For most of my life I’ve been grounded.
If I have to choose a word, like my word, the first thing that drips out of my mind is SOLID.
It isn’t as if I am perfectly stable. Not at all. I have wonderfully unstable 
hours and weeks and years. But I am usually always the one who’s being doing [whatever] for the longest…attended my church the longest, had the same cell phone number for 8 years, the same email address, the same house, lived for my whole life within 20 miles of where I was born.
I’m here. I’m solid. I’m grounded. You know where to find me.
And its likely that http://www.sarahmarkley.com/ will always house some itteration of my blog or a website directing toward me or something.
Some times in my life I’ve view this solidity as a liability. As if my feet, instead of being firmly planted on the earth, were being swallowed up in a swampy mess of mud and concrete. There have been times where I’ve hated my own spot in the world and viewed it as being “stuck” rather than “secure”. How desperately I’ve wanted to extract my feet from the bog and jump. Just jump. To anywhere but here.
Because, now, instead of feeling stuck, I see my groundedness as an asset rather than a liability. I love it that my address has been the same for 6 years. I love it that so many different people have walked through my front door and that if they really needed me, they know where to find me. It is an asset that I can tuck my girls into their beds at night, in their same beds in the same spot in the world as last night.
Instead of stuck in a muddy swamp, my feet are planted in the patchy grass of my backyard, with six-year-old (and older) roots extending as far as I allow them to. And it feels good to be home.
You know where you can find me.
What’s your word?
Constant.
People just know what they are going to get with me. I’m not moody. I’m pretty much the same. So, when a time comes that I am struggling, everyone knows it because I can’t hide it.
I would definitely not win an Oscar for acting.
i’ve seen you as solid. you are faithful, consistent, reliable. you’re grounded in God.
yes indeed, friend. you’re solid.
i’m struggling to see past my current circumstances to think of my word. i can think of a lot of words i’d HOPE were mine, but i’m not sure which one would actually be.
i’ll keep pondering.
“The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places.” Psalm 16:6
we are more alike every time I read your posts.
in a different context, my best friend said to me on the phone today, “is it selfish of me to say I’m glad I always know you’ll be home when I need you?”
that’s who I always was before being homebound, too… now my location just makes the emphasis. and that’s ok with me.
Yeah, I know what you mean. This is the first year in a long time that I’m just “here.”
Five years ago I was transitioning out of my youth pastor position of 9 years.
Four years ago I moved my family to Calgary, Alberta and began a new stint as a youth pastor.
Three years ago I was a solo lead pastor at the same church because all the staff resigned but me.
Two years ago I hired an associate and youth pastor and got them grounded in their new roles while learning to be a team leader for the first time.
And then I began this year without any cosmic weirdness. A constant. It’s nice.
I am learning to plant and grow deep roots instead of wide, shallow roots.
I have struggled with the thought that if I stay in one place too long I will become obsolete and not needed if I am not everywhere doing everything all the time.
You are a “stayer” babe and I love that about you. It is causing me to slow down and let the growing go deep.
I came back to read the comments and I just had to tell you that the word verification I’m looking at is “untick” HA! We tend to do that around here sometimes if we go out to the country.
Oh I don’t know if I have a word that’s mine… I’m still trying to figure it all out, Sarah.
I met with one of my college girls last night and she talked on and on about how much she longed to have something stable and constant in life. I think she’d admire yours.
hmm… good question. i need to think about this one.