This is Pioneer Day—a significant day in my faith tradition. It’s the day that Brigham Young, who led thousands of pioneers across the American West, stood atop a mountain peak overlooking the Salt Lake Valley and declared, “This is the place,” that they would settle. 

These religious pioneers and moved many times in the previous years and had experienced a lot of persecution.While there was relief at arriving and finally settling somewhere, I imagine when they saw a barren desert landscape below them, some wondered if it really was “the place.” Could they really grow crops and build a thriving city here?

Global Pioneering

As a global nomad, who has moved my family more times than I can count over the last 17 years, I relate to the trepidation these pioneers felt. I’ve arrived to a new home or new country and wondered if I wanted to commit to make it “home.”

There are many ways to avoid committing to a place. I admit when we first arrive to a new place, it’s easy to compare the worst of the new place to the best of the old place we just came from.  When we’ve lived in places for short amounts of time—it’s easy to think of the place we as “just temporary.” I’ve also gotten snagged by the allure of thinking about the next place we’re moving and forgetting to make my current place where my mind is focused.

Robbing Ourselves of Home

Without the commitment to where ever we are as home, we rob ourselves of that sacred, needed sense of belonging to the place we live. We don’t invest in where we are and who is around to the same extent. 

Pioneer Day for Us

Incidentally, today on Pioneer day, my daughters and I will land in Shanghai, China where we are posted as diplomats for the US government.We have just finished a 6-month evacuation to the US.

Having learned this lesson of nesting where I am many times, we tried to embrace our tiny apartment in DC as “the perfect place” for us. 

The Perfect Place

Important things happened in these 6 months.  Our family studied, worked, played, cried, and laughed in that tiny apartment.  My kids learned how to do dish jobs REALLY well eating 3 meals a day as a family. They learned how to clean toilets like pros. We got to connect with wonderful friends who lived nearby. We explored and learned about our country’s history. My kids learned how to deal with disappointment, and how to tolerate uncertainty as we waited–not knowing when or if we’d return to our home in Shanghai. 

It was “the perfect place,” for our family during this time. Places—whether physical or metaphorical–aren’t perfect.  Sometimes they can feel a bit like a desert basin at first.

We had plenty of sibling rivalry living and studying and playing so closely all day every day. There was disappointment at missing our old home and frustration wishing we could be elsewhere sometimes too.  Sometimes we were so sick of starting at each other and the same 4 walls we took it out on each other. We felt like my 6-year old niece declared at dinner one night, “I’m sick of looking at you people!”

Choosing “This Is The Place”

But, like my 5^th great-grandfather, Brigham Young, I’ve learned that declaring wherever we are as “THE PLACE” for us matters. When we commit to where we are, with all it’s messiness and loveliness, we claim peace.

Peace.  “THIS is the place,” I want to be.  Peace feels like home no matter where we are.  Perhaps on this Pioneer Day, it’s the perfect time to deliberately choose that wherever you are, “this is the perfect place” for you.