Settling In
The question that I am asked most often is: How are you settling in? or it’s cousin: Are you feeling settled in yet?
Having moved cross-culturally and internationally twice in the last year, I am very much desiring to settle in. But, what does that really mean to me here and now?
I would’ve said that to be settle in was to be feeling peaceful, at home, relaxed, at ease, maybe even that life is easy. I’ve always lived close to family and in a familiar cultural context with good support and now I am living in a completely foreign cultural environment far from extended family, but still with lots of wonderful support. And I think I would say that I’m feeling settled, but it doesn’t mean what I used to think that it meant.
Living in a major city in a region of the world often considered third-world is not easy. Even if some aspects of life are much simpler, others are much more complicated. The difficulties and differences of life here mean that I am learning a new “normal.” This new home has new ways to relax and be comfortable and new ways to interact and relate as well. What once was easy can now be hard and tricky, but I think that the settling in is really about being flexible and adapting. I am definitely finding a new rhythm for life that works for me and my family.
We voted on a family motto before we started moving around the world and “Home is where we are” was the winner. I am home where I am. Yet, I know that I am not really home and won’t be as long as I’m here on earth. My true home is with the one who loved me so much to give all for me. Only then will I be truly at ease, at home, settled in.