Garden Boxes

Behind Mike and Steph’s apartment building (where I made my home for the first month and a half of my stay here in Slovakia) there is a block of buildings that look a lot like little garden boxes. I would sit on the back porch watching the people hang up their laundry, water their plants, sunbath, read, barbeque, and sip wine in the evenings. Each of the boxes (the porch parts of their flats) were like individual ecosystems that were governed and gardened by that particular family. Each had their own style. Some older women would spend hours on their back porches smoking cigarettes. Others were almost always vacant. SOme porches were full of plants and flowers, some were just used for hanging laundry. Some were organized, some in chaos.

I think I will find out what my little garden box would look like. These last few months have been really precious to me. I have had so much time to myself to really think, really consider what I value, really challenge myself to see what I’m like. Since so many of my friends have been away from this summer and I have had to do a lot of things by myself–including living alone for the first time–I think I am learning more about myself than I have before. One thing I have noticed especially in this last year is how hard I work at pleasing other people. It has been an interesting challenge to go shopping and think, okay, what do I want to eat? What movie do I want to see? When I wake up in the morning and have nothing planned for a whole day, how do I want to spend it? WHen I have no responsibilities, what sounds like fun? What makes me uncomfortable? How do I relax? How do I motivate myself to do things when they aren’t scheduled in? Do I need a schedule to accomplish things? To ask myself these questions and not have someone to give me their thoughts has allowed me to make choices that were wholly mine.

I am so glad to have my friends back in town, I am thrilled to be starting work (something that I knew already but was proved to me again this summer is that I NEED to have something to keep my mind and body busy), but I am grateful to God for these quiet months of soul searching. I haven’t been so well rested for years, and I am eager for life to kick up into full gear, but I feel like I am more in tune with myself and my needs than ever before. I know that taking a walk in the evening will help me sleep and will relax me, I know I prefer talking to God in the morning (for years I always did it at night), I learned that sometimes I really do need a to do list, and that it takes me a while to start my day, but once I get going I can go all day. I don’t like napping, I love eating out (but really only with people), if I start watching youtube I will not choose to stop and read a book, I like to sit down and eat breakfast, and I have to always be doing something creative, whether writing, drawing, finding weird pictures to send people, or just dreaming about fun lesson plans. That’s just the beginning, I know this will be a year of a lot of growth. This year I am holding firmly onto Isaiah 58:

“And the LORD will continually guide you, And satisfy your desire in scorched places, And give strength to your bones; And you will be like a watered garden, And like a spring of water whose waters do not fail.”

I know that Jesus will continue to enrich my life in the ways which only He can, and He will continue to show me more and more who I am, both my quirks and who I am in Him.

Below are some pictures from my stay in Marianka, a little village outside of Bratislava. I was house sitting for a family and got to hang out with a dog all week. It was amazing.