I am currently on a business trip...not something I usually do working half-time in a job that doesn't often take me too far from home.  However, this has been a wild year and so now I am sitting in a posh suite in a fancy hotel contemplating the direction my life could have easily gone:

My entire life, I was raised in the American tradition of going to school, working hard, and getting an education so you can be successful in life, and our culture has increasingly defined success as making a six figure income and being able to buy whatever you want.

So here I am, certainly not making the six figure income, bu tliving out for two days what my career could have been.  I could easily have pursued a corporate career, moved to a big city and worked my brains off climbing the corporate ladder to get more money and more "success."  I could have been traveling to all of these "glorious" cities (right now Orlando...not exceptionally glorious, but you get the idea).  On these trips, I would then be also spending  most of the money I make, although the company could choose to pay for evenings out on the town and cocktails all around.  I could go from posh suite to posh suite and meet all kinds of glorious people, but what is the cost?

Here I sit all alone in my suite, and though if I was really in the business mind-set, I would be schmoozing right now, networking, making connections and making what one could scarcely call "friends." Though I could be out on the town and experiencing all kinds of new and exciting things, at the end of the day I would still return to my empty suite (or worse for many...come back with temporary companionship).  Then when I was able to return home, it wouldn't exactly be a home I was returning to, but rather a place to sleep and put all of my wonderful, hard-earned "stuff" that I never even have time to use, and the place I returned to would also be empty, except for maybe a cat who could survive without me for days at a time.  I may have friends and family, but how intimate can one really be with anyone when they are gone all the time or working 80 hour weeks when they are home?

For a long time, though I didn't understand the ramifications, I thought I wanted that "success" and every once in a while when I am frustrated with the way life is going, I think "look what you could have done," but praise God for his infinite wisdom...he did not let me go down many of the paths that I likely would have chosen for myself and he has protected me from  poor decisions. 

I would have been completely miserable had I pursued that life, and I likely would still be single.  Instead, I have a wonderful family, I have time (though often harried time) to be with the people I love, and though I am not making millions, I have also learned to be content with what I do have and have found resourceful ways to live within the abundance that God has provided our family. 

Though I am enjoying some time of solitude that is essentially impossible in a bustling household, I cannot wait to get back home and give everyone the biggest hugs and kisses I have ever given them!