Progress, not Perfection

Unpacking

The last post was on June 6th.

Today is September 19th.

It's been a good summer. I saw two of my best friends marry their respective husbands in two beautiful, if very different, ceremonies. One in Chicago and the other in Reading. I feel so privileged to have been part of both of their wedding days and am excited to see how God will lead and use both of them in years to come!

Apart from that it was a pretty quiet summer. I walked across a stage in a silly outfit and shook a man's hand - graduation was a lot of fun and it was great to see Cardiff again. It was weird not to go to Czech but it was so amazing to hear what God did in and through people out there this year.

I didn't accomplish all I wanted to (hello unsorted boxes) but I rested. And rest was amazing.

Now we're in September! By the grace of God I got a part time job which is great! It's in my village and sometimes I'm in the coffee shop and other times I'm in the hardware/homeware/kitchenware section.

And the part time job is how I can do the main thing this year, the thing that I'm infinitely more excited about! I'm a youth work intern in my home church, working under Paul and Val Bowman with two other interns. Lots to learn!

On August 7th I flew from Heathrow to Belfast after the second wedding of the summer and for the first time in over four and a half years I was flying back to NI without another flight booked! It was a weird feeling! And even with my permanence of being here I still have stuff lying in a suitcase (albeit a rather small suitcase) - just stuff that I can't quite figure out where to put... I must do that sometime soon!

So, I'm getting used to living in Saintfield again. This time last year I was back in Cardiff. I'm trying to be all here, not looking too far forward because, really, the future will be here oh so very soon and there's lots to learn in this exact moment. And even in the midst of learning, figuring stuff out and wrestling with certain things I am so sure that this is where God wants me so where else could I want to be?

Oh, and I've a million blog post ideas so hopefully this will become a bit more regular... And it's a good way for me to process so I hope it does become more regular!

September 19th

Many many links...

These Japanese pensioners with various skills have volunteered to take over the nuclear plant.

Without a link (it was the stat of the day on the BBC one day) but apparently the average Brit spends 36 minutes a day worrying.

A school superintendent in Michigan asks the governor why his pupils are much worse off than prisoners.

103 Essential Rules for Living a Simple Life - I adore this one: "83. Quit reading the newspaper. Bad things happen, stocks go up and down, politicians want your soul. There, I caught you up for the next 6 months."

A good one for my upcoming trip - a petition to revoke the independence of the US. There's also a response, with America annexing the British Isles.

The Red Bull Gospel - an interesting article on the transition from youth group to... what? In the church or outside it?

"When I say I am evangelical I mean I am a Protestant Christian who believes authentic Christianity requires a conversion experience of regeneration and that faith in Jesus Christ as Saviour and repentance for sin are necessarily included in that. It cannot be merely an “enlightenment,” so to speak–a new way of thinking." - from here.

Toy Ad Vocabulary reinforces gender stereotypes?

http://www.incourage.me/2011/05/wrestling-with-god.html

Wrestling with God.

http://thegypsymama.com/2011/05/to-the-mother-in-you-whether-or-not-theres-a-baby/

Childless mothers.

http://www.messycanvas.com/2010/02/i-cant-enjoy-you-im-trying-to-hard-to-be-you/

Title: I can't enjoy you, I'm trying too hard to be you. A great reminder!

http://endveneer.com/

A book I'm picking up in the States.

http://www.newreleasetuesday.com/lyricsdetail.php?lyrics_id=57827

By faith the church was called to go

In the power of the Spirit to the lost

To deliver captives and to preach good news

In every corner of the earth

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-13478338

A great post on unpaid volunteers, largely from the church, and what they achieve. This is what the church should be.

I should be on a coach heading to Heathrow at the time this post is thrown up - I want to remember these links.

Breathe Deeply

Well, the last exam has been done and all my stuff is waiting downstairs to go in my parents' car that arrives in the morning. Tonight my room is very bare and it's actually my last night sleeping in here - I'm obviously not taking my duvet to the States (where the temperatures are so high I fear I may melt..).

As I pack up the fact I'm about to leave somewhere really hits when I take the pictures, often photos, off the wall and remove the cards that have brightened my day from the noticeboard. And it seemed really fitting as I looked at this one. It's been on my wall all year and was taken at the Lennon Wall in Prague last summer.

I can't believe I'm leaving Cardiff.

I wrote a card for Jo a few weeks ago and in it I wrote a list of all my memories with her - I got to fifty without trying. I have so many memories here. Because I've lived so much life here. With so many memories it's sad to leave but the number suggests I lived here exactly as I should have.

I remember arriving here. To that little room in Talybont. With only three suitcases and knowing little about whta what I'd let myself in for. And only eighteen, straight out of school.

Four years later.. I have more than three suitcases. Much more. And I learnt more that I imagined. I loved more than I imagined. I have so many memories, experiences and friends from here. And I am no longer that eighteen year old girl.

I suspect the lessons I have learnt here I'll always be learning and unpacking for quite some time.

Cardiff has been unbelievable. More than I asked or imagined.

And as new adventures await, and I am so excited about them the lesson that seems the largest right now is the one shown in the photo.

Our time is but a breath

so breathe deeply.

I'm praying I would always live in light of those words.

And the amazing verse that God dropped in my lap? From one on my favourite chapters of the Bible:

Behold, I am doing a new thing;
now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?
I will make a way in the wilderness
and rivers in the desert.

Isaiah 43 v 19

Counting in Sleeps and To Do Lists

Two sleeps until my final final.

They've been ok so far - the first was a bit dire (I may have wanted to write an apology after the second essay I did...) but the second was much better with one essay I adored. Just one left! I keep repeating the end is in sight but the end just means...

Three sleeps until my parents arrive (and leave again)

For the seventh time my trooper parents are travelling over to Cardiff to collect (three of the times were dropping off) all my stuff. They're taking the overnight ferry from Belfast to Liverpool on Friday night so they should be with me by 11am on Saturday. They're going home the same night so will leave Cardiff again by 3pm at the latest. So, we've around four hours to do a Mary-Poppins'-bag job on a Ford Focus (that has acquired rented roof bars).

This means that when I leave my exam at 3.30 on Friday I have to pack up all my stuff. Want to join a packing party on Friday night? It will be hoppin'. So far I've just packed up my kitchen stuff - I find it's more stressful trying to figure out what to pack when you start early so I'm just doing it all in one go. My housemate Becca has been exam free since last Friday so will be helping (the other two aren't here - Jo left Cardiff today after finishing her last exam! And Gwen still hasn't started hers and is studying at home).

Five more sleeps in Cardiff

This one is a little sad. Although, really, I can't think about it much because of all else that is going on. I am so grateful for all that Cardiff has been for me (and that I'm sure is a blog post of the future) and while I will be sad to leave I am so excited for new adventures.. Not to mention the nightly game of battleships I have to play on the kitchen floor to avoid slugs... Gr-oss.

Five sleeps until Chicago!

Have I mentioned this before? I'm off to Chicago to stand with one of my best friends, Julianne, as she marries her best friend. I leave Cardiff for Heathrow on a 9.45am coach. I'll get on an American Airlines' plane at 5.10pm and nine hours later I'll get off it at 8.10pm. I'm not sure how much my body will love me for that one. So I'll spend a week in Chicago and the place where the wedding will take place on June 11th in Illinois. On 12th I'll travel down to Connecticut to spend just under a week with Anna and her family.

I am excited to see these amazing two women again.

And I am so excited for rest. My to-do lists have multiplied and become more OCD. Yes, it was possible.. there may have been a diagram with tops on the right and bottoms on the left with lines connecting those that matched so I know I am packing the right things for America! Because whatever isn't going to America has to be in that car heading up to Liverpool on Saturday!

And my body has made it very clear that I am too busy. Today, I forget to rinse the conditioner out of my hair (I didn't miss a bit - I missed all of it!). I will be busy for some of my summer - I land back in Dublin and have around 6 weeks to do a 140 hour TEFL course (and I'm away for one of those weeks). But I'm sure post-finals I'll be better with to-do lists and I will re-find time to devour the many books I have on that ever-growing Amazon wishlist!

So, around here might be quiet for a while (aside from a possible mammoth link post!). I am taking paper to America and I have many ideas that I want to write about and I'll throw them up here when I get back... in between planning lessons and getting lost in books.

Monday Mention

An amazing reminder in this post - check out the amazing image! It's a great song too.

Wisdom from Shane Claiborne. I think I have Julianne to thank for this one.

Wisdom from Stuff Christians Like:

How to Wreck Your Life Beautifully, an article on 24-7 Prayer about David Wilkerson, author of the Cross and the Switch Blade who recently died.

I adore this post on Redefining Radical.

Just like I get real comfort as I read the book of Hosea, this post really comforted me. Amazing.

Living Every Second

I have less than four weeks left in Cardiff.

New adventures excite me.

But just like that book loved so much… getting to the end, finishing the story is both fantastic and a little sad, as you close the back cover.

So, even in the midst of finals I am trying to choose to be fully present in all the other little details.

The cups of tea

God’s grace that is so very evident in the dark chocolate digestive biscuits

Friends

Amazing sermons

God’s grace that He speaks to stubborn old me

I want to write it all down, soak it all up, live every second of life I’ve been given.

And, yes, seconds that include trying to make my brain learn the difference between remember and know or the routes to bilingual language acquisition or all the details of consciousness. Those seconds are also ordained by God.

So, I may be jumping on the blog a bit more often again.

It’s tempting to not document these last days. It would be easier to hide away and not live them because then leaving them would be less sad.

But I know that is not right. There is a time for everything under the sun.

So be prepared for random streams of consciousness to keep me sane and living in these last few weeks of Cardiff.

Monday Mention

The Non-Essentials of Life
Advice from a long term missionary on what is important. As I spend serious head space trying to figure out how I'm going to get all.my.stuff home this summer (oh so much stuff) I really needed to hear those words. This summer I'm going to go through everything I own and be a touch ruthless. I have almost all my notes from my entire academic career. I am never ever again going to want to look at my GCSE math workbooks. Ever.

Fatface Dress
And, in complete contrast to the above link, if someone wants to buy me this dress that would be ok with me! Absolute brownie points if you can get it in red or purple and then I can wear it to graduation. Ok?

Stuff Christians Like
The "serious Wednesday" posts reguarly feel like they were written by someone who could see my own thought processes. This one was no exception.

Veggie Tales tell the story of St Patrick
Hi-larious. Especially the accents. And the fact it's not divided into Wales, Scotland and England but just "England". (Let me also take this opportunity to say I hope you had a fantastic St Patrick's Day and a huge whoop whoop to Ireland in the whole stopping-England-winning-a-grandslam and actually playing well in a match this Six Nations).

Bob Geldof's Speech at SXSW
Some really cool things can be pulled out of this: "Everybody has got the means to say anything they want, but nobody has anything to say." and "For whatever reason she found something lovable in this detestable person ... and so once that love persists, the shriven soul can only and inevitably respond by reciprocating... So a song got stitched back together again, and a human being got reconstructed in the process. Love really is all you need."

Something else I read this week, can't remember where: "I feel like my entire generation can be summed up in six words from a Nirvana song: Here we are now, entertain us." Thinking about that in the context of my life and the church etc... Interesting.