As the sun rises over the city, my mind slowly wakes up while watching it ascend, bringing with it the noise of the start of a busy day.  Sipping the free in room instant coffee, I find myself in a thinking mood.  I have today off because in America today is Thanksgiving.  And here I sit watching the sun rise over Kuwait City.

I have much to be thankful for.  I blogged recently about purpose and living an ordinary life.  Until I met my husband, I had not heard of an expat life.  As I knew it, people immigrate to Canada.  To start new lives, not live as expats who stay for the work then move on to another country for another job or return to their home country.

Now that I am an expat in the Middle East, this morning I am thinking two thoughts about this:

1. It is very exciting living as an expat.  The world has opened to me! This is not an ordinary life!
2. Most everyone I know here is an expat.  After a while life becomes ordinary because we’re all in the same situation.

But yet, here I sit staring out the window of a nice hotel looking out over Kuwait City, that in my lifetime was once a war zone.  A city that, when I lived in Halifax, I would have associated with Saddam Hussein’s invasion and all that craziness and danger in the Middle East.  A city that, now living in Qatar, is nearby and why not travel there?  My perspective has certainly changed.

And this is why I am grateful.  How I see the world is growing and changing because I now have the opportunity to experience it first hand instead of through another’s perspective telling me what is happening out there in the world via conversation, print, television or internet.

I’m becoming a global citizen; which is no ordinary life……..

With a happy heart,

Stephanie, xo