Saturday 25 January 2014

Brats and Communist China

There are certain things you don't count on when you go a year to Spain...getting a wicked cold is one of them. I'm super stuffed up this week, and it's making it an extra struggle to get to work and to be away from home. But I press on because these are not real problems.

I have this one class who are, to be politically correct, a bunch of brats. Now don't get me wrong, they're lovely kids, they have just never been told "No." in their lives. This made me think of my own upbringing. I don't easily throw around the word "oppression", but the Good Lord knows that I was told "No." as a child. Mum/Dad I'm toootes joking about the oppression comment. Please don't get the wooden spoon. Anyway, my point is that I am beyond grateful for my childhood/upbringing. I was given an all-access pass to one thing, and it was love. I definitely didn't see it at the time, and I definitely gave my parents a hard time, but looking back I know that everything has formed me into who I am today. So I guess this one goes out to the parents who know when to say "No." And the kids/teenagers who think they're living in Communist China...just deal with it and trust them, man.

This week, I thought I'd share something I wrote a while ago. To understand this, you need to know that I've always found it easy to be creative when there are no boundaries. This means sometimes I start writing and never finish. It also means I write things at times from the viewpoint of my younger self. This is one of those and as I read it back, I realised that it perfectly represents that moment in my life when I decided that I want to live for God. The Dr. Seuss-esque rhyme makes it seem quite juvenile but I think that's the intention. I think it expresses the vulnerability of a young person, for whom nothing is certain, suddenly realising that there is one certainty in life. I'm saying this, but I definitely didn't think this much about it while writing it...anyways, without further ado, here it is.


Ode to The Moments

There are moments in life where I stop and I think,
There’s me and there’s God and there seems no link,
Then a moment follows where I stop in my tracks,
Realising what He’s done I need to give back.

I grow from each moment with time and with hope,
And even when I’m at the end of my rope,
I call upon God for He’s the only one,
Who saves me each time with the power of His Son.

The power to remind me of all of the love,
He showed me when He sent His Son from above.
The power when He says it was all for you,
That His sacrifice should strengthen and renew.

These moments I live I wouldn’t take back.
When He’s at my side with a hand on my back,
Nudging me on to the goal He set out,
The life that I’m worth, another step on the mount.

And so I press on with my heart set on Him,
For the one who forgave me my every last sin.
To Him be the honour of all of my life,
And to Him be the thanks for His aid in my strife.


Thanks for reading. Until next time, Dios te bendiga,

Eilidh

Sunday 12 January 2014

Travelling and Epiphanies

Did you know that the Epiphany is Spain's Christmas? What I mean is that they get presents and spend the day with their family and all the things we do on Christmas Day, they do on 6th January. They didn't actually even celebrate Christmas until like 10 or 15 years ago when it's commercialisation hit the shores (or stores?) of Spain. The big companies saw how much money they could make by having two days to buy gifts for and they've never looked back. I asked a kid at school what they got and they said "I got a tablet for Christmas and a Laptop for Reyes." (which is Spanish for Kings, as in The day the Kings came, as in the Epiphany) To me, that's just cREYESzy. lol.

In honour of this special day, I'd like to share an epiphany I had. (GET IT?!) As some of you know, I chose the biggest trek of a travel plan which totaled about 70 hours there and back. It was entirely worth it, but something happened on my way back to Spain that struck me. I had an idea...It might have been God, it might also have been extreme exhaustion...either way I'm going to try it out and hopefully keep it up. The idea is to write an Ode Series. Now I only did high school English and I'm not hugely familiar with the world of poetry, but on my travels I began to write, and what I wrote surprised me and this just seemed to fit.

The idea came to me as I cast my mind back over the Christmas holidays and wondered why it felt so special and the answer hit me straight away: people. People are what make my life special. People are where I see God. He works through people to get to me and it's effective. There are too many people in my head that I would want a chance, and the courage, to honour personally so this is my way of doing that.

With that in mind I'd like to share what I wrote.


Ode to the Broken

There are people in life,
Well, there are lives,
That become broken.
Death, separation, poverty, depression, abuse, darkness.
Through no fault of their own,
They find themselves,
Well, a part of themselves,
Broken.

Class does not protect them.
Money cannot save them.
Running will not heal them.
There are those who break,
And declare themselves irreparable.
Well, it seems that way.

Then there are those who break,
And fight to repair what’s broken.
These people find their strength
In love, faith and hope.

Two young girls who lost their mother,
On Christmas Day, 3 months later,
Somehow become a light for everyone around them.
They shine out with love and hope for the future.

Do not think they are unbroken.
These young girls are shattered.

The difference is that they did not allow the end of one life,
To be the end of their own.
These young girls are my heroes.

They will wander in 50 years still with scars of the break.
But what will seep through these scars?
Hatred and bitterness and cynicism and darkness?
Or love and faith and hope and support for others in similar situations?

If you asked me, I’d say humans never fully recover from a break.
Yet there remains a choice.
A simple choice, made difficult through natural tendency.
A choice that will change their life,
And the lives of everyone around them.
Accept and share an all-encompassing love,
Or numb the pain, and reject positivity.
These are both dangerous paths,
One can bring hurt and painful memories and vulnerability,
The other can bring only darkness.


Make the right choice.


Thanks for reading and I'm open to suggestions as to where this could go/how I could improve the idea! I hope you are all enjoying a new year filled with new opportunities for love, faith and hope.

Dios te bendiga,

Eilidh