Change your lens.

August 10th, 2010

It’s ironic that I wrote about that broken vessel business because today was one of those days that could have easily been written off as a no-good, long, boring, stressful, draining day. That is, until Taizé prayer centered me, the beautiful dinner Jillian and Jenna prepared refreshed me, the desserts from St. Henry’s delighted me, washing dishes and being silly with Linds and Erin re-energized me, and Crunchy walking through the door with eight beers—all we wanted all day!—absolutely amazed me.

Sometimes, there’s no other explanation. Sometimes, you ride a broken bike to the gym, eat pie for breakfast at a church meeting (OK, so that was a sunny spot in the day!), spend four hours at the bank setting up personal and community accounts, try to buy bus passes only to find out you can’t buy them after the 8th of the month, find out you can’t use your starter checks to pay for the bus passes that you CAN buy, and then walk home tired and absolutely wiped out. There are some days that are just plain sucky, and you think that there’s no way that things will turn around. That’s not giving God enough credit, though. And, I’ve realized, your lens matters. If I look for the positive things in this day, I’ll see many—picking blackberries on our way home from the frustrating bus pass purchase mishap, talking to Katharine on the phone, all of the good conversation that occurred as we waited at the bank, and so on and so forth. Staying positive is hard but so important.

We discovered this last night as well, when we decided to go to Portland to see a free music concert in the park (sort of like Milwaukee’s Jazz in the Park). We ended up accidentally driving to WASHINGTON. Not good. But when we did get there, we enjoyed our delicious picnic dinner, got to see some free music, and spent the evening in the famous—and absolutely gorgeous—rose gardens. Some people in the car with me thought, at one point, that it wasn’t worth it to keep trying to find the concert. If we would have just found our way back to the interstate (and then to Oregon…) and gone back to Gresham, we would have missed a great night. We would have skipped some stress and some challenges, but we wouldn’t have learned important things about how we handle those tense situations, and we wouldn’t have realized just how much smarter it is for us to use public transportation in the future. One frustrating evening taught us at least three good lessons: stay positive, take the train, and understand how you and your loved ones handle stress. (P.S. The concert was really good, and all of the roses were beautiful and reminded me SO much of Grandpa!!)

Jenna in the rose gardens.

Pretty freaking excited about the rose garden. Photo courtesy of Jenna!

 One other thing I’m already realizing is that this community is so, so supportive. Crunchy and his wife, Margaret, had us over for dinner last night, and we had delicious chicken tacos and sampled some INCREDIBLE Oregon beers. It was such a nice gesture, and I’m seriously amazed at the outpouring of support we’re already receiving from him, from MaryAnn, and from everyone at St. Henry’s. People are so eager to bring us yogurt, find us another double bed, fix the showerhead, and give us directions (and/or a ride in some cases) to grocery stores. The hospitality and generosity is nothing short of beautiful. Crunchy is particularly awe-inspiring, as he literally shares a backyard with us and is devoted not only to his work as a youth minister at St. Henry’s but also to making sure we are comfortable, safe, and doing well. I don’t know that every JV house has such a wonderful support network. And, I truly feel like I was meant to be here because Crunchy and I have a million things in common. He’s from Minnesota, so he’s a Viking fan (Dad, I will hopefully be able to watch the games with him if they’re on out here!!). He’s also been to Chile, and when we walked into his house, the first thing I saw was a bottle of Mistral (the best kind—the kind we couldn’t afford there) sitting atop his china cabinet. I almost fell over. Then, he made us chicken tacos, which means that he read my mind and knew I love Mexican food but prefer chicken over beef. Seriously—incredible.

So, in the midst of all the running, shopping, sorting, deciding, haggling, organizing, and preparing, there are some seriously beautiful moments and gestures that are bringing me back to Center again and again, and I am ever so grateful for those.

Tomorrow’ s the first day of work. Stay tuned! You are all in my thoughts. Especially you, Mollsy. Stay strong—I love you.

Amanda