heart BLAH!
I don't know why it has been so difficult to write down what I am struggling with lately! My heart and its condition has been pounding in my mind since May. I taught a bible study on the heart in
June. God started giving me lots of verses in
July and started HONESTLY evaluating my own heart in August. But I can't seem to formulate a blog or
logical journal entry. I feel heavily compelled to do both. Yet I refuse to sit down and be honest!! I have the time and the thoughts but fear putting them on paper (or blog:)
My heart is jealous, lazy, and apathetic!! There I said it...now what??
my first time(well second time)
Last weekend I finally got to really meet another big city and of course I feel in love...
Six years ago I meet NYC for the first time. Unfortunately the trip ranks up there with top three most disappointing trips ever! Granted it all started with the crazy idea to do a 24 hour road trip...When you are 25 you are too old for trips like that. A couple of the people I went with made it miserable. It was december and we had no sleep. I left disappointed that I was not able to mark anything off my list of what to do in NYC!
But last weekend my opinion changed completely. As I walked the streets of the city with a new found friend I fell in love with the sites, sounds, smells and crowds:) I am pretty sure we walked half the island but I made the first of many trips to the city that is almost in my backyard. Now I get to be serious about my checklist of what to do in the big apple. A special thanks to my friend who had to listen to me say about a million times how excited I was to be the city! Public transportation and people watching...need I say more!
View from inside the shoppes at columbus circle..Gotta love all those people and cars!
Picture taken inside Central Park...It was a beautiful day!
Me drinking a Jamba Juice at the fountain in columbus circle
preparation...
Culture shock in the land of the Guidos is more shocking than the land of wine and cheese. I prepared myself for life in France before I moved there. I read books. I asked hundreds of questions to fellow missys who had lived on the field. I prepared myself for the things I could and would do without. I worried about table manners, fashion faux pas and cultural differences. That doesn't even begin to scratch the surface of my months before I went to France. After a few months living in Nancy, France I fought hard to learn the language, master public transport, drive a stick while adjusting to the road rules, and adjusting to the food.
Needless to say when I decided to move above the Mason-Dixon line I made no such preparations. My last few weeks in TN were spent hanging with precious friends and family, working with my bk kiddos, and packing (okay all my packing was done the day before I left:). I spent no time studying up on the changes I may experience. They have a plethora of books on culture shock but not usually relating to moving somewhere different in the USA!! Perhaps that explains my slight bafflement at some of the differences...People drive different, act different, and talk different. Things I took for granted aren't prevalent. Granted they are all things I can live without yet they still surprise me...
Live here is constantly reminding me of how comfortable or too comfortable I was with my life. I was content yet decidedly lazy at getting out of my comfort zone. I still am not sure how this time in New Jersey factors into God's plan for my life. Maybe it is a reminder to get away from my comfort zone...Maybe it is a reminder to always be prepared...Maybe it is a reminder that God is in control even in the midst of culture shock chaos.
