It’s taken me awhile, but I finally sat down and finished Kate Motaung’s A Place to Land: A Story of Longing & Belonging. Even though there was quite a lag between reading sessions, the book never lost a beat.
Kate’s way with words not only tell a story — a very personal story — but engulf you as a reader. That might not be totally accurate. More accurate might be, you journey with Kate — by her side, witnessing the pain, grief, laughter and joy — almost first-hand. Her descriptive words draw you in and her writing style keeps you there.
This memoir show Kate’s vulnerable side {don’t we all have a vulnerable side?} as she navigates through her parents’ divorce, her restlessness in finding a “meaning” for her life, her life on two continents, two international moves and 10 rental homes in 10 years. Her back cover states, “When home is supposed to be synonymous with love and comfort and safety, unpredictable and unwelcome life events — even the chosen but challenging ones — can shake you to your core.” Yet she bares her soul as she looks back and, more important, looks forward, ultimately recognizing our earthly address is just temporary. “I now know how to respond the next time someone asks me the simple question, ‘Are you heading home?’ Regardless of my earthly destination, and purely because of God’s grace and Christ’s sacrifice, I’ll be able to answer with confidence, ‘Yes. Yes, I am.’ ”
From start to finish, Kate constantly refers to her mother — her anchor. And much of the book deals with the grief of her mother’s battle with cancer. In this sense, the book not only was a tribute to her mother, but also therapeutic as she verbally, through her words, deals with her mother’s death.
I was surprised Kate chose to start her journey flying home for her mom’s funeral. Those first few chapters seemed out of place as she chronicled her life. lt turns out the prelude provided bookends for the book.
A Place to Land will tug at your heartstrings and make you just want to reach out and give Kate a big hug. I’ll also give it five stars.
A Place to Land: A Story of Longing & Belonging, Kate Motaung, Discovery House, 2018. ISBN: 978-1-62707-662-3.
THOUGHT TO REMEMBER: The quick answer is seldom the one that’s the best answer.
You get the gist. It started as a way to spend time praying for my family, friends and faith partners and share with them some nugget of encouragement for the week. Sometimes it’s a sentence. Sometimes a paragraph. Sometimes a story. I’ve discovered each one had a special meaning to some one at some time. The message just resonated with them at just the time they needed it most. I never know who until after the fact.
We teach our children to let us know when they are hungry or to recognize when they are tired and take a nap, and then they go to elementary school where they learn to “tell the time,” to read a clock, but what they actually learn is how to let “time tell them.” How to let time tell them when they need to wake up, get the bus, go to math and art and PE and science, come home, eat dinner and go to bed. And from then on, we eat at noon and 6 o’clock, regardless of whether we are hungry or not, and we go to bed at a certain time, whether or not we are tired, and we structure the whole of our lives based on an external device which tells us what time it is.
Dear Father, You are most holy. And yet You reached down to us asking simply for us to talk with You … to thank You for Your providence, but more important, to allow us to share our worries and concerns with You. You already know them, but by speaking them to You, we are moved to realize You are in complete control. These words are not for Your benefit — they are for ours. And so, Father, we thank You for the blessings we’ve received this week — the biggest being seven more days. We thank You for the support of our family and friends … for seeing the extraordinary in the ordinary — sunrises, sunsets, flowers, kids laughing, adventures. We lift up those family members and friends who are battling various physical, emotional, financial, career or spiritual issues and ask not for Your healing (although that would be welcomed) and guidance but to keep reminding us we are not alone in our battles. You are walking with us every step of the way. We have to remember that. Lord, You are the Potter, we are the clay vessels carrying Your Light in an often dark world. In Jesus’ name, we pray for obedience to and cognizance of Your Will so Your Light shines through us. Amen.
Friday, obviously, is the anchor for Five Minute Friday. Who knows? Maybe it will be the spark for me to actually write on Friday!
That’s where you come in. I can’t share your praise nor can other followers if we don’t know your joys and I can’t pray for you nor can other followers if we don’t know your concerns. All it takes is a couple of keystrokes under the “Contact Me” button on the top bar {and I believe to the right if you’re not a follower yet}. I hope it becomes your best friend as you navigate around the site. You can also comment or reach me at wisdomfromafather@gmail.com.
This is a work-in-progress. While I’ve chosen seven categories to correspond to the days in the week, I’ve also added two others — Life & Love and Etc.
One question I have been asked is how I will incorporate the two “other” categories — Life & Love and Etc. — into the writing scheme. The truth is, I’m not sure. I will probably post to multiple categories. I would appreciate your thoughts on that!
And so, as part of the blog revamp, I’ll be including a category called “Midweek Mirth”. Posts in this category will include cartoons, jokes and — well — just some good, clean levity. The purpose is to make you smile at the sometimes absurd way we look at life.
Which brings us to the second issue. Today, I’ll take a somewhat nostalgic look back at 2018 — statistics. As I have done before, the look will not necessarily be through my eyes but through your eyes — the readers.
The Light 