Chicago Comforts

In the last three months, I've begun to cherish some things in Chicago. 

Why now? Well, as the old cliche goes, 

Absence makes the heart grow fonder.

I cherish nature. Walking through Humbolt Park, Lincoln Park, even down a city street flooded with fall mums and corn-stalks brighten my day. I can look up through the clear, crisp blue sky and relax. God is still working out beauty in the city through plants.

I cherish tea (and warmth!). During the chilly walk home, I look forward to making a cup of spearmint tea, bundling up in my chair, and reading. Yes, it will be a text book I hold in my hands, but, hey, I am going to enjoy my tea! -It sure makes the text-book much more appealing!

I cherish music. I don't know how many days I come home, and just have to sing at least one favorite hymns, just for the joy of singing! Five minutes of music, lifts my spirits. God is beyond words, and these songs just point towards Him.

I cherish walks. The simple, one mile to work, weaving around people on the sidewalks, brings me joy. I look forward to those 20 minutes of inner solitude.

I cherish relationships. Time may be limited to Sunday's, but these moments, sometimes hours with friends, lift my soul for the next few days. By Thursday night, I am looking forward to Sunday again. Singing, talking, laughing and sharing with friends. Friends of all ages. Friends of months, and friends of years.

I cherish relationships of longevity. Going to church and being with and talking with people who I have known for 2-4 years is very encouraging. Some of these are the people who have laughed with me over skits, teared up over changes, listened and encouraged during decisions, yelled during the Bears games, biked miles of bike paths, cooked different ethnic foods, and simply are there beside me in life. 

Thank you Lord for these comforts in Chicago, these little things to meet needs. You hear, You see, and You know, and now You are providing in Your own unique way.  You are Sufficient.

Back to School Rafting

During these past 2 years of finding stability after college, I have been learning and practicing how to steer the boat of life more gently and understand which rocks and rapids I can and cannot handle.



I have been looking ahead at the distant white foam and spray of graduate school. Now it is here, all around me. Rocks. Spray. Scenery. The boat. Other rafters. Water.

The river raft of life has entered another stretch of white water. As different waves toss different issues of life up into the air, what is on the inside of my boat will come out. For a life as a counselor, do I want to keep it? or change it? or let it get out of my life? What new tools and equipment do I need for this specific river and the river branch(es) that I individually will be one after school? Which style of steering will I adapt to? Who will be with me in the boat now, helping me steer? push ahead? bail water?




Each class has its boulders, creating different water currents, spray patterns, and hitting different sides of the boat. My calendar is filled, marking each, preparing for each, and with God's help, passing each safely.

Along with boulders is my boat itself, carrying me through this, allowing me to go through this channel of white water. Working at Lawry's The Prime Rib as host and server with a few hours at Starbucks each week are giving the air needed to keep me afloat. Here is a tricky part I am beginning to negotiate: when too full of air, the raft may pop; when too low on air, the raft (and I) may sink. I pray for wisdom and guidance in discerning this balance.

With raft and rocks to think about, I often get caught up in the logistics. Yet I pray that I never lose sight of the scenery, the little things that make up the time and place He has placed me. These are gifts to be enjoyed, not ignored.

There are other boats around me. I am not alone. Some near, some far. I see the different colors of each. Some have traveled beside me at church. Others survived the rapids of Moody with me and then lost contact. Now they are showing up as I enter this stretch. Many are new boats, new people I haven't met that God has brought into my life for these months ahead. I pray and look to see how we will influence each other, giving and receiving help, encouraging and pointing out leaks. May we strengthen each other.



And the best part of the trip, the essential that is easily forgotten, the crucial aspect to rafting, and the only way for my boat to enter, stay afloat, interact with others, and thrive is still the uncontrollable part of rafting: The Water itself. The water that I must trust. The water that sometimes seems calm. Sometimes rough. Sometimes angry. Sometimes gentle. Sometimes refreshing. Sometimes annoying. Sometimes painful. Sometimes seemily far away. Sometimes drenching. Sometimes pushing. Sometimes pulling. Sometimes easy. Sometimes difficult. Sometimes pure strength. Sometimes calm. Without this water, my boat would be nowhere.

Without the Lord, I would be nowhere.

Summer Sun 2013

Summer has flown by. And according to my online persona of facebook or this blog, my summer has been quite monotonous, with little happening. Thankfully, my lack of online presence indicates that reality is very much full and changing. Here are highlights that stand out to me.

• I fully commit to camping with a hammock. My family camped for 3 nights on a small, sparsely inhabited island in the Exuma Cays. From spearing our dinner 1/2 hour before cooking it, snorkeling in a land and sea park, and locating old natural cisterns, the best part was climbing a tree, wiggling into a hammock, and being gently rocked to sleep without any tree roots, stones, or crabs burrowing underneath!

  

  One to sit during day, One to sleep in at night

  

  Exuma Land and Sea Park

  

  Dinner -at least for some night in the future

  
  
  
  
• I do believe in sea-horses! I DO believe in sea-horses! I do, I Do, I DO! Though growing up on an island and knowing many of the natural attractions, we had missed this one. An old friend directed us to a specific pond that was home to seahorses and octopus. The feeling of dry yet sticky, smooth, yet strong skin of octopus on my hands and arms will not be forgotten quickly. Neither the sight of an itty-bitty 2 inch sea-horse, holding onto seaweed with its tail on the pond floor, blending in perfectly with the surroundings. What a gift to behold God's wonderfully and quirkily created animals. Added bonuses: watching pea-sized lizard eggs hatch and a Cicada bug molt!
  
  
  
  
  
  

  

  Hatched lizards with eggs in a quart-sized ziplock

  

  Cicada

  

  Cicada bug molting

  
  
  
  
• I am a student of Trinity  Evangelical Seminary, as I begin the road to licensure as a counselor. I dream of working among children and young adults who have faced or are facing multiple transitions in their lives, specifically cultural moves between cities, regions, and countries. Lord willing, my classroom studies will be done in 2-3 years, and after internships and enough hours of experience, I will be a licensed counselor. 
  

• I continue to be a Starbucks barista several days a week, and have taken a second job at Lawry's The Prime Rib as a host and server. God, my Provider carefully weaved this position/schedule, and has grown my faith in many ways as He has smoothed over detail after detail in multiple areas. 

If God provides for 2 feet long Iguanas, only found on 2 tiny islands,
Then I and the world, have nothing to fear.

Perfect Love Casts Out Fear

One Year Ago

One year ago last night, my high hopes of  teaching art, PE, and possibly coaching, were utterly and unexpectedly destroyed. I had five precious minutes to process alone, before joining the others to organize, distribute and pack for our month long bike trip, going to bed after 2am.

One year ago this morning I woke up at 4:30 am and at 6am, took off biking with Natalie and Nathaniel. Everything that we'd need for the next 32 days was on our bikes: clothes, camping gear, camp-cooking equipment and dishes, food (which we replenished along the way), first aid, bike repair tools, cameras and much anticipation for what the month would hold!

One year ago this afternoon, we biked until it was 100 degrees at 11am, and took a siesta while the temp soared to 105. At 5pm, it dropped back under 100 degrees and we took off again. Vineyards, orchards, and olive groves lined the way. Rocky, mediterranean hills/mountains rose before and around us. The glory of the world God has made was shouting from the vast display of ever-rising hills and stretched out cultivated land.

One year ago today, I knew I would spend another year in Chicago, internally aching for the loss of the life in Haiti, and also internally rejoicing to continue digging my home-roots into Chicago. Such pain and joy at the same time, about the same thing -it is beyond words. I held it in. But God knew.

One year ago, I did not see the friendships that would deepen as those relationships crossed the 1-year threshold. I've learned that not everyone moves after 1-2 year in the United States. My church has become a dear family to me, as God's given this extra time here. I have real "family" to spend Thanksgivings and Easters and random days with, when a bit over a year ago, they were only names and faces, and nothing more. But God saw them.

One year ago, I didn't know my Monday Sisters. It hadn't been formed. We hadn't bonded. We were not close friends. We did not hold each other accountable. But God knew. And I know He basked in the joy of what He had in store for me and all of us!

One year ago I started on a specific journey to lean on God, the great Provider, Protector, and Healer. And I will be on this journey forever. Learning to lean on Him is not easy. But it is good, as I'm reminded often when I listen to this song. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehkg7-SVByk

One year ago, I didn't know what it would hold. But God did. And WOW. He has blown my mind. He is good, what He does is good, and when He closes a door, He opens up the gate to something Waaaaay better, since it brings us closer to Him.

The One

Faithful, Honest, Ever True,

Just the Same and Always New;

Joyful, Open, and Secure,

He's the One, his Heart is Pure.

Love and Care are in his Eye,

Lis'ning Ear for Those Who Cry;

Strength and Might are in his Arms,

In his Hands, Fear Dis-Alarms.

Multi-cultural Experiences

Cultures.
Multi-cultural experiences.

Ethnicities.
Multi-ethnic experiences.

I was recently asked to list all my multi-cultural and multi-ethnic experiences for a scholarship application. Simply list the experiences. I laughed.

I started, and it took a while. A long while. With only bullet-points and sub-points, I had over 500+ words to cut down to less than 200. How do you decide what parts are "more" multi-cultural than others?

The "multi-cultural and multi-ethnic" experiences "only" comprised my entire life story. Cultural and ethnic experiences happen everywhere, across the globe, within the United States, and even inside one specific city. When I moved to and from Eleuthera. When I moved to rural Nebraska. When I moved to China. When I worked in a nursing home. When I worked in downtown Chicago. When living with mono-culturals. Each place I lived and worked glowed with different races and ethnicities, cultures and mindsets, thinking patterns and actions I didn't know.

There are some things I need to say.

1. Life is multi-cultural. Each place has a different culture, therefore everything is a multi-cultural experience. Seek with understanding.
2. Life is multi-racial. It is. Look at the globe, and what people look like. Black, Hispanic, White, Asian. See with understanding.
3. Life is multi-ethnic. Every person I have ever talked to comes from a special ethnicity. Colors are great... but there's different ethnicities within colors. Bahamians and Jamaicans, Puerto Ricans and Mexicans, Germans and  Scandinavians, Chinese and Filipinos. Enjoy with understanding.

What is multi-cultural in your life? How has it influenced you? 

Culture Clash: Rabbit, in the city, sleeping by a window with people.

Mixes

"It's Too..."

My dear Customers, Chicagoans and Americans,


Do you know that each year, there are four seasons?

Do you know that each year there will be a summer, fall, winter, and spring?

Do you know that each place on the map has a unique climate, that though it is not specifically exactly the same, summer will be similar to past summers, fall will be similar to past falls, winter will be similar to past winters, and spring will be similar to past springs?

Do you know that we even have people's who's job it is to look at current weather patterns and give us a pretty good idea of what to expect for the next few days -even down to hours? 

Do you know that you have a choice as to what clothing you wear during these  seasons?

Do you know that you have a choice to move if you do not like the current, or coming season wherever you are living?

Do you know that you have a choice in how you respond to the weather around you?

Do you know that you can respond well to things that aren't your favorite or things you simply don't like?

Do you know that all these questions are rhetorical, and the content found within is true?

If you did not know these many things, you do now!

Expressing yourself is one thing. Complaining is another. Complaining about what you cannot change doesn't change it. But it often changes you, and eventually our relationship.

"Its too..."  Let's think about that phrase. The person using it, is saying that they are the judge as to what is good, bad, hot, cold, colorful, happy, rainy, etc. These are adjectives, meant to describe, not to be a standard set by each individual. If you don't like it, admit it, and own your own likes or dislikes. 

The issue goes deeper. When giving up the phrase "it's too..."  a feeling of control is lost. No longer is the speaker in control of what should happen. They are now a bystander that is being affected by something. From the very beginning, people wanted control, to know and judge what is good and bad. It is a bit unsettling, even scary to not be in control. Even a twinge of fear comes in when we acknowledge we are not in control -because aren't we supposed to be in control of everything according to culture?

No. We are not made to be in control. We are made to have responsibility and authority. We have a God who is sovereign over all aspects of life. That means He is all loving, and all powerful, and together, He does only what is best for the overall glory of His name, which is the best thing in the world. We don't need to control things or people; He can do that if He needs or wants to. It is a hard truth to swallow, yet it releases a freedom from fears. Fear of not being in control, not measuring up... and even fears of not enjoying my day because of lots of rain, or lots of hot sun.

So, if God wants it to be cold a lot in a specific part of the country and then really hot and you don't like the cold or the heat-then move your attitude or your location! It's not snowing or sunny too much in a place if that's how much God wants it!

And please, purdy please don't tell me that it's too hot on the first warm days we have, when all winter you've complained about it being too cold, too snowy, and too dreary.  

Love,
Laura Lei Lou


~This author continues to not enjoy unasked for complaints about the weather from customers as she makes their lattes, cappaccino's and frappuccino's.