THIS is why we're going.

I found this prayer in a comment on the Burgh Blog (great read, by the way) and wanted to run around waving a copy. This is it! This is why we're going! I tried to express our motivation when I started this blog, but this is much better. And I can even refer back to it when the kids and I get depressed about giving up our home and community in Pittsburgh. I made J read and unravel the metaphors and he really gets it -- probably because some fancy-looking dead guy wrote the prayer, rather than just Mom, whose sole purpose is to provide authority for him to challenge.

Prayer of Sir Francis Drake

Disturb us, Lord, when We are too well pleased with ourselves,
When our dreams have come true Because we have dreamed too little,
When we arrived safely Because we sailed too close to the shore.

Disturb us, Lord, when With the abundance of things we possess
We have lost our thirst For the waters of life;
Having fallen in love with life, We have ceased to dream of eternity
And in our efforts to build a new earth,
We have allowed our vision Of the new Heaven to dim.

Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly,
To venture on wider seas Where storms will show your mastery;
Where losing sight of land, We shall find the stars.
We ask You to push back The horizons of our hopes;
And to push into the future In strength, courage, hope, and love.