"Almighty God, you alone can bring into order the unruly wills and affections of sinners. Grant your people grace to love what you command and desire what you promise; that, among the swift and varied changes of the world, our hearts may surely there be fixed where true joys are to be found; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever."
-from the Book of Common Prayer, emphasis added.
Spare Oom
Honestly, “reverse culture shock” hasn’t hit me too hard. Yet, anyway.
The first couple days, I soaked in the pleasures of Chick-fil-A, air conditioning, and Target.
It didn’t take long to readjust to life here: I remembered that you can flush the toilet paper after just a few times. Driving a car after a year of public transportation wasn’t as strange as I expected. I re-learned the roads fairly quickly. Using a dishwasher and clothes dryer is once again part of my routine. One hour listening to G105, and I’ve caught up on the year’s hits.
And North Carolina is pretty much how I left it.
But…something’s different…
I spent a year in South America. I’m not fully aware of the implications of that, but I know that I’m not the same person I was 12 months ago. Even though I haven’t experienced major re-entry issues, I guess it would be hard to slip effortlessly back into life in the U.S.
As if I’ve re-entered the “Spare Oom” after slipping through the wardrobe into Narnia, it seems hard to believe that I’ve been in another “world” for the past year. I’m sure my absence was felt less here than my presence was there. And though people believe that I was in Colombia, I sympathize with Lucy’s feelings of solitude—loneliness—that result from having no one else with whom to share her experience.
Lucy ran out of the empty room into the passage and found the other three.
“It’s all right,” she repeated, “I’ve come back.”
“What on earth are you talking about, Lucy?” asked Susan.
“Why?” said Lucy in amazement. “Haven’t you all been wondering where I was?”
“So you’ve been hiding, have you?” said Peter. “Poor old Lu, hiding and nobody noticed! You’ll have to hide longer than that if you want people to start looking for you.”
“But I’ve been away for hours and hours,” said Lucy.
The others all stared at one another.
“Batty!” said Edmund, tapping his head. “Quite batty.”
“What do you mean, Lu?” asked Peter.
“What I said, answered Lucy. It was just after breakfast when I went into the wardrobe, and I’ve been away for hours and hours, and had tea, and all sorts of things have happened.”
The first couple days, I soaked in the pleasures of Chick-fil-A, air conditioning, and Target.
It didn’t take long to readjust to life here: I remembered that you can flush the toilet paper after just a few times. Driving a car after a year of public transportation wasn’t as strange as I expected. I re-learned the roads fairly quickly. Using a dishwasher and clothes dryer is once again part of my routine. One hour listening to G105, and I’ve caught up on the year’s hits.
And North Carolina is pretty much how I left it.
But…something’s different…
I spent a year in South America. I’m not fully aware of the implications of that, but I know that I’m not the same person I was 12 months ago. Even though I haven’t experienced major re-entry issues, I guess it would be hard to slip effortlessly back into life in the U.S.
As if I’ve re-entered the “Spare Oom” after slipping through the wardrobe into Narnia, it seems hard to believe that I’ve been in another “world” for the past year. I’m sure my absence was felt less here than my presence was there. And though people believe that I was in Colombia, I sympathize with Lucy’s feelings of solitude—loneliness—that result from having no one else with whom to share her experience.
Lucy ran out of the empty room into the passage and found the other three.
“It’s all right,” she repeated, “I’ve come back.”
“What on earth are you talking about, Lucy?” asked Susan.
“Why?” said Lucy in amazement. “Haven’t you all been wondering where I was?”
“So you’ve been hiding, have you?” said Peter. “Poor old Lu, hiding and nobody noticed! You’ll have to hide longer than that if you want people to start looking for you.”
“But I’ve been away for hours and hours,” said Lucy.
The others all stared at one another.
“Batty!” said Edmund, tapping his head. “Quite batty.”
“What do you mean, Lu?” asked Peter.
“What I said, answered Lucy. It was just after breakfast when I went into the wardrobe, and I’ve been away for hours and hours, and had tea, and all sorts of things have happened.”
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