Sojourner (n): A temporary resident; a person who resides temporarily in a place but regards themselves as belonging elsewhere.

Like so many children of immigrants, I’ve spent most of my life feeling like I have one foot in a distant village and the other in the country of my birth, the place my grandparents sought out for a “better” life. I’m a woman with two homes: the one where the delivery drivers know my name, and the other one halfway across the world where life is simpler and where I often feel more myself than I do here.

As a woman of faith I’m also a sojourner, making my way through a noisy digital landscape, navigating this secular world while working towards my ultimate destination.

In midlife, I’ve realised that this feeling of living life in between isn’t a flaw or something to be fixed, it’s my identity.

The problem? I’ve started packing for this temporary stay like I’m staying forever. The lure of instant online gratification and parade of deliveries is at odds with the humility and simplicity I seek, and here too I live in between.

I’m Ana. I’m a traveller, a shopper, a wife, mother and grandmother, a daughter of God Almighty, and a work in progress. A sojourner trying to figure out what to carry and what to leave behind.

Welcome to the journey.