Skip to main content

And I’m off again.


I’m sat sipping my extra hot chai tea latte. After so many failed attempts to find an alternative to Starbuck for good coffee, I decided this time to not even try and went right to the Starbucks queue in the terminal. I am sat in a quite nice leathery arm chair (I didn’t realize they had), looking out over the runway. The sky is half cloudy, half sunny... beautiful in its own way, although I suspect its beauty is compromised by the very dirty windows I am looking through.

Airport time means blogging time... at least here at Schiphol.

After lots of packing and adjusting the content of my suitcases, I finally went to bed, only to wake up at 4 am thinking about how I really should use a rucksack for my hand luggage. I guess it’s the normal travel nerves... and I can sleep on the plane.

I have the butterfly sensation in my stomach; the familiar mixture of anticipation, excitement, and nerves. Hoping the journey goes well. Hoping my luggage gets there and that I am picked up at the airport (which I always am). Hoping that I can quickly get over jetlag and that I can walk in joy.

My thoughts are all over the place as I’m sat here; ranging from wondering if there was anything I forgot, to thinking about how lovely it’ll be to be back in the sunshine of Fortaleza and be reunited with good friends. Friendship is such a gift.

Friendship- even these past days I’ve been so thankful for the friendships I’ve made here in Amsterdam. “Here”, yes, I am still in Amsterdam. Not quite in Fortaleza yet, although my thoughts are there.

Friendship- just today a couple of the women I got to know in a window who are now friends texted me. Wishing me a good journey and that I come back soon. I will miss them. I feel so rich to not just have poured out love into their lives, but also to be on the receiving end of their love. I feel so rich to know that in so many places in the world I have people who I carry in my heart. I am truly blessed.

My chai is now a nice temperature and I am enjoying the slight spicy kick and that it isn’t too sweet. I will post this and then read a bit. I still have my 52 books in 2014 challenge going, although with  seven (or is it eight) books read, I am well on my way. I look forward to enjoy a pastel de nata at the airport in Lisbon in some hours, providing I have time between flights.

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

Reality starting to hit...

Today has been quite a sad day as it is slowly dawning on my that I'm not going to be here for much longer. It's now less than a month till I leave, and I feel sad. Sad to leave what has been a life for me. Sad to leave so many wonderful people. Sad to not be able to continue to fight for and invest in all the streetkids, families, prisonkids, and other random people I've been fighting for all these years. I doesn't feel like I'm giving up, but it does feel like I'm going to be left with a kind of void where all these people were in my life. I guess not knowing the BIG "what next..." doesn't help, but I do have peace. Peace that the God who called me here, and has kept me here, is still the same. Peace that He will guide me and walk with me. Even so...today I felt sad.
Read more