a change of heart.

I decided today...to be thankful.

I have mentioned the hours I spend alone, and though there is the alone factor floating around in that scenario, there is also the - I have so much time on my hands to do things I enjoy doing - factor. And when I put forth effort to float to the outer edges of the scenario I find myself in, there is much to be thankful for.

There are devoted and involved mothers of four children, all over the world, dreaming of just a moment of solitude, and caregivers of loved ones always at someone else's beck and call...happy to give, but worn ragged. There are students, everywhere and all around me, studying books that are required when what they would really like to do is get lost in a novel of their choosing. And here I am, in a dream-like situation, getting paid to experience a foreign culture that is chalked full of life changing experiences without having to make a life changing commitment, for a mere and at the very worst, twenty-four hours of work a week.

I would have paid an entire pay-check, during the season of two jobs, to place myself in the midst of so much solitude.

I pray that there is a day when I will be chasing four or so little kiddos around a home full of life and love, looking with fondness upon those hours I spent that summer in that apartment on the corner in a foreign country with so very much time to just be, and think, about all that I have to look forward to, and be thankful for.

And now, thankfully, time to get lost in a good book, a novel of my choosing.