Time to Catch...Up...

sooo... here I am.. I have been missing you all a lot lately... it's funny because things have not been rolling quite my way, as I will ashamedly admit I am a bit used to, but also with the feelings that naturally come with 'Tis the season, which has already begun here, i miss you... something about all the christmas cheer... it is in full bloom... i know, i know--only mid-November, you say? well, I have a theory for that... i decided that is because there is no defining day, like we have--being thanksgiving--to really begin the Christmas season, they begin decorating before Halloween in some parts! it is actually absurd, and takes away a bit of the novelty and excitement of Christmas when they celebrate it for a fourth of the year!

anyhow, back to how I was missing you guys. You are great, and things are still wonderful here, but finding work has just not proved to be as... possible... as I thought it would be! :) I say wonderful because I am really learning the meaning of being happy in all circumstances... One may think it is a joke to speak of "learning to be content" while living in Granada and having a fairly light work schedule, but it is not this that is the struggle... it is the sense that I am not really DOING anything here. I am convinced idleness for me signifies stale feelings. That is the best I think I can describe it... I just have a stirring within me to go build a house for someone or clean out a water tank or something completely primeval yet necessary because all I am doing here seems to have lost sight of what I like to think is really important to me. BUt then I think to myself that it is good I am thinking like this because I am re-assessing where I am and what I am doing and re-installing purpose into my being here. When these feelings began to overwhelm me a bit, I just took a deep breath, wrote a couple (okay, more than a couple) pages in my blog, made myself some hot chocolate, and promised myself to start fresh. I made a list of things I want to accomplish while here, and some plans for ensuring these things happen... so here we go...

1. Go hiking and skiing in the Sierra Nevadas (Audrey, David and I went on an excursion yesterday, check!)
2. Find a mentor in the church I have recently begun attending
3. Paint and read more...
4. Go to the gym
5. Find some ways to help people
6. Invest myself in someone and allow people to continue affecting me
7. Continue to immerse myself in Spanish
8. Really soak up all the unique aspects of this city

So these are all the original reasons I set out here, but in the run of every day here and there, I seem to have lost track a bit, and in course, lost the purpose of being here. Lost sounds so desperate. So not lost. Just fogged over. I was still doing all these things, but I had lost the impetus, the focus and reasoning I had for doing them.... So my rededication is here on this blog, and in my heart, awww... what cheese! No, but for real, it is important for me to know the reason for doing things and where I am headed, so this little heart-to-mind get-together I had for myself was important! And now, as promised... PICTURES... we have internet in the house now, so I don't mind so much sitting around waiting for them to load! Enjoy!