True north has many meanings for many people. Ask some people and they’ll tell you it’s the point on a compass, others will tell you it’s somewhere around the North Pole. While others know it’s the place where you belong, or the person you belong with, or the thing you’re supposed to be doing. True north is always that one thing that keeps us going, or centered, or focused when things don’t work out exactly the way we want.
We all have our own true north, the place we’re looking for, the place we’ve found, or the place we’re dreaming of… our true north, the thing, or place, or person that our needle will always point to.
True north can be in any direction – even west… In my book New Parish Sarah doesn’t give up on her true north. Her needle points passionately towards what she’s always wanted, but she finds her true north in a very different place and in a very different way than she’d ever imagined.
Excerpts from New Parish:
Chapter 1 – Bad Date
Sarah’s ponderings…
“Around lunch time she headed out to the children’s center. As she walked down the busy Atlanta sidewalks she looked around at the horde of people on their way to their next destination. She thought about when she’d first moved to Atlanta and how excited she’d been to be living in a big city with so much going on. She’d lost that excitement: it had turned into a tired frustration. The city hadn’t contributed to her dreams at all, her experiences there had diminished them. Her thoughts went to how much her goals and dreams had fragmented over the last few years. Her career was great, but she’d planned on being married and having at least three children by the age of twenty-seven. She sighed thinking, “I have neither a husband or children.” Her frustration on this was starting to grow beyond the normal parameters. Her thoughts turned to her job, “Right out of college, I got this great job, doing what I love, being a graphic artist for children’s books. I’ve worked hard, and now I’m the top artist in the company. I chose this career so I could be a stay at home mom. Sheesh! What’s a girl gotta do to make her dreams come true?””
Part of Sarah’s first conversation with Brother Michael…
““Now, about our community and how we live,” Brother Michael went on, “we do live plural marriage, which Mary said you’re interested in. Is that right?”
“Yes,” was all Sarah could say, she wondered if this guy would think she was serious or not, because she hadn’t been able to catch up to the conversation, the shock was slowing her thought processes down.
“Why?” he asked, waiting for her response.
“Honestly, I’ve always wanted to have a family, you know children… Well I’ve been trying to find a good man to do that with, and so far, I’ve had no luck at all,” Sarah felt dumb as she explained her dilemma, thinking, how could he take her seriously when she didn’t have a very significant reason for bothering him about this? It was an important reason to her but she felt like others might just laugh at her.
“I see,” said Brother Michael after a slight pause. “This lifestyle has some challenges that go with it. We, of course, do support big families and having all the children you want to have, but living the way we do is a huge commitment. Do you think that would really be something you could do?”
“I don’t know,” Sarah confessed, “I have a lot of questions.”
“Fair enough,” Brother Michael replied. “What questions do you have?””
Find all the answers to Sarah’s questions in New Parish!
New Parish by Julie Worthington on Amazon.com –
Also available at:
Barnesandnoble.com
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/new-parish-julie-worthington/1129421210?ean=9781732224001
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