A Circle in the Sand

"God long ago drew a circle in the sand exactly around the spot where you are standing right now. I was never not coming here. This was never not going to happen." - Eat Pray Love, by Elizabeth Gilbert.

While I was out in my woods this evening with Diamond, picking wild strawberries, I got to thinking about where I am now and how I got here. If you'd asked me 20 years ago where I thought I'd be in my 60th year of life, Social Circle would not have been on my list of places I'd want to visit, much less a place where I thought I might live someday. My mind wandered as we picked berries with a list of what if's for my life.

For example, what if David and I hadn't divorced? What if Phil hadn't come into my circle of life? And, going back further, what if I hadn't gone to Camp Waco the summer of my high school graduation, a summer which changed my life direction dramatically? As I considered choices I've made in my life, the possible circles in the sand grew in my mind to a number I couldn't comprehend. Would the circles have intersected somehow, somewhere, no matter which path I took, causing me to end up where I am today? I don't think they would have, but there's no way for me to know for certain. Looking back, I see both good choices and very bad choices in the roads I've chosen to travel, and I can't help but wonder what my life would be today if I'd made a different choice somewhere along my way.

I am standing in my circle in the sand.... I am where I am now because this is where I am supposed to be. There could have been alternate realities or parallel universes for me, but here I am, living in a barn on five acres of woods with my husband of 14 years, my dog, Diamond, and my cats, Tom and Rocky. I cannot picture myself anywhere else on earth! One thing I can say for myself, and that is that I am content and feel grounded here. I am standing in a circle that God has drawn for me, and there is no other place I'd rather be.