A Warm Welcome

The old, worn wooden signpost was at the top of a trail above Carl Sandburg’s Home in Flat Rock, NC- I had been hiking the trail above the main house, looking for inspiration for a creative writing assignment with my Master’s Degree class that was on a field trip there. The words were painted in white by an amateur hand:

Passersby Welcome.

Those words arrested me, stopped me in my tracks there in the woods- I wanted to find what that welcome might look like, what refreshment and encouragement it might mean for me as a passerby on the trail, and I was willing to take a detour from my walk to find out what might be waiting for me. I have never forgotten those words- I wrote a poem about them for my class assignment… the image of the sign and the meaning behind it imprinted on my heart, and in my mind- and here I am, all of these years later, offering the same invitation to you: Passersby Welcome. I know that all of you have destinations for your day- places to be, literally, but also tasks to accomplish that require a daily mental hike- and I am offering here on this website and in this newsletter a “welcome,” an invitation to step aside for just a moment and find some inspiration and resources that might encourage you when your journey continues. Feeling welcome in a place is something that is hard to define- it is something we notice but might not be able to explain and a sense of the atmosphere that it is difficult to put into words. It is a rare quality in our culture and communities, and it is a quality that God has been speaking to me about for quite some time in my life: how can I be more welcoming to people, those that I may know well and those that I may not have even met yet- what can that look like on a daily basis using the gifts and resources that He has put at my disposal? He has shown me that for this time in my life it looks like sharing my thoughts, my experiences in homeschooling and as a wife and mom, and some of my creations and resources with you- and I hope that you will feel the sense of belonging that we are trying to cultivate here as I share with you each week! Thank you so much for joining me, each of you passersby- I am so glad that you are here!

“Nothing happens unless first we dream” - Carl Sandburg

Blessings,

Shay Kemp