Many of you who know me are aware that I am single. Not yet married. No kids. One dog.
I am hoping to share a bit of my journey in the single life for the month of January. I hope you find it helpful.
I have approximately 4 full sets of china and stoneware. My mom jokes that I need more dishes. When my cousin and her family of 5 came to visit me one summer, we could have eaten all week on my collections and never have had to wash the dishes- once. We could have just set them in the backyard and kept going through the cabinets. Luckily, we ran the dishwasher. A LOT!
I just love china and silver. And I love to entertain. But when you are single, people do find it a bit odd that you have the ability to feed a party of 12 at the drop of a hat and produce a full silver tea and coffee service post meal to boot.
The point is, I have a complete collection of homemaking books, cookbooks, napkin and towel folding books, etiquette books, and parenting books that take up precious space on my shelves. I have never given one of them away and I don’t plan to. None has ever made it to the goodwill. And they probably won’t. I keep thinking that one day I will need them all. Why? Because deep down, there is that undying, relentless internal hope that it too, can happen to me. The big “M”
Marriage.
Say what you want, but you can’t deny that it’s a universal thing in most women. I have found that most girls I have met or spoken with or observed think about marriage at some point, if not most of, their lives. They just pretty much plan to grow up, get married, and have a family. It’s normal. And it’s OK.
For now stacks of books, china, silver utensils and a stuffed hope chest later, I am still, yes, single.
I don’t exactly recall when, I only know that I woke up one day and realized I had not grown up and gotten married, but that rather, I’d actually grown up and gotten “single”!
I started to look around the solo waters of my life, wondering why I was so single. As I shared recently, I was relieved to find other like souls floating past, whom I duly reached out to, grabbed, and threw into my boat. (It’s always safer to sail with a buddy!) So for now, let’s sail together for awhile, shall we? Welcome aboard!
And if you’re in the neighborhood, join us at The Journey at Two Rivers Baptist this coming Sunday. I know you’ll be glad that you did.
S.