I want to see the world, friend. I want to dream in another language and dance upon the shores of an entirely different ocean. I want to be changed by lives whose stories I couldn't make up in my most creative imaginings.

Look in my eyes. Do you see strength there? Do you see fire? My insides rage with the intermingling of passion and gentleness... the restrained intensity of a waiting desire. O, I long for it. I long for adventure and understanding and a glimpse at Beauty as it exists across this globe in faces and tastes and traditions and creation - in movement and music and art - in men and women and children - in masculinity and femininity - in gardens and wildlife and dreams. I want to learn what it is to be God's woman across this globe: what differs and what is unchanging. Imagine living in a village long enough to be at home there - to be accepted and recognized as one of them, though different. To have neighbors come to rely on you as you have relied on them, and to see them come to a reliance upon the LORD God. Imagine!

Imagine.