Be Still

This is bringing me peace and comfort today.

People-sickness

It's like homesickness, but it can't be traced to a specific place. It's all about the people.

I've been missing a lot of people lately. I start to complain about living so far away from home. Jealous feelings rise up when other people get to go home to see their friends and families. And my home doesn't even encompass everyone I miss.

And yet, there's an easy answer, one that flips all of these feelings upside down. I'm missing people all over the country--scratch that--all over the world. And I miss these people because I met these people. I am blessed.

I'd rather live every day of my life missing people than forsake the experiences that introduced me to them. If I hadn't gone to Italy and Greece, I wouldn't be missing people. If I hadn't come to Nashville for college, I wouldn't be missing people. If I hadn't gone to Greece a second time, I wouldn't be missing people. If I hadn't studied for a semester at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, I wouldn't be missing people.

You know what? This sacrifice, feeling like my heart is pulled daily in a hundred directions, is totally worth it.

And I think these people miss me, too.

Now if only I remember this tomorrow.

"An old author whose pen name was Cladius Clear said that a reader could divide his books as he would people. A few were 'lovers,' and those books would go with him into exile. Others are 'friends.' Most books are 'acquaintances,' works with which he was on nodding terms."

- J. Oswald Sanders, Spiritual Leadership

My lovers:

The Harry Potter books (J.K. Rowling), for the reader and writer they developed in my soul and for the creativity they fostered in my mind.

Hadassah: One Night with the King (Tommy Tenney and Mark Andrew Olsen), for first showing me real wonder. 

The Bible, which gives nourishment to my entire life and whole being and which teaches me daily about my Father, Creator, Savior, Helper, Lord. 

My friends:

Love From Your Friend, Hannah (Mindy Warshaw Skolsky)

You Are Special (Max Lucado)

The Consolation of Philosophy (Boethius)

The Chronicles of Narnia (C.S. Lewis)

The Art of Travel (Alain de Botton)

The Hobbit (J.R.R. Tolkien)

All Creatures Great and Small (James Herriot)

And to my many, many acquaintances: I tip my hat to you. Thank you for the times of wonder, sorrow, and joy. Thank you for always teaching, always challenging, always correcting. Our meeting was worthwhile.  

Here's to the acquaintances, friends, and hopefully lovers yet to come.

"Not only does something come if you wait, but it pours over you like a waterfall, like a tidal wave. You wait in all naturalness without expectation or hope, emptied, translucent, and that which comes rocks and topples you; it will shear, loose, launch, winnow, grind."

 

- Annie Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek

Annie Dillard tugs hard at the strings of my heart and mind.

"I am a frayed and nibbled survivor in a fallen world, and I am getting along. I am aging and eaten and have done my share of eating too. I am not washed and beautiful, in control of a shining world in which everything fits, but instead am wandering awed about on a splintered wreck I've come to care for, whose gnawed trees breathe a delicate air, whose bloodied and scarred creatures are my dearest companions, and whose beauty beats and shines not in its imperfections but overwhelmingly in spite of them, under the wind-rent clouds, upstream and down." - Annie Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek