It was about NY... then it wasn't.

Happy New Year!

FB timeline memories are really great for reminding us of moments in the past. I do quite love this feature. I compare New Years Day here to back in SA. It's summer back home and really nothing like summer here.

My Beach in SA on 1.1.2017
(Photographer unknown - taken from FB)

Along a road here on NYD

It's fascinating that the world is so vast and contains so many incredible landscapes and moments that can just fill you with such a sense of wonder.

It's so multidimensional. A bit like God, I suppose. We tend to view him through the eyes of our experience of church or religion - and what that has taught us about him - and yet may never have experienced him for ourselves.

Some may have experienced him as cold, monotone and distant and wanted to keep their distance from him, and others experience him as warm, vibrant and peaceful. 

The truth is that even if you are keeping your distance from him, he doesn't keep his distance from you no matter your experience. You may just not recognise his persistence in getting your attention, whether it's through a sunrise or a frosty tree. 

He is known and yet remains a mystery - it's one of his most engaging qualities!

(OK... This post is not really going in the direction I had planned - nonetheless, I will leave it, and write the post I was going for another time.)

Wishing you all a year filled with wonder at the multidimensionalness
of the Creator of the universe, and Lover of our souls.

Things I Sing at 04.30

Woke up this morning at 04h30 and starting singing (in my head) these lyrics...

"Stop Thief! Stop Thief! Not another lettuce leaf will you have
Radishes and parsley, carrots and baby peas, each and every thing belongs to me,
not to you, but to me..
If I catch you, you will die then you'll be rabbit pie,
supper for me wife and I.
Stop Thief, Stop thief!"

Followed by...

"Why do I do it?
What is the cure?
My brothers and my sisters find it easy I am sure,
No-one believes I'd like to be good,
nevertheless, I would.
I think a halo would suit me....
dangling over my head,
and when they behold me,
they wouldn't scold me.
they'd say 'Well done' instead!
Why do I do it? Why do I do it? Why do I do it?
Because it's fun!"

It took me all of 5 seconds to remember where these songs came from, but how weird to have them pop into your head at sparrow-fart!

Does anyone else remember chilling and listening to Beatrix Potter on a record? I loved Peter Rabbit, and the first song was Mr Mcgregor singing as he chased Peter out of his vegetable patch, and the second was Peter singing after he escaped.

Gosh.... I loved those LP's with The Tales of Squirrel Nutkin and Jemimah Puddle Duck and Mrs Tiggy-Winkle. I am amazed that after at least 40 years I still remember them - and that with no prompting and at 04h30! Such amazing memories.

Living here now, with forest squirrels and hedgehogs and foxes, I can see how she must have been inspired to write them.

I am going to find Peter Rabbit and have a quick listen before French Class.

Interspecies Communication

I saw this on Facebook a while ago and I loved it. I found myself thinking about it and watching it over and over again.  I think it was a combination of feeling as though I was there, in that forest, since it feels so familiar, and the joy I get from photographing various fungi that I come across...

However, I think what gets me is what he says between 1:05-1:17 and then again from 1:45 to the end.

Sometimes when I am in the forest and I see a deer or a fox or even a bird, I silently say "Hey, don't run away, I just want to look at you...." and I wish that they understood me.  I watched a butterfly the other day unfurl its mouth(?) and begin to suck the nectar from a flower. It was so beautiful and so delicate, and I wished I could say to it... "Gosh, but you are so lovely and so clever!".... and hear it answer back modestly, "I know!" (You will probably think I sound like some kind of freak... but hey, I don't care really.)

Our language is insufficient for "interspecies" communication, 

but I would like to think that perhaps the Author conveys the messages on my behalf!

Along my walks there are always three places I always physically stop at:

• My Watchman (a huge rock formation that looks like the profile of a man), 
• My Fantasy tree (that always reminds me that God is known and yet remains mysterious), 
• My #ivy&me tree (which is my reminder of how God sees him and me) 

Today, I felt physically ill and sobbed like a baby when I noticed that my Fantasy Tree had been chopped down, probably this weekend. I feel as though I have lost a friend. I feel as though the forest had lost a member of its family - there is just a big stump left and nothing more of this neon, mossy, gnarly, whimsical tree to remind me of the mystery among us.

This is all that was left of my tree today... and no doubt the rest of the trunk will follow soon. **

I know people will say that it was old and dead and that it needed to come down, or that there are more trees so, move on.

And I will move on, but not today.

Today I just want to be sad that my tree is gone and I wish I had the language to say how sorry I am in "forest-speak".


                                             * * * *









 **  16/10/2016:  
A tree update: On further inspection with My Man today, we noticed that a very young tree next to it was missing its top. We have decided that it is possible that the tree blew over, damaging the one next to it on the way down. He also pointed out that it's unlikely a woodchopper would climb the trunk and chop it off there. It would have been done at the base. So I have decided to believe that it fell from natural causes. It feels better that way.

    

(Mis)adventures of Language

Language lessons are a wonderful preparation to ask questions in the language of your new country, because let's face it, there are questions you will want to ask, like:

• May I have a glass of red wine?
• Where is the toilet?
• What time is the bus to Kirchberg?
• Do you have this in a size 39?
• Would you like to go for lunch this week?
• May I have the bill?

After a semester or two one can totally ask questions to your hearts content!  However, nothing and no-one can prepare you to answer one in response to any of these.... or even to understand the answer!  

For example - If I ask "Do you have this in a size 39?" the reply could be "If you want it in a different colour, then yes." I have apparently mastered the art of a blank stare, and they look at me with such sympathy and switch to English. This horrifies me because I know I won't ever learn like that.

On the weekends, when My Man and I walk the dogs together in the forest, we often cross paths with a lovely elderly gent who is clearly out for his walk too. He always stops and has long chats with both dogs (not us, other than a greeting), and gives them dog treats that seem to always be available.

This morning I was walking Tigger alone, and I happened to bump into him. He greeted me and then said something in French. I was not prepared to be spoken to, and didn't quite get it, I said 'Pardon?' and he repeated himself and I worked out that he was asking where the other dog was. I managed to put together 5 words and he seemed to understand. Then we wished one another a good day, and carried on along our merry ways.

As I walked, I replayed the conversation in my head and I was so annoyed with myself because I realised I could totally say "My other dog is at home. Together, they are too strong for me. This afternoon I walk the other dog."  I could have said all of that (Except for 'strong'...I don't know what that is, but that's easy to do with arm gestures).  The grammar may not have been 100% but it would totally be understandable. Why did I freak out and think I couldn't reply?

It's being unprepared I suppose!  Frustrating, but it will come. Persistence!

Speaking of which, my third semester of French starts on Thursday. Yippeeee! I am so looking forward to it. 

Have a lovely week all you beautiful people.

3rd Year Reflections

Yippeee!! 

3 Years Baby!

I was reading this post which is what I asked for when we were due to come here. I had a good laugh, because I thought at the time that I had seen already that God had a better plan.... but 3 years down the line - I realise that I only saw part of it.

• Had we lived in a big town (like I had asked for), we would have been lost in the masses and never made the friends we are making in our village.
• Had we lived close to a gym (like I had asked for), I would never have gone to run in the forest.
• For a spiritual home different to where we had come from (although that was very cool!) - we have that in that we are able to live out what we believe daily with a variety of faiths and cultures, which is (for me anyway) the best way of being.

Sometimes it's a bit of a bugger to realise that actually you do not know what is best for you, but a relief to know that Someone does.

If I think about it, I got exactly what I wanted ... but not in the way I expected.

3 years ago...

Christmas 2015

Forest walks

Time with new friends

Yes. This is the bestest best place for us.

#theforestismychurch

I went for a walk this week. There has been so much rain that decent walks have been rare recently. It was breathtakingly green, quiet and beautiful.  I felt inspired to put some of my own video clips and photographs to music, to try and convey how I feel about the forest.

There is no place I feel more connected to the Author than in this space.

Peace be the journey.
* Click here for an explanation to #Iamthetreeandyouaretheivy.

It's normal and home

We have been here almost 3 years!  Can you believe it!?

I was reminded of this today when, while pottering on my balcony checking on my plants, I looked up and saw my neighbour on his, having a mid-morning smoke. I yelled "Hey, howzit!" and we chatted for a few minutes, back and forth about gardens and long grass and goats... the usual stuff, until I eventually said "Cheers, probably see you later," and we both carried on doing what we were doing.

The truth is, we probably will see him later, down the road, at the pub!  He, like us, tends to waft down for a quick beer at the end of a long day, and we have, on occasion sat together down there and shot the breeze with something long and cold.

I know this probably all sounds so normal to you, and had we been in SA this activity would not have merited an entire blogpost - but it reminded me of  a post I wrote 4 months after we arrived.

I wouldn't choose to be anywhere else in Luxemboug.   I love this village.
This is home for now.

Thank God for it!