i’m doing something SUPER FUN today. i’m giving away copies of my book, found art: discovering beauty in foreign places (zonderan 2009)!

in 2003 — with the war raging in iraq — i moved to the middle east eight days after my wedding to join my husband for the remaining year of his tour in bahrain. my book is the outpouring of that time, a chronicle of what happens when you are displaced to a foreign land and you are changed. forever.

one thing is for sure,  life has a way of taking us to the foreign places whether we intended to go or not. and the new lands don’t have to be 10,000 miles across the ocean. the foreign place can be grief, recovery, change, longing, faith, doubt. these displacements are just as real. just as life altering. perhaps much more so.

as it turns out, all these years later, we are back in the middle east . . . this time with our three crazy kids. i’m trying to embrace my inner gypsy and allow the disorientation to deliver gifts. most days that’s tough, but here and there, the found art emerges. beautifully.

yesterday we talked about how a certain person has inspired us — the great guru-turned-grandmother, Anne Lamott. today, tell me how a place has inspired you, changed you, challenged you, turned you inside out, met you. the place could be somewhere on a map or just someplace you’ve been in your soul. either way. what place has changed everything for you? can’t wait to hear.

FIVE incredibly lucky winners will be chosen randomly at noon EST on Monday, May 7.

leave a comment for the chance to win!