Dear Friends in Christ -
It is SOOOOOO good to be home. It's good to hug my husband and kids. It's good to sleep in my own bed. It's good to be greeted by all of you with hugs and questions, with words of welcome and sighs of relief that our team got home safely.
It's a bit of culture shock to be home. It's not the level of busyness (though Latino culture runs at a slower pace, the priests and lay people we met were all moving at a fast clip; there's so much work to be done!). It's not the weather - though it's certainly colder here! It's not the disparity in wealth - though everything from houses to newspapers are ritzier here. It's . . .
Well, it's taken me a while to put my finger on it, but I think the "culture shock" I'm feeling is the pressure of still trying to process everything I saw and heard and took part in THERE while being plunged full-speed-ahead into things that kept on going HERE.
This I know for sure: If we're alert and alive in the world, there is not a one of us who ends a day exactly the same as we started it. We learn new things; we are pressed in on by events and experiences. For me, this past week in Ecuador, such an overwhelming flood of new information and experiences that it will take a while for me to know what it means, how I am changed.
Several folks that I've talked to since I've been home have ministered to me by encouraging me to "ease back in," to "take it easy." I'm grateful. It's tempting to fall right back into step with things as they were. But the experiences I had in Ecuador are meant to make me different than I was before. Now - right now! - I have to find enough still moments that the marks on my soul settle in and become indelible.
Faithfully,
Janet+
No comments:
Post a Comment