — the food? The architecture? The people watching?

My favorite part about visiting a new place is EVERYTHING!! I love trying the food, seeing the architecture, watching the people while I sit in an outdoor café sipping coffee. I love learning about the place’s history and culture, picking up a bit of their language, discovering their fashions and handicrafts, and taking in their unique scenery.  There are so many things that fascinate me about visiting a new place.  I never tire of it.  The world is so vast, and while I am in it, I will take every opportunity presented to me to experience it firsthand from as many different cities, small towns, islands, deserts, jungles, mountains, oceans, rivers, and countries possible. 

July 16: Writing Prompt #197-Dream Home

You win a contest to build your dream home. Draft the plans.

My dream home….right now, it’s right here where I am sitting.  You see, having to give up my home for a BQ (Bachelor’s Quarters) on Kwajalein for 3 years through my children’s preschool and early school age years was enough to make me appreciate any home where there’s room for my family, and they are allowed to come and go from there freely and without penalty. In the BQ, no one under 21 was allowed, so my children never even saw where I lived for those 3 years, except in pictures I took and showed to them. 

I’ve been lucky enough to also live in some really beautiful, large homes. From the time I was a baby until around 12 years, I lived in a 4,000 sq. ft home with a large, flat, grassy backyard and plenty of space to roam. I loved that home, but not because it was large with lots of luxury spaces.  After my parent’s divorce, my mom and I lived in a home on a hill with a wooded backyard and barely enough room for my trampoline. It had wooden decking around 3 sides, colorful stained glass windows, and a unique floor plan. We were “wowed” by it, but its beauty belied its stability. When my mom discovered that she would need to replace the entire deck because it was built with cheap, untreated wood and was going to fall in soon, she fixed it, then put in on the market.  The next house was perfect for the two of us in a neighborhood not far from my school, church, and friends with an open floor plan and just enough space to spare for our shrinking household.  I have good memories of this home and my time with my mom there developing our friendship.  In college, I had the experience of sharing a small dorm room with a roommate I had never met, then living in a sorority house dorm room with a sorority sister, and finally moving into a one bedroom apartment until moving out to Kwajalein. 

On Kwajalein, the majority of the homes were built in the 1960’s out of painted, concrete blocks.  I lived in three of these houses (a two bedroom, three bedroom, and then back to a two bedroom) after moving out of the “silver city” trailers I lived in for my first year on island while we waited for a “concrete” hose to become available.  These homes were very minimal with a galley style kitchen (just one long hallway), not much storage space, and plenty of issues due to their age.  You really can’t complain because when you do have issues, you just call it in, and they come and fix it (or put a band aid on it) for free, but still, they are certainly not what most would consider a “dream home.”  They provide for the basic needs of any family, and that’s it, but people don’t move there for the homes anyway. 

Upon leaving the islands, the idea of purchasing a home was a bit overwhelming. We did lots of looking online for the first 4 months or so, and then when the time on our apartment lease started to run short, we finally looked at and began the process for purchasing our home over a single weekend.  Personally, I still walk around sometimes and think, “I can’t believe this is our home….We own it…not the government, but us.   It’s ours, and we can make changes, add to it, etc…without having to get any special permissions or permits). That’s not to say we’ve never said things like, “Next time, we need to get a bigger yard and more land,” or “I don’t prefer the tile in the kitchen or the layout of it.” It’s not perfectly fit to our specifications, but I personally like the idea of moving into a home that’s not your “dream home” and making it that while you are there. My husband is a willing and very able handyman and has already made several awesome improvements to the house, which only makes me enjoy it more. 

Bottom line, I feel so lucky to have this home in a safe, friendly neighborhood with room for not only my children, but also their friends and our friends and family to come stay with us whenever they want. I feel very spoiled, especially after Kwaj and my BQ experience.  After all, home is where the heart is, so my dream home is wherever my heart resides, no special plans needed.  J