Learning who you are by examining where you are from

A friend told me of a get-acquainted exercise she was asked to do in a class she attended. Begin with “I Am From” and see where it takes you. I tried it. This is a way to think over our lives — maybe make peace with the past. I also found it can tell me surprising and wonderful things.

I Am From … a small river town in North Idaho where I moved as a teen. I didn't know how much it embedded itself in me. That I'd want to come back in my 60s to the place I called home in the 1960.

From … a pastor's family and in some ways that's not easy growing up. People don't know what to do with you. Do they have to put on their “holy” clothes around you? It set me apart in high school in a way I didn't ask for — only later did I learn of the hard lives many of my classmates were living. I'm sorrowful I was so clueless. It's made me more aware and caring of the human struggles happening in and around me.

From … the outdoors, mainly because of my dad. Especially camping and sitting around a campfire. My mom was more indoors with books. I'm that, too. A blend of two people — yet neither one defines me.

I Am From … a teenage engagement on that pull-out along the river where the round house now sits. There's a huge bunch of rock beneath that house. It tells me the same story every time. That my husband and I have needed rock under us in our almost 50 years. That without planning it we have become rock for each other as we grow old.

From … a love for words. If John Denver can sing of sunshine in his eyes making him cry, then words in my mind — and on the page — does that for me. Creative thought is my secret joy. Like out walking with a little fresh-fallen snow blanketing the earth — and thinking it's snow fleece.

From … a sojourn in Alaska. Never my dream, but I hitched a ride with Terry and our four kids and the dog. Fourteen years and many unimagined adventures later I left a bigger person. You grow to fit that state or you don't make it.

I Am From … a heart of faith. It's still being hard won. I might be the stuff of God's highest creation — made in His image — but He's continually having to remind me. And rescue me from myself. He's got a vision for me that far exceeds my own. We wrestle and groan over it. And I love Him for not just letting me be.

From …. a grandmother to 10 boys and 10 girls. I've become the old woman in a shoe who “had so many children she didn't know what to do.” She seemed perplexed — I thrive on it. Each grandchild has a different way of relating. One asked me once if she was my favorite. I don't have favorites, I said, but I have favorite things about each one.

From … a long list of questions. I want to know about myself and people and cultures and ideas and conundrums, and what makes the world spin. I want to understand my place and purpose on this timeline called life.

I Am From … a whole lot more than I ever knew.