No sentence could be more appropriate for what I'm experiencing this week.
I am in Thailand at our Annual Thailand Conference, hereafter ATC, being poured into by other teachers, staff members and friends of our organization. What a blessing!!
Some quick points and what's on my mind right now:
- I miss you!! Being in China means, for the most part, no Facebook, Blogspot, Goodreads, Youtube, Twitter, etc.. (any social networking site or seemingly anything I need or would like to access.) I'm not sure if that's because of the Great Firewall, or simply a problem with my own computer.. I can't be sure.
- I miss China! Although I'm enjoying 'vacation' and traveling around Thailand/China I miss my students and friends in Taiyuan so much. I even miss the cold!!!
- I miss music. Being here at ATC, being able to experience great music in a wonderful corporate setting with wonderful people is so encouraging to my soul. I can't describe it as physical pain, but not having music in my life in a significant way has been so hard to experience. I didn't understand the depth to which music affected my daily life and was so necessary and essential to who I am. I had to leave my french horn behind, don't have access to a piano (except for two days a month) and don't have any outlet for my musical energy except to listen to music and sing by myself or, occaisionally, with my team. Needless to say, I listen to a LOT more music than I ever did while being a music major. In fact, I've probably exponentially multiplied the total music that I have listened to my whole life by about 4, just in the six-ish months I've been in China. (A Beethoven Piano Sonata is happening right now.) I HAVE had the motivation, certainly, to practice guitar, and can play pretty much any four chord song that exists but not much else.
- Next steps: return to Taiyuan and see if I can rent a french horn from a music store. :)
- Continue practicing guitar.
- The problem of sporadic communication:
- I have so many stories to tell you it's actually discouraging to blog at all. The thought of how much I have missed updating you on is a little embarrassing and just generally daunting. I've thought about it and decided to just start where I am and go from there. I can't make up for or change the fact that it is impossible to blog on a site that I can't access where I live. I don't know how to fix that. As much as I can do in the time I have here in Thailand is all I can promise, but I will do my best to share as much of my life and work here as possible!
- A heart for the people <3
- I have now been in China for all of six months and my heart has been captured by the people here. Words cannot express the joy or fulfillment I have in serving and working with these precious people. I am looking forward to sharing the stories that I ALREADY have and the ones that I will have in the coming months with you. I am certain that what you don't know yet will become precious to you as well -- as I'm able to share them with you.
- A serious question:
- Do you have a passion for people? For serving others? For sharing the Life you have been gifted with? For Asia? For Teaching? There is a huge need for more teachers to come to Asia, (China, Mongolia, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, and more) and I ask seriously, if you're being led in that direction at all, to consider the possibility of joining the work being done here. Ask me questions, send me an email, I will respond and connect you!
