Super Days and Sick Days

Where to begin? Sorry I’ve been pretty unmotivated to write this, but here she goes.

I went and helped at this Food Bank type fundraiser thing on Saturday where we handed out grocery bags and asked people to fill them up with some food for homeless people. It was supposed to be with Rotary but I ended up doing it with a bunch of people from the Lions Club who were really nice so “tant mieux.” I think probably my most fluently spoken French phrase may be “vous souhaitez donner à la Banque Alimentaire?” as I said that probably over 500 times. I also got to see the not so nice side of some Parisians (well, I see that side a lot, but I guess this time it was just more face to face) as I tried to get them to spend maybe 2 or 3 Euros to help out hungry people. I could always tell the business-cash guys in their suits or the ladies with their fur coats were not going to take a bag, because you know, time is money, and who has time for poor people? There was also the one lady who was telling us how sick she is of seeing homeless people on the street. Somewhat ironically, the people that my mind told me were less fortunate by society’s standards were the ones most willing to give, like a lady with a cane who could barely grab the plastic bag we tried to give her because her hand was deformed. I guess it’s nothing to be surprised at, as Jesus didn’t have the greatest opinion of the arrogant rich either. “Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."

That night there was a big-ol Thanksgiving dinner with Vintage (the church I’ve been getting involved with), so in fact I didn’t miss Thanksgiving this year after all! My night was filled with scrumptious food, fun conversation, and tasty (but strong) wine. As my family doesn’t drink, I’ve never experienced Thanksgiving with wine. Everyone knows how tired turkey makes you, so add a good amount of wine in there and you can imagine how tired I was. I met a girl who goes to the American University in Paris who was an exchange student to France a few years ago, so she was amazing to talk to. There’s kind of just this subtle connection between Rotary exchange students that makes conversation so easy, because you’ve both experienced the same things and can understand each other’s stories. I met a bunch of other people from a bunch of different places, so I’m very pleased to have found (with my mother’s help of course) this little pocket of sanity in this city some like to call Paris.

“Lazy Sunday, wake up in the late afternoon” This phrase has come to describe my Sundays, wake up, eat a good lunch with the host family, kick it, then go to the home group at 6. The home group was relaxing, and that’s exactly what I needed. We prayed for a long time and as I had just been worrying so much about my school and everything I brought my heart rate down a pretty good amount and calmed me down. We also made frozen pizzas and I burnt my mouth, which I guess was the only downer of the night.

The thing I have found that I love about Paris, even though I complain sometimes, is how close it is to everything. As in yesterday, after school, I was still really worried, so I went to Montmartre, got myself some Crêpe, and sat on a bench below Sacré Coeur overlooking Paris. Then I went inside and just had some alone time between me and the big man. If any of you need to clear your mind, go to Sacré Coeur and pray inside. Although that may be varying in cost depending on how far away you live from Paris, I assure you it’s worth it.

I had been kind of getting sick all throughout the weekend, so yesterday was kind of bad just with coughing/running nose etc. For those of you who know me I don’t exactly get sick often, so I’m blaming it on the stress. But, I did get to stay home from school today at the suggestion of my host parents, so that in itself is worth being sick as I most likely would have spent a lot of today at school worrying. I watched Crash, which I really liked, read, fell asleep, had a crazy dream, and have just been kind of hanging out all day. This is up there in the relaxation factor with Sacré Coeur.

Whatever happens on Friday happens Friday and I’m just going to deal with things as they come. This week has been a nice lesson in trust. Trust is one of those funny things that seems so easy to do in theory but is so very hard in practice. Logically, me tearing up my insides worrying about what’s going to happen makes no sense, as by doing that I accomplish nothing. But we all like to be in control (me especially), so it’s hard for us to accept that things are out of our hands, even if the hands in which they are in are much more qualified to handle our situation. Basically it comes down to accepting that God has our best interests in mind, even though it may not seem like it at the time or it’s not exactly what we had in mind, which is one of the hardest things there is to accept. I’ve been repeating a quote over and over in my head, which I am going to leave with you.

Calm thyself, O my soul, so that the divine can act in thee!
Calm thyself, O my soul, so that God is able to repose in thee so that His peace may cover thee!
Søren Kierkegaard

Brent