Just Thinking
This is so uncommon to have to posts in such close timing. But what does it matter when I don't have a needy audience? Beautiful.
Anyways, I was going through my notebook (I dislike the words journal or diary...because that's not what it is for me)...and found this thing I'd written about Africa. It makes me think, I like it. So I thought I'd throw it into here so I can look at it a bit more, think about it some more, and maybe one day somebody will see this and it'll make think too.
Thinking is positive.
Here it is.
The world seems to think Africa needs us. That we need to tell them how to live (busily), how to love (conditionally), and how to succeed (with money). Of course, the aid we send and the children we sponsor are a blessing, a needed one. However, we've become so blind in our pursuit to change a continent that rarely have people paused to see who Africa is, what it has to teach the world, and the beauty of a lost culture. Maybe living in Zambia was about more than just saving orphans and feeding widows. My time there (I see now) was about more than sensationalized clinic visits. I love helping people - I tried to give what I could when I could, being in the situation I was in. The blessings the people of Zambia poured upon me were that of a lovely and forgotten kind though. They gave me wisdom, insight, and laughter. More than I could ask for, and all they had to offer.
That not could easily be taken the wrong way, but if you're reading this, eat it up for whatever it's worth. It never ceases to amaze me how 6 months of life completely and totally changed my mind, my heart, my friends, and my family. Not just for a moment, but forever. The changes keep coming and the impacts continue happening, always unexpected, always in the most gorgeous of ways.
Anyways, I was going through my notebook (I dislike the words journal or diary...because that's not what it is for me)...and found this thing I'd written about Africa. It makes me think, I like it. So I thought I'd throw it into here so I can look at it a bit more, think about it some more, and maybe one day somebody will see this and it'll make think too.
Thinking is positive.
Here it is.
The world seems to think Africa needs us. That we need to tell them how to live (busily), how to love (conditionally), and how to succeed (with money). Of course, the aid we send and the children we sponsor are a blessing, a needed one. However, we've become so blind in our pursuit to change a continent that rarely have people paused to see who Africa is, what it has to teach the world, and the beauty of a lost culture. Maybe living in Zambia was about more than just saving orphans and feeding widows. My time there (I see now) was about more than sensationalized clinic visits. I love helping people - I tried to give what I could when I could, being in the situation I was in. The blessings the people of Zambia poured upon me were that of a lovely and forgotten kind though. They gave me wisdom, insight, and laughter. More than I could ask for, and all they had to offer.
That not could easily be taken the wrong way, but if you're reading this, eat it up for whatever it's worth. It never ceases to amaze me how 6 months of life completely and totally changed my mind, my heart, my friends, and my family. Not just for a moment, but forever. The changes keep coming and the impacts continue happening, always unexpected, always in the most gorgeous of ways.
posted by Lauren at 7:59 PM
1 Comments:
oh wow
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