The Miry Clay in the Potter's hands goes through the sculpting of His hands and the furnace of His fire to become His jar of clay. For noble purpose or the ordinary, He alone rightfully decides. Of grime and mud, only the Loving Potter will take & create, only the Skillful One will make a masterpiece, only the Faithful will strive to keep it soft till the end.
Heh.. i know i have not been very good with my pictures so far.. the tendency when you're not in the "travel" mode. But anyway, here are some pictures over the last couple of weeks of our move (yup i took the shot while i am behind the wheel!), process of setting up our apartment (check out the shopping cart and catch a glimpse of our car) and some of our first home made meals here (i kinda baked a cake coz i was bored one evening- not too yummy though..)! Enjoy!
It’s the early hours of the Friday morning, and I’m sitting here in the train- doing the one thing that I’ve been desiring to all week. The air in the train is probably a lot cooler than what is beyond the window, but my sniffing nose cannot wait till I get out and smell the warm summer air.
A train ride may seem uneventful to some, but when you’re comfortable in a cushioned seat and have all that you need with you- you will realize that you can do so much in that hour. So pray tell, what does this Dawn Traveller do?
She has her breakfast with her, so she carefully munches on her breakfast pick of the day. She’s now careful to finish only half the portion of her ceral or sandwich, because she realizes that eating at 6am meant that she’s only gonna get hungry again at 9! And of course she learns it only by having 2 breakfasts for a couple of days *grins*
Being enslaved to multi-tasking, she reads as she eats. These days she’s reading Gordon T. Smith’s “Courage and Calling”, and is transported into a world that’s different from the one she’s riding by. Being swirled into the author’s world of addressing the youth, young adult, mid-lifers and seniors- to think about our gifts, how we see the brokenness of the world. It’s like watching life flash by. She reads slowly, but is definitely enjoying it. More about it next time.
The short attention span of this traveler meant that she could not be one of those who would read throughout the journey. So she takes out her phone, plays around with it. Unwilling to become an image of a gadget-fidgeting traveler, she moves through her email, facebook, messaging and news very quickly and keeps her phone tucked away in her purse for the rest of the journey.
Oh she’s noticing something that she’s never seen outside of the window! It’s not a pretty sight of a “black mountain”. Looks like a black rubber cloth covering over a dump of something- wonder what’s in there. Thankfully the train moved on from the unpretty scene and prevents her mind from wondering further. And the dawn is breaking, the sun will soon burst forth it’s rays through the clouds. Reminds her of a song that’s frequently on the air of the Christian station these days… “the One who makes the moon reflect the sun..”
She takes out her laptop and types away. For the past few days, she was working during this segment of the travel. And today, she’s starting her Friday with one of her favourite past times. It’s gonna be a good Friday : )
Five minutes to her destination, time to put the laptop away. While waiting for the machine to shut down, she pulls out her make-up kit and paints gently on her face. It looks almost non-existent, why does she bother- she often wonders. Ah well, it makes her feel like a woman… But the best part is that the powder cake reminds her of her moomoo who gave it to her.
“Chicago Union Station”. Time for her to alight the carriage and start treading to start her day at work. Guess what her next blog title’s gonna be?
Cant believe it’s been two weeks since I’ve arrived in “the land of the free”. We’ve settled in Dad and Mum’s home in Decatur very comfortably in a strangely quick pace. Maybe it’s because I combated jet lag pretty well, or that jumping straight into work right after I arrive still gave my mind familiar things to focus on, or that being around with family in a familiar environment made the transition a lot easier, or simply a combination of all these factors.
For those who are interested in my mundane existence, here’s just a some peeks into what I’ve been up to these two weeks.
Work wise – Instead of having meetings late into the night, I start my day in the “basement office” with 6am meetings. This means going to bed by 10pm and waking up at 540am. It a pretty nice change, especially since I finish at about 4pm, latest 6pm each day and get my evenings back. I am definitely determined to NOT overwork any more since I’m so underpaid. :p
My first friend - Goldberry lives in our side of the house. Most parts of the week day, we’re each other’s only companion. So no matter which part of the house I’m in, she would come around and settle close by. Be it the living room snuggling on the carpet floor beside me, or in the basement sitting right in front of my laptop making me give her attention, or bedroom sharing our bed. I’m starting to like the attention that she wants from me, never thought i'd experience that! Except times when she would share my cup without my permission, or making it impossible for me to work. And I cannot believe I talk so much to a cat. *faintz*
Purchases – hahaha.. it’s gonna be fun as Arthur and I start buying things. This is always a time when submission is so hard to put into practice, and I need to frame my mind to think in the “submission” frame so we don’t get into more “tense situations” than we need to. Our first purchase was our phones, and already we are learning new things about our decision making pattern. Next, will be our car, fun times. Oh, and did I tell you we rented our apartment online, without even seeing it? FAITH!
I miss you – I miss my fish beehoon, ban mian and porridge. I miss having my moomoo BFF around to trouble all the time hahaha… and her BF of course. I miss mum and dad, and hearing their usual nag on skype just makes me smile. I miss my LIFE Group, church and friends… I’m pretty sure I miss you if you’re reading this… Please take care ya? *HUGZ*
Here's sharing a song that had been a big part of my 2 weeks here....
