Today’s conversation is with the author, Natalie Toon Patton, whose memoir, Wanderlost, is about her journey - an actual physical journey that begins in her childhood growing up in Arkansas in the deep south of America in a fundamental, southern Baptist church, how she was the golden girl of her town, the prom queen, the virgin bride, then a shunned divorcee, and became an outsider as she then moved around the world from the Middle East to Europe and Asia. But it’s also about a long and winding inward journey - spiritually and emotionally - one that she describes as a peregrination.

Her book is described as, “Once the golden girl of her Arkansas town, Natalie finds herself squeezed under small-town shame and rejection after being kicked out of church for getting a divorce. It’s a hard fall off of a sanctimonious high horse, and religious fundamentalism has left her feeling broken and stuck. But she can’t shake the ‘wanderlust woes’ that have plagued her since childhood, so she runs away to the Middle East. As a mostly-sheltered Southerner, she struggles to adapt but is determined to be ‘at home’ in the world.

Natalie Toon Patton writes on the intersection of travel and spirituality, as well as refugee causes. She currently lives in Botswana, Africa with her husband, three children, and Burmese cat named Genghis Khan. Her work can be seen in Sojourners, Relevant, and SheLoves. You can follow her on her Instagram page here.

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