Zen in Hotel Living

Eloise mediates to worship music in our hotel room

I feel super clever right now. I finally fixed an ongoing issue that prevented me from uploading photos to my blog from my phone. This has been hassling me for years! FOR YEARS. The key is whether it KEEPS working now, eh?

Clearly we are living in a hotel. It’s freakin freezing outside (to us) and sometimes we start to go bonkers. We may have a housing option. Last night I woke up in the dark of the wee morning hours (except it’s also dark in regular morning hours) with the sudden realization that the house with the perfect location is also devoid of closets.

The illogical nighttime stress wasn’t about the actual lack of closets of course, but rather stems from the expense of having to outfit an entire house with wardrobes—you know, moving is just so expensive. So I’m pricing IKEA units in my mind in the dark because we fell asleep talking about how to make Christmas special for the kids ($$$). Plus the usual moving stresses of no schedule, no friends, tons of boring appointments and paperwork. Blah blah blah.

We went to an amazing Christmas market in Brussels. After the base shootings in Pearl Harbor and Pensacola this week, and the terrorist killings in the Netherlands and London recently, and the security scans we are required to do on any housing we select, I found myself scanning the crowds, counting security guards, watching strangers walking alone. Then I decided if we did get shot or whatever that enjoying a Christmas market is an ok way to go, and ice skating with the kids was way more fun than I expected, and I might be having my first Happy To Be Here moment.

Eloise woke up this morning, asked permission to listen to music, and settled onto the floor to listen to “In Control,” a song we sang once at church this spring that I downloaded afterwards:

“And though the seas are raging you will speak and tame them. In you I find my rest. You are in control.”

I feel like we’re wandering aimlessly so much of the time. Maybe we’re wandering in the right direction, more or less.