ANY GOOD TRIP IS LIKE LOVE

By the end of this (or is is the last one, now?) summer, I had been on no less that fifteen flights. I was so over long lines, check-ins, baggage and customs that through one long haul flight, I had decided to take with me nothing but a duffle bag containing whatever little I could get away with. So over it.

Summer was one very unsettled period, in moving places physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually.

Now I'm back in Japan and the things that take over my life here so far are these; I'm throwing myself into learning about teaching, more resolute to take with me as much of the learning experience there is in teaching this year. There's more to it than I can cope and I think I can't wait to plug myself back into school to learn to teach. I'm managing the worship band at Hope Chapel Namba and praying that I'll be bale to take it to the next level, high enough so that I won't be needed. Ashiya Mini church at my place has also got on the way, filling a need that has simply fallen into place when all the pieces are ready. Instead of traveling, I've taken to reading historical fictions of places that teach me about the culture and the past.

Pico Iyer said, any good trip is like love, "admitting us to a heightened state of awareness … ready to be transformed." Like traveling, books and love are about being carried out of yourself and deposited in the midst of terror and wonder. Stepping into unfamiliar territory shakes your stereotypes, rattles your defenses, and redefines your paradigms.


Audio: Nothing Is Sound by Switchfoot.
Biblio: War Trash by Ha Jin.
Cerebrio: I'm falling into that heightened state of awareness … ready to be transformed.