November 22nd- Eat Pray Love

Today was a good day. I woke up at six to talk to my family on Skype. It is always so amazing just to hear their voices. Sometimes, if the Internet is cooperating, I get to see their faces too! After I talked for a while with my parents (and kept them up way past their bed time) I headed off to church. I attend the "Church on the Hill" as we call it. We live on a compound which is probably about five or six acres square (but I am bad with those kind of things so it could be bigger or smaller as far as I know). We live on the South side of the compound. The Church, the Bible College and the Mepepe staff houses are on the North side on the top of a hill.

As I was walking to the road to church this morning I noticed that I was tuning out. By tuning out I mean going through the motions of walking without thinking. I was looking down at the road before me barely calculating my next step. Something inside me woke up all of the sudden. I raised my head up and took in the vista surrounding me. I was about halfway up the road. The sun was still new in the sky and the smell of the rain from last night was still fresh and cool. The road is made up of mostly iron pyrite, that sparkly stuff usually referred to as"fools gold", so the sun was shattered into a million tiny shards all along my way. The banana trees were all waxy and shiny from their rain bath the night before and the sound of the cicadas and the grasshoppers was a harmonious "good morning" hymn. The realization of that one moment took my breath away. In the remaining minutes of my walk I praised God for His Africa, for the opportunity that HE has given me to be in this glorious place.

This afternoon my teammate and I got the chance to go to Lusaka to see a movie! This is a big treat! We wanted to see the new Harry Potter movie but we found when we got there that the screening had been delayed for two weeks. Instead we saw Julia Robert's new movie "Eat, Pray, Love" It was a very good story. The movie follows a young author who is sick of her life. She feels that it is boring and expected. She is drowning in monotony in her job, her marriage and her everyday life. I won't be a spoiler because I recommend that you see the movie. Trying not to give anything away, I will try to make my point about the lesson I learned today. In the movie, Liz(Julia Roberts) goes on a pilgrimage to find her passion. She learns how to live with pleasure in Italy, learns how to pray in India, and learns how to love in Bali. Although I didn't agree with some of the philosophy in the film, part of it struck a cord with me...the mundaneness of life. No matter where we are, what we own, or accomplish...life can be mundane. We often trudge through with our eyes halfway shut and our gaze at our feet. But in our hearts there is a little tugging that says "this isn't how I want to live". I have been reading a book called "The Sacred Romance" it is about how we are created to be romanced and thrilled. That it is our nature to strive for passion by our God. That this beautiful earth that we live on was created just for His bride...us. HE is our ultimate Romancer.

Lesson for today: Raise up your head and take a breath. Breathe in the beauty around you and let it point you to your Creator.

Passion: Fall in love. Fall in love every moment. Fall in love with everyday mundane smells, sounds, tastes and people. You will have nothing to gain or to lose but love.

Cally Jane