All Together in One Place

It.....- is the way I like things! - is one of my all time favorite books - kinda defines my heart for womens' ministry. - was inspired by Psalm 16:5-6 - is about a group of women who travel across the Oregon Trail & whose faith seems to grow in proportion to the adversity they experience. What they originally tho't "essential" for the journey is slowly discarded, displaced & dwindled. Each woman eventually needs or has what the other women need & therein lies the glue (relationship) that eventually bonds them tightly together & motivates them to persevere - & is where what they think is "essential" ...changes .

One would know me much better if they only read what I underlined b/c I could relate to it to some degree. There was SO much! Here's some (some paraphrased) :

Afterwards, that's when you worry. Folks get thru' their pickles & then die of surviving.

Just bc you can't make a decision until it's been wrestled to death, doesn't mean others can't & shouldn't.

She wrote in the mornings, organized the feelings that didn't make sense in any other way. Sometimes she wrote about what she'd seen or heard, a phrase or two; sometimes of her feelings, the emptiness & longing; she wrote of how Scripture nurtured in a distinctive way. Whatever it was, the very writing of a thing calmed her, gave her direction.

Why did she always doubt herself halfway through a thing? It was her curse - one among many.

Being needed is a good thing, he'll come to find.

Doubt's a poison taken from a snake.

To be without a place of belonging is to starve the soul.

God is seen in the everyday, by those who seek him, child.

Needing is a part of being, just like loving is.

Some folks get mad, or go mad; others go so deep inside we never see 'em again. Don't go to those places....

We don't need many rules either...but some.

She'd been given a lovely moment in life, and she had robbed herself of it by doing something stupid. It was the story of her life.

She wished she knew for certain, when bad things happened, whether it was part of God's guidance or just a consequence of one's own will.

Bryce used to say that was what all humans long for, to be known, truly known & just accepted by another.

We needed this time of rest... This pushing, pushing, pushing doesn't make the gains that stillness does.

This journey ... had given her a gift that staying in one place, at home, would have deprived her of.

Will I ever be sure of anything?