I TURNED 26 years old and this time I feel like a REAL LIVE adult ;)
I'm not 100% sure about what that looks like, but I do hope it means more power to turn dreams into realities. A confidante I have here named Marit shared a really great idea/challenge to write down 100 dreams to pray into. I feel like I'm sprouting so many great ideas already.
People are often asking me "how we're adjusting to Norwegian life" or more interestingly, "is it everything we thought it would be." Funny thing is I didn't have picture frame in my mind about what I thought it would be like before coming...beside the realization that we are very VERY far away from the norwegian "isbears" (a cuter name for polar bears). I just finished a book called A Tree Grows in Brooklyn and there's this conviction that plants in Francie that you see progressing from time that she's 7 years old until the thought's complete at 15 years old. She's been dreaming about crossing the Williamsburg bridge for just about ever thinking believing it to be this glamorous and magical experience. She finds herself disappointed in her teenage years as she must lie to work in Manhattan to help her family survive, finding that the city is not what its cracked up to be. She say some phrase to the effect of "somethings are different than brooklyn, and somethings are the same. It is what it is."
So I'm not half as melancholic as Francie was about these parallel universes not being so parallel at all! I do get it though, and I've seen that same way living here for the past 2 and a half months. With belief, preference, sexuality, tradition, relationships, there are cultural and societal norms, values and expectations here that definitely differ from the states: the amount of meat they aren't eating over here, lack of beeping car horns, and people not using the phrase I love you for its sacred connotations. But it in the same way I'm finding trends and happenings that you'd see anywhere else: people searching for success, going on vacation in the summers, suffering from addiction. People trying to be people. Sometimes I wished we remembered, all over the world, that we are humans trying to figure this life out.
It makes me think hard about our work in shaping the youth, in our way of challenging them to live for the most. I'm excited about creating artistic spaces here for young people to grow together and in their community. Current Great Ideas:
- knitting circle (I've become a knitting monster these days. I probably better work on finishing on project at a time...)
- youth art gallery
- classical/improvisational small ensembles
- mandala-worship drawing workshops
More to come as I return to the drawing board about these ideas and the things that are already in motion. Stories coming soon, and PLENTY more PICTURES to come in the next blogpost. Don't forget to view our tumblr for crazy videos and pictures: secretfood4us.tumblr.com
No comments:
Post a Comment