Sometimes I get overstimulated – okay, lots of times. My brain runs in fifteen directions at once most of the time. Amazingly, I can keep up with like nine or ten of them most of the time. But those extra five or six can overwhelm me, and I need to have a lot of dedicated down time to settle my brain.
There was like torrential rain through Christchurch, and I didn’t see the sky for a few days as clouds dumped out into the streets and flooded portions of the city. I got an extra view of it as I accidentally got on the Orbiter bus rounding the city the wrong direction. Instead of twenty minutes to my house, I realised ten minutes in that I was going the opposite loop and would have another hour before I got to my neighbourhood. Since I couldn’t be bothered to find a stop that would easily let me cross the street in the downpour, I stayed on and remembered I had a full punchcard for a coffee shop right beside a bus stop I’d be coming to eventually. I went inside and enjoyed a coffee while watching the rain pour for another hour. I didn’t have any work with me – not even a book – so I just sat and enjoyed the space. Because I could.
This week had some designated down time, but there were also things I couldn’t pause as we got back into our term youth group gathering. I did the things I needed, and I left a few things undone that could wait another day. I caught up with a former student as she accidentally called me and I recruited her into an exegesis assignment for a course I was headed to that night. We laughed about how I was still getting things done and managed to also have that adventure on the bus in the same day. There was room for both. Plus.
There was also space for reflection in my week on how I don’t need to be ahead of schedule to be on time, and I don’t need to overproduce to be enough.
I bought my tickets for my next trip to America – which is for the TeachBeyond orientation in Chicago – where I get to work alongside my teammates who are all in on this TCK Care role. I’m grateful to have a few hours assigned to this team as we meet some soon to be TCKs and set them up for success in their new adventures. It’s a bonus that my adventurous life lets me overlap with them and have a couple stops before and after orientation to see a few of my loved ones. I’m taking the long way to and from Chicago to get a couple days on each end that will fill up with supporters and my BFA ATCKs – and even family this time.
Hi Laura, great to read through your musings of the passed week. Funnily enough Alec and I managed to get on the wrong bus on Friday on our return from the City Hospital where Alec had an hour long appointment with an occupational therapist. It was our first visit with a very skilled lady who wanted to know all the ins and outs of our experience with Parkinsons, Alec having the disorder and me being his carer. Naturally the conversation looked back on our life before moving back to England over three years ago and our backstory of extensive travels. She was delighted when we gave her a copy of our book, “Strangers like Angels”. We usually have a copy with us to see who the Lord would have us pass one to during the days encounters.
Anyway back to the wrong bus – the number 7 used to route across to where our son Charles and his family live, but recently the route was changed and we had a magical mystery tour before looping around to a familiar stop where we waited for number 6. Whilst waiting for the right bus, Alec got in conversation with a spritely, elderly man of 85 years of Asian origin as was his wife. About the time we moved across from Germany they moved here from HongKong. This information immediately sparked an exchange about familiar places in HongKong which Alec identified, from living there for 2 years with the British Army in 1970. The couple were very happy to be living here and hopefully we might see them again one day and have another copy of our book with us, to pass on to them with love and appreciation for new encounters we regularly enjoy.
So Laura, so thrilled that everything is coming together for your next visit to the States. May the Lord make the way smooth for all the travelling and give you many enriching conversations along the way.
Say Hi to your Mum & Dad from Alec and I,
Lots of love from Jan xx
enjoy today rest up
grace and peace to you
when you come this way and you have time we always enjoy the times withyou