far from home is a perfect place to start...
the more we learn the less we know...
the green comes from the frozen ground
and everything will be made new again
Lyrics from Switchfoot's song "Golden," from the album "Nothing is Sound," which came out while I was in college. I have listened to this song hundreds of times over the years, but when I heard it again recently the words meant something different to me.
I still have my first generation iPod, a gift from my dad for Christmas in 2005 as I was preparing to study abroad in South Africa. I have no idea whether the company still supports updates for this technology because I haven't tried to update my iPod since 2008. So it remains a time capsule of favorite music from a specific time in my life. And I often listen to the "Switchfoot" playlist on my iPod while I am flying, which was the case last week.
That line, "far from home is a perfect place to start," felt significant as I am currently in the middle of my Peace Corps service in Moldova. As I am considering what I will do after this, and who I want to grow into. As I'm working through the book "Designing Your Life." As I'm considering what is important to me for the future. My time in Moldova has been a good pause in a way. An opportunity to step out of my U.S. life and observe it from afar. Yet, it has also been propelling me forward, and hopefully also preparing me for what is to come.
I do feel like the more I learn the less I know, but I also see how new things bloom out of what is left behind.
So as I listened to these lyrics on a flight to visit friends from my past - elementary school/high school and college - and sorted through memories of all the drives and flights and occasions during which I've listened to them before, I wondered what significance they hold for my future. I wonder what occasion I will hear them next, and what new experience I will have to look back on at that point.
While I was in Geneva last week, I sat in a pew at the cathedral in old town and prayed - much as I did in the Zagreb Cathedral 3 years ago - that God would guide my next steps. With 10 months left in Peace Corps Moldova, it is already time to start preparing for what is next. And just like then, I know that a time of transition is coming up.
Who do I want to be? Where do I want to be? What do I want to do? I partially know the answers to these questions, but a lot is still up in the air, unknown. But I want to be open to what may come. I want to be willing to say yes to something that may be a good opportunity, even if it's not something I've considered before. For some reason, it always seems that stepping away from normal life helps me gain perspective or at least be open to new things.
far from home is a perfect place to start...
