hot water again!

today i took a hot shower for the first time in almost three weeks. marvelous!

much of the water here is centralized, so when they do repairs (usually at the beginning of the summer) they turn off all the hot water in the city. for something like a week or two. this time it was two and a half weeks. but they turned it on again, which is marvelous! during the first week it was hot outside (high 90s, F) .. so cold showers were alright. after that it got a bit chillier and the showers got shorter, as well as a couple times heating water on the stove.

my organization has something called learning community, and at the moment we are discussing creation care. what it means to be good stewards. this can be played out and discussed in so many ways! we read an article and watched a video (20 minutes, definitely worth it!), and then got started talking. one thing that stood out to me, because of the lack of hot water here, was the difference between choosing to be a good steward of resources .. and being forced to do so. it is one thing to have had plenty and then to decide to live differently and seek simplicity in various ways. but if you have not had enough, for someone to tell you that you must life without seems very unjust. all that to say .. i've been thinking about what sort of expectations we should have of one another, especially when it comes to crossing cultures and economic lines.

(mis)communicating

i had an odd moment today. spending time with a friend who speaks both romanian and english, like i do. our conversation was full of both languages, changing from one to the other without an apparent reason. at one point, we just stopped talking and looked at each other. after a few moments of silence, she said 'i just don't really understand how you think.' made me smile, because i was thinking something similar.

strange this .. we speak the same language. we speak two of the same languages. and yet, understanding each other can be hard work. feels like parallel lines sometimes. i understand the words .. but the meaning? not so much. part of it is culture .. part of it is background .. part of it is simply the ways that our minds work. which is marvelously different. interesting and challenging and sometimes frustrating. but marvelous, all the same.

a bit of refreshment

a couple of days ago, i went with a friend to her choir rehearsal. and it was marvelous! the director is passionate about music, and had everyone singing (and singing together!) within the first few minutes. simple warming up exercises became gorgeous three part harmony, and then there was rehearsal with four or five songs. sung repeatedly (at least three times each), getting better each time. made me miss singing in a choir. and at the same time, hearing some beautiful music fed some piece of my soul that needs beauty.

and then, through some blog or news on my google rss feeder, i was introduced to the 'carolina chocolate drops' .. a bad that does blues, jazz, fiddle, banjo, various percussion instruments .. wonderful sound. probably it's best to listen to them. here's one song i've been enjoying the past few days. good music .. it refreshes the soul!