of europe, by observation

I can’t believe how much I got to travel this year. Much of this is thanks to my husband’s vast knowledge of credit card points. There’s so much I observed, but here, for this post on a traveler’s thoughts, I decided to share something personal – what I liked. And didn’t. It’s simple. No explanations, no justification. Just one girl’s opinion.

Here’s what I love about England:

awesome sign phrasing

Humps.

Humps.

No ball games.

No ball games.

Blind summit.

Blind summit.

my vocabulary improved here

the front of cars are short, which helps with turn radius for small spaces

yellow warning traffic light before it turns green, just as we already have before the red light

politeness

nice drivers, plus they use headlights to communicate

the cloud – free internet available in most sizeable towns!

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Here’s what I don’t understand about England:

two faucets, one hot, one cold

road systems – why are there letters and numbers?

low street signs, often blocked by cars or bushes and not out by the street

This one`s not quite so bad, but still.

This one`s not quite so bad, but still.

Just plain hard to see. But also precious.

Just plain hard to see. But also precious.

London Underground prices

huge outlets and plugs

smoking

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Here’s what I liked about Italy:

the Dolomites

IMG_20150619_033132875

Ummmm yeah.

plants and flowers everywhere

IMG_20150622_241105464

IMG_20150622_241300332

A garden FULL of jasmine! Such gorgeous allergies.

coffee. coffee. coffee.

Can you not see his joy?

Can you not see his joy?

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What’s not great about Italy:

driving and drivers

tolls. tolls. tolls.

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In Slovenia, I loved:

slow pace

infrastructure

growth

green

Lake Bled.

Lake Bled.

IMG_20150615_104239678

walkways

stacked wood by every house

hay piles/shelves, by almost every house

B&B doors also function as windows. they’re multi-functional that way.

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What I missed about America basically tells you what else I didn’t enjoy abroad:

free bathrooms

no sound barriers on highway – no obstructed views

Seriously, they were like this but much worse and opaque and you couldn't see any beautiful things!

{Seriously, they were like this but much worse and opaque and you couldn’t see any beautiful things!}

free water

free highways

less smoking

street signs

positivity about life

 

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I guess the sum of it is, coming home is sweet. But it’s also not perfect, and there’s so much beauty elsewhere, that we must seek adventures, you and I. We must cherish our home and our adventures as two sides of the same coin of wholeness. And those are today’s traveler thoughts.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photo credit: Hannah Jesus @ https://instagram.com/hannahjesus/

on art as life as worship

Her gifts are not my gifts.

Her artistic ability is ridiculous. Her creativity is unique and unparalleled. She paints and draws wonders beyond imagination, and photographs animals at such a close range like some creature-whisperer.

I wish I could do that. I can’t.

But I do make things with my hands, and they are a different beautiful. Words here and there, and music, and objects, and food, and massages. And even if I didn’t make things with my hands, whatever I could create in any way would be worship. It’s all worship, is art.

I don’t need to be able to make art like hers.

It’s all worship. Some art praises colours, some glorifies the human form. Some bows to existentialism or philosophies, and other adores creation itself. But her art … it exalts the Creator in all His splendour and grace and power and love.

And so if my art can do that, if my gifts, varied, limited, particular, vast – if they can glory in God, if they can show the world something of Him. If what I create can shamelessly give all credit to my Creator. If my hands and my life speak of Christ, His beauty, His love, His goodness.

Then I’ll be on the right track.

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Friends, this is the artist who inspired this post and inspires me still: https://instagram.com/hannahjesus/http://www.hannahjesus.com/. You can get a glimpse of her in the photo above, credit to her. She is a dear friend and a lover of beauty.

journal on rest … there’s a way

It’s Sunday, for some a day of rest. It doesn’t matter who you are. In your heart, you long for a lasting rest. We are always searching for it, for a way to be filled up. And on Sundays I journal and pray about rest. Won’t you breathe and read slowly and think on this one thing? Won’t you stay and be still with me for a few spectacular, ordinary moments? 

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Thus says the Lord, “Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls.” But they said, “We will not walk in it.” (Jeremiah 6:16 ESV) *

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So often of late, I have caught myself feeling listless and unmotivated, and not going anywhere. Not doing much, yet still tired. I am starting to see that inactivity is not rest. Do you have those moments of realization, that you have been living with a focus on yourself and your comfort, rather than on God’s high purposes? This verse came to mind today because my soul needs rest and I haven’t been pursuing it. I am like those who chose not to walk in the good way, the way that would bring peace and rest. I know what it’s like to be living in step with God, and yet I still have the foolish tendency to forego that goodness for myopic, purposeless things.

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May we today renew our fervor for the living God, and may He renew our hearts to crave Him and His wholeness. Amen.

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*Contrast this verse with Proverbs 14:12, about another kind of way. There really isn’t a middle option, friends. It’s all Jesus or nothing.