It’s been one week since our worship gathering here and good news…nobody has complained or put an notes up! I’m really glad because it is a bit stressful to know that people in the building are annoyed with us. I do hope that we didn’t go entirely unnoticed on that evening though. I want people to ask questions or at least be curious. We’ll see…
Last night we had a worship night at our place. It was the first one we’ve done here. We lit our place with candles and it looked really beautiful. We had instruments out for anybody to play if they wanted…It was a lot of fun. After we were done singing and praying I went into our bedroom and I realized that our windows were wide open. They open up into our courtyard and it’s usually so quiet out there that we can here the smallest noise that a neighbor makes when they also have their windows open. So, needless to say, I think that our ‘noise’ was heard by all last night. We had two guitars, a mandolin, a bass plugged into an amp, a djembe, shakers, and 12 people singing like we were at a concert…we were heard. I’ve been wondering what people think of us. Not just because of last night, but because of us being here in general. What do our neighbors think we’re doing here? We have people over here all the time. But last night I wonder what people thought. I wonder if they thought our noise last night was any different than the normal noise one hears in the courtyard. We’ll see how much they noticed our noise if there is a note posted up in our building sometime soon!
Ok…so it is a weird thing living in another country. It would be alright if it were only that language is different, the signs are different, the food is different, the people act different, the pace of life is different, church is different, the weather is different,…Those things I could handle. But lately I have been coming to a realization that I am what is really different. I am not the person I was when I left Sacramento and I’m not quite sure who I am here either. When I think about the past it almost feels like a dream, but so does the present when I walk around in this city! I hate the feeling of being uncomfortable in my own skin…not recognizing myself when I look in the mirror. I don’t want to give the impression that life is sooo hard, because, in general, life is really good here and we love what we are doing. But the reality is that there are lot of changes going on inside of us and we are trudging our way through them. So I guess when people ask, “What’s the biggest difference between the States and France?” I will have to answer…me.
If you want to read a great BLOG on this check out Jen’s article, “Who am I?”
So something strange happened in the Powell house this past Wednesday. I actually cooked a meal. Yes..that’s right. If you felt a chill in your neck of the woods this week it could be because we are feeling the early signs of hell freezing over. So one of my favorite dishes since moving here has become Kendall’s chicken curry. Since I like to consume this Indian dish as often as possible, I decided to give making it a try. I got the recipe from Kendall. I did the shopping. I did it all by myself…and it was delicious and the spice was far from freezing! The picture doens’t do much for the presentation of the dish, but I think Jen’s face says it all. We’ve decided that I’m going to cook dinner every Wednesday. I am looking forward to the opportunity to explore new avenues of creativity…we’ll see what comes next…maybe chicken curry again!
I’m pretty sure that when Dylan wrote these words he wasn’t talking about the weather, but I am. We have not been in Paris much the past few weeks (Amsterdam and Nice) and while we were gone the weather decided to change. The sun, who decided not to hang out long in Paris this summer, is coming less frequently and not staying out as long as we would like.
The trees also decided to change on us. All the leaves in Luxembourg Park have turned brown and they are no longer in the trees. The trees outside of our 3rd story window are loosing their leaves and exposing that there are building across the street…but also exposing our apartment the neighbors. I am going to have to be a bit more careful when coming out of the bathroom!
I haven’t lived in a place that has seasons for 8 years so it is actually a treat to kick through the leaves and enjoy the smell of this time of year again. I was walking through the park with Frank the other day and the brown color of the trees reminded me that God likes change. He is even ok with some thing going through a bit of a ‘fall’ just to have the trees come in green and new 6 months later. I hope that this changing of seasons will also be a time where we are reminded to change for the sake of healthy growth. We’ll see…
Justin
I was reading the book ‘Bono on Bono’ a while ago. It’s kind of an auto-biography/interview book. There was a story in the book that really stood out to me and thus helped me decide what to call my blog. Here’s the story:
So I went along to introduce one of the great photographers of the age and ended up in this room full of ‘Bonos’ standing and looking at me over twenty years. And I saw this picture. I must have been twenty-two or something, getting into a helicopter for a video. I think it was "New Year’s Day." I just saw this face, and it was my first face. the eyes were so clear, and so fearless, and I looked at it. A journalist walked up beside me and said: "What would you say to that person now? You’ve got one thing you can say to him. What is it?" I was going to be funny, but then i thought I shouldn’t. I told him: "I would tell my younger self: You’re right. Don’t second guess yourself’ " I felt it so strongly. I wish I knew then how right I was. I wasn’t wrong. You’re supposed to go: "Oh, I was foolish then. I’ve grown up , and I laugh." I do laugh at some of the music, some of the statements I’ve made. Some of the image problems do leave me a little embarrasses, a little red-faced. But there’s strength to that naivete. I wasn’t wrong about the world. The world is more malleable than you think. We can bend it into a better shape. Ask big questions, demand big answers.
I know that this will sound weird, but when I read this I felt God clearly say to me, "At the end of your life are you going to give up on the ideals you have right now? Are you going to allow other people’s cynicism and addiction to living in reality to make you believe that I can’t change reality? It’s okay that you are an idealist! I am too! Don’t give up and keep hoping for a change that I can bring about." I hope that when I am double the age I am now that I can say I didn’t give up and kept fighting for the ideals that I know I share with God. So that’s the story…and now my blog is called the Urban Idealist. Welcome…