One of my favourite books from my Highschool reading list was Sally Morgan’s “My Place”. There was something so profound about this narrative that I read a few decades ago, that still moves me. Released in 1987, Morgan talks with vulnerable courage about the isolation and the displacement growing up in Australia as an Aboriginal.
Her sense of place has always deeply moved me. Also her need for belonging, her meandering thoughts through history and how she longed to find her peace again. Each and every time I reflect on her autobiography, I remember how difficult it was to read about those seasons of transition and how she found her place again.
The last few years of my life have made me think of Sally, quite often. It is like she has been whispering in my ear, “find your place my dear and find your voice”.
“Let me pass this way but once and do what good I can, I shall not pass this way again.”
Sally Morgan, My Place.
Just at the end of last year, I felt a similar whisper that said “this in-between is now over” It was like winter turned to spring in a day and a weight of confusion suddenly lifted. Suddenly I was content in my lack of place, I was open to the new visiting my today and I said a sad goodbye to the past. The funny thing is, the shift was not about my home or my sense of belonging, it was the realisation that I was no longer defined by a job description or a community, I had refound my sense of place in something eternal.
Our need for “place” is deeply ingrained in our heritage and souls. We are all looking, searching and exploring where we belong, who we are to journey alongside and the meaning for our very being.
We all long for “place”.
We all are seeking to feel like we are home.
How do we settle the discomfort of these questions, when all around us continues to shift and change?
Sally Morgan says it this way…
Even though the discomfort of a new house and everyday environment has rattled me, I am finding my new voice within that is content in the season and opportunity that avails. I am finding my place. It is not because of what someone else says about me, it is not defined by a role that is given, it is a deep knowing that I am sitting in the pocket of the season that is my destiny.
What is your place?
Do you feel dislodged and unseen?
How can you express what you are searching for in terms of belonging and place?
No matter our past, the negative words that have been spoken over our lives, the diagnoses, declarations and failures, my friend you can find your place again. You were born with a promise and signature over your life that is seeking fruition. You were born with a purpose that is so desperately needed in our world. Every part of your being is looking for “place”.
The thing I am realising at the advent of what feels a whole new season in my life is that what other people say, what other people have done, what words of condemnation and shame have been spoken, this my friend is not the final word. These things can not keep you contained.
Reinvent.
Enlarge.
Explore.
Discover.
I promise your place is looking for you. Your place is seeking discovery and even just for a very brief second when you feel that deep contentment in knowing you are right where you are meant to be, nothing is more satisfying.
Speak again soon.
Amanda
