Piecing Life together

So I made a skirt yesterday. When I started, I had only intended to get the pattern and the fabric cut so everything was ready to go. Then, as I sat looking at the pieces I decided to just go for it and take the day to put it all together. After all, how hard could it be, it was only 16 pieces, plus I had detailed instructions to walk me through the process step by step.

However, it didn’t take long for me to realize that the instructions where not nearly as clear as I had hoped they would be. Ok, so I didn’t even make it through the first step before calling my mother. It take long before I started to attempt to figure things out on my own, completely scrapping those detailed instructions.

Six hours later, along with some mishaps, seam ripping and two more phone calls to my mother, I had created a skirt. Throughout those six hours I had a lot of questions about whether it would ever turn out or if I had embarked on a completely worthless journey of attaching random pieces of fabric.

As I sat admiring my finished project, I realized how much this process of creating a skirt much resembles my life these past couple of months, and even years. As I have embarked on a variety of different journeys I have gone with a detailed plan in mind, each time I have had to scrap the plan, and pull the pieces together in a creative way. Each time it has created something that I love and I am proud of.

My year with the Episcopal Service Corp and NEWARKACTS is almost over and I have had to start figuring out the pieces of the next part of this journey. While I enter this year with plans, those plans have been scrapped and new pieces added.

The new piece added is that in August I will be starting my time as a Young Adult in Global Mission through the ELCA. I will be placed in either Jerusalem/West Bank or Southern Africa. I go to Chicago in April for a discernment event to interview with the countries and to find out where I will be going.

I am excited about this next adventure in life and can’t wait to see which pieces it will give me to add to my creation.