Daily Prompt: Stranger in a Strange Land

 

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

 

What a thought-provoking topic!  My immediate reaction was, quite likely, not what most would expect.    You see, my life, my lifestyle, my home, my finances, my vocation, my faith, and ultimately my heart has changed greatly in the fairly recent past.  Change is good.  Change is growth.  Change can be scary, especially when one no longer fits the mold of familiarity that friends and family have grown accustomed to.  Suddenly, this land I’ve been in for so long has become a strange land.  Suddenly, I am a stranger to myself . . . or expressed more clearly, I have become my true self.  What do I like best?  Well, the food . . . I’m eating a mostly vegetarian diet and that’s good.  People watching is fun but sometimes frustrating.  People expect me to be the easily molded one I allowed myself to be in the past .  . . architecture!  That might be it!  My favorite, that is!

What is architecture?  When I think of that word, I envision two things.  First, I see a framework from which a structure grows, and secondly I see changes made to change a weak structure into a strong one. Yes!  In this strange land, I find the study of architecture the most profoundly interesting.  The nucleus of what is Martha Shaw is unchanged yet fear, conformity, and being downright and entirely too sensible has led to so much external remodeling and redecorating that what I was originally meant to be . . . my purpose and the plan for my life which was set in place long before I was born . . . was not visible until fairly recently.  The Great Architect is still doing a good work in me and the project is far from finished.  It might take an eternity!  That’s fine with me!

See also:

1. Daily Prompt: Stranger in a Strange Land | flow of my soul
2. Daily Prompt: Strange in a Strange Land « Mama Bear Musings
3. Kashmir Art and Crafts | njoy every moment
4. A Stranger in a strange land… | The Rider
5. A Texan’s Safari in Ukraine. | luvsiesous
6. Daily Prompt Wednesday July 17 2013 | it writes itself
7. I like to take a seat and let it all sink in. | thoughtsofrkh
8. It Can’t Fit the Frame: Romans 11:33 | The Photo Faith Challenge
9. Stranger in a stranger land: living in America. | thewordpressghost
10. Fish Guts (short fiction) | The Jittery Goat
11. Stranger in a Strange Land | Geek Ergo Sum
12. Stranger in a strange land | Nanuschka’s Blog
13. Daily Prompt: Stranger in a Strange Land | Retired2Travel
14. Daily Prompt: Stranger In A Strange Land | suzie81’s Blog
15. Stranger in a Strange Land | Beats of Pieces
16. Daily Prompt: Stranger in a Strange Land | A Stormy Girl
17. I’d Like to be the Foreigner | Daily Prompt: Stranger in a Strange Land | likereadingontrains
18. Daily Prompt: Stranger in a Strange Land | Being a Huntress
19. Local Cuisine | My [redacted] Journey
20. Exploration and Life Stories | downtownnokomis
21. Daily Prompt: Stranger in a Strange Land | Chronicles of an Anglo Swiss
22. Daily Prompt: Stranger in a Strange Land | That Chick Piggy
23. Stranger in a Strange Land | bheehappy
24. A New Beginning | Books, Music and Movies : my best friends
25. Leveling Up [Daily Prompt: Stranger in a Strange Land] | unknowinglee
26. THE SHOCK OF THE NEW | Standing Ovation, Seated
27. Daily Prompt: Stranger in a Strange Land? | Under the Monkey Tree
28. Getting to know you | I’m alive and that’s a lot
29. Being a stranger | Books, Music and Movies : my best friends
30. Pequeño – Daily Prompt: Stranger in a Strange Land | Babsje Heron
31. A Day in the Life
32. Seeking sanctuary. | My thoughts on a page.
33. Specifically | Spunky Wayfarer
34. Daily Prompt: Stranger in a Strange Land | The corner of my imagination
35. Strangers on a Plane | A Day in the Life
36. As a Newcomer | clarior e tenebris
37. Stranger In A Strange Land | Tony’s Texts
38. Departing, Arriving and in between | A beetle with earrings
39. Stranger in a strange land: people watching | pencil pilot
40. Traveling to Become Somebody Other Than Me | Iam Who Iam
41. the PEEP SHOW: SOMETHING NEW | the TRASH BASH
42. Strangers in a Strange Land | 20somethingsabroad