fishing for time

Waves coming in at sunset.

My time right now I would liken to a fishing trip. Putting a new lure on the line, securing it with a knot. Baiting your hook with a squirmy worm or piece of old hot dog… casting your line as you simultaneously flick your wrist and let the reel go? The line so tightly wound on the reel flies out and away. Depending on how hard you cast your line, the weight of your lure and the length remaining on your line? You come down to the end with a tug. Tug. And that is as far as it goes. In one word I would say my time is going quickly. If you were interested in a paragraph break down? Well, I gave you that too.

Thank you dear reader. Your time reading these words and interacting with photographs and videos is wonderful. I hope that you are feeling encouraged today. The things that you do, the lives that you interact with and touch? They matter. The effort you put into smiling with the person you paid for your coffee was worth it. The dinner you cooked for your family? Mattered. I may know you, and perhaps I don’t, but you are so special. Do you ever wonder how you would describe your time? Is it creeping by at a slow turtle-esque pace? Or is it going fast?

I gave my Turkish pottery friend a bible a few days ago. I brought my laptop to the cafe where we were meeting for tea (nescafe for me please). The cafe had wi-fi and I knew I could use google translator to facilitate conversation. You know what? I didn’t. Sometimes technology just gets in the way! As I typed that I laughed out loud– how comical! I am USING TECHNOLOGY to get these words to you just now. Well, anyway, I used ALL the Turkish I have learned in the last three months and my Turkish-English dictionary and I talked about Jesus and Christmas and pottery and my journey home with my Turkish friends. There were awkward moments when I just swung my legs back and forth because they didn’t reach the ground and I had no idea what to say next. Trying to embrace awkwardness and seek understanding out. I am thankful to have had a chance to speak some bad (completely unconcerned with grammatical accuracy)-Turkish. There is a sense that my unabashed attempts at speaking Turkish will be how I learn. God is incredible… I love Him.

Emptying out drawers and packing to leave.