Skip to main content

From Sunshine to Snow.

Finally landed. After a looong journey (including a 2 hour queue to get through security and passport control at São Paulo airport due to a strike) I arrived home on Thursday to snow. Not a white-coated scenery, but big flakes of snow falling from the sky. Obviously I was a wee bit cold in my vest-top and cardigan. It was strange to get home, but lovely to see family again, including my sister-in-law's bump which is soon to be a niece or nephew.

Saying goodbye at Fortaleza airport was tearfilled, and to my great amazement I had a whole delegation seeing me off. Boys and staff from the farm and city centre, as well as other friends were there bright and early to see me off, and allow me to give them one last hug. It was very sad, and felt very final.

Then I arrived home. On Friday I flew up to Bergen for a lovely celebration of my cousin's 30th Birthday. Then I flew back home on Saturday, and had a 2.5 hour delay of my flight coming back. Quite ironic, after a 28 hour journey will hardly any delays, and then when I have a 30 minute flight to catch, this happens. So I bought myself a cup of luke-warm Early Grey tea (why is it that the hot water you get a coffee-shops is never really hot?), some pick and mix sweets, and the latest Liza Marklund crime-novel, and sat myself comfortably in one of the chairs to wait. No point getting stressed or frustrated...these things happen. And to be honest, I'd rather wait than sit on a plane where one part of it isn't working the way it should.

Sunday I did nothing. Read, watched TV, did a bit of unpacking, and chilled. It was pouring down with rain the whole day so going outside was out of the question, especially as I didn't seem to manage to keep warm being inside.

Today, which is Monday, it's not raining. But I still feel quite dazed. Dazed by the time difference (haven't quite managed to adjust to 5 hours later than Fortaleza) and dazed by what the future holds. It is strange. Strange to think that I am not "going back" in a set amount of time. Strange to not have anything to work and walk towards. But hey, it's still early days and as my brother put it, I need to chill for a bit.

So that is me in a nutshell. Now I must get going unpacking. Lots of things to get into place.

Popular posts from this blog

Packing...again.

I just folded the last load of laundry and I’m almost packed. Off to the airport at 5am tomorrow morning, heading off to Amsterdam. I’m excited, a bit nervous, and wondering what it’ll be like. It’s been a good week at home with lots of quality time with family, especially the little nieces and nephew. I’m glad I’ll see them in April again. Well, not much to write and packing to be done and a bit of sleep would probably be a good idea too. Next time I write it’ll be from Amsterdam....
Read more

Single-tasking September: The art of single-tasking.

To change habits and ways of life, the motivation for change has to be strong, and the benefits outweigh the effort it takes to make the change.  For so long it’s seemed like the ability to multitask has been regarded as a great skill, but is it really a good thing? Recovering from burn-out, one of the effects I noticed was that it was harder to concentrate, and especially tricky trying to focus on many things at once. I’d try to multitask, only to realise that all tasks suffered from lack of capacity to complete any one of them. The challenge is that the habit of always doing many things at once goes deep, and when I tried to focus on just one thing, I found that it was actually really difficult.  As I did a little google search on the matter, I found it seems like multitasking isn’t as healthy as once thought, and that it doesn’t help productivity. Some even referred to it as “switch tasking”, in the sense that the brain isn’t doing many things at once, but shifting rapidly...
Read more

Walking through December: overcoming the challenge of language.

I just got done leading a Bible study in Spanish without a translation back-up, and it went really well. I am amazed at what we are actually able to do when we have no other option. It wasn’t a flawless flow of communication (that would have been a miracle), but together we figured out what I wanted to say. And I think it was good. I was blessed and they seemed blessed as well. The girls just left and I am sat here in my living room with the candles lit. It’s windy and rainy outside, and I am smiling. Happy. Not because I overcame the language challenge, but happy because of yet another beautiful time of bringing more of Jesus to the girls in our Bible study. I am thankful for the privilege of knowing them and standing with them in their journeys of knowing Jesus. And thankful that even when language is shaky, love is stronger and is communicated beyond mere words.
Read more