New Life In The D

This weekend will mark our seventh week in Michigan, and probably our fifth week as residents of Detroit.

It has not been always easy, fun and exciting. Some of the expected difficulties have occurred of moving to a new city, some of those expected difficulties have not occurred. Still more things that were not expected have occurred. I suppose this is why we are not allowed to see the future, we might never do anything out of the ordinary.

Someone asked me last night what was my favorite city I had lived in. I considered Southern California, Northern California, Chicago, Spokane and now Detroit. Every where I have lived or traveled has been exactly right in that moment. I miss Spokane and I miss California but I would not want to be anywhere but Detroit right now, despite the difficulties. Mostly I am talking about the difficulty of making connections, building friendships and discovering community. We have met our neighbors, we have made some friends, but perhaps we have forgotten how slowly community is created. One can live anywhere, but it takes effort to become a part of a place.

So what do our days look like? Christopher works, and I look for work. I have spent hour after hour searching, calling, sending in my resume, writing cover letters. Crouching over my computer scrolling over post after post on CareerBuilder can make my brain feel numb. I break it up with exploratory bike rides, craft projects and reading. Once a week or so I garden with a old friend who farms in the city. More recently I started gardening with an organization called Central Detroit Christian, which manages two urban gardens. Look them up. They are a very impressive organization making enormous positive changes in North Detroit. Mostly though I am home, trying to figure out what my life in Detroit is going to look like.

Having always wanted to be a strong, independent woman, now being home and dependant on my husband has been both devastating and transformative. While I should see this time as freeing (as many, many people have told me) it has been a struggle to enjoy this time of adjustment and unemployment. As I struggle through cleaning the house and buying groceries I am forced to consider if my self value is in who I am or what I do. Although I know what I should believe it is easy to be overwhelmed by contrary feelings. I am blessed with a supportive husband who encourages and reminds me that my value is not in how impressive and professional my occupation is but rather in Christ who has always seen me as a treasure.