Turning Points in Spiritual Growth April 24, 2017 Issue

Gratitude for every bit of good

Wendy Wylie Winegar

It was my second month in Saudi Arabia. Although I had agreed with gusto to share this new adventure in my husband’s career, I had no idea what challenges would come beyond the company orientation. Heat; check. New dress code; check. Leaving home and family members; check. You can bring your pets. Phew! And, as we had been informed in orientation, the women who have had the most difficult time are the ones who have left careers. (At that time, in Saudi Arabia, women couldn’t work.) Quitting work? No problem!

But one sunny morning, as I was walking on an Arabian Gulf beach with a new friend, another expatriate wife who had gone through orientation with me, my bravado over making an easy switch was getting hard to maintain. There was a litany of cultural differences to get used to, and I soon found I was going through an identity crisis, something I hadn’t expected. I didn’t realize how strongly I identified myself by my career, or my car, or my paycheck.

I tried to talk to my friend like a big sister, venting my frustrations, but the conversation quickly went downhill into criticizing our host country. We weren’t exactly in a good mental space for healing, so I switched gears, dropping my self-indulgence in favor of suggesting something new.

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