Change Point

When I was 11, my teacher told my mother at a parent teacher interview that I should learn French, as it was a handy language to have in the future. Over the summer school holidays I picked up a second hand book with French in it and tried to practise reading it out loud (undoubtedly my pronounciation would have been awful). When I was 12 I started learning French, I continued it into high school, and when I changed to a school that didn’t teach French I learnt it by correspondence. As each year went by I would tell myself, just one more year, then I’ll stop, never intending it to continue past high school.

My mother always told me that she had taken French when she was young, but she couldn’t remember any more than a couple of phrases. I figured I would end up like that. However when it came time to pick uni subjects and I really had no idea what I wanted to study or where I wanted to end up, I discovered that my Uni had a specified program (one with no major) called Science International, where you could team up science subjects with any one language.

So French and chemistry were the basis of my further 3 ½ yrs learning at a tertiary institution. When I finished, I decided to go serve a mission for my church. I was hoping to get called somewhere where I would be able to speak French. September 11 happened just after I sent in my papers. Everyone told me I would get kept somewhere close to home (my sister was hoping for Wellington) so I was hoping for Tahiti. When my call came it was about the furthest place on the planet that it was possible to go, 11hrs time difference between here and Switzerland.

I loved Europe, once I got used to it. It did take some getting used to. When I got home I got a job at a lab in Tauranga, thanks to one of my old Chemistry professors. Then I got a job teaching Tahitian missionaries at the Training centre in Hamilton.

Then I started looking for a permanent job, and it just so happened that Air New Zealand was looking for French speaking check in agents, right at the time that I was looking for a job. I went for a group interview (one of the most nerve-wracking interviews I’ve ever experienced in my life) and came out the other side with a new job and a move to a new city. Then when I applied to transfer back home, the key factor in their decision to hire me was the experience that I’d already had in my job in Auckland.

My point to all this, is that one little decision when I was 11yrs old, has influenced so many things in my life up to this point that I find it hard to believe. I probably wouldn’t have the job that I have now, or even live where I live now. I’m sure I would have studied something entirely different at Uni (probably humanities, which was what I was also leaning towards).

Nearly everytime I go away on holiday, I run into people, who speak French. Usually they’re quite surprised to find someone who speaks their language so far from home. My life has been enriched in so many ways by the ability to speak a second language. It has also taught me about the huge impact that the little things can have on our life, further down the track. Who would’ve known that from such small and simple things, great things could come to pass?

On my mind

So I went two days on fruit smoothies and vegetable juice, then I went two days on water, and by the end of the water day I was over it. Well, actually what happened is my flatmates decided to have a delicious combined dinner and I was so hungry that I decided to finish my fast early. Talk about lack of will power.

I thought about it though, and I decided that four days is better than nothing. Also yesterday at church someone read out a quote about not fasting for thirty days, 24 hours is good enough, and the Lord will hear the prayers of a sincere heart. Technically I wasn’t doing it for revelation I was doing it for health purposes, but my clothes feel looser in any case which is quite nice.

I’m currently living in a 7 bedroom house, we did have 7 people, and we’re now down to 5. One is planning to move home soon so then we’ll be down to 4. The rent is going up to $450 next week which we’ve decided is too much, so we’re now looking for a more manageable 4 bedroom house in a decent area to move into. Definitely not Ham East coz that’s a dodgy area, especially around the Uni, houses are always getting ripped into around there.

We found a cute villa house in between the lake and town, haven’t seen the inside yet but it looks great from the outside. I’m guessing that its occupied by students who are leaving soon because the date its being made available is just as uni exams begin. I hope we can get it.

My nephew nearly drowned on Saturday at the pools, apparently I was meant to be watching him. I couldn’t see him though, owing to my short-sightedness, so I saw him heading over to the other side of the pool but couldn’t see him after he started descending down the steps into another pool (which was over his head and he can’t swim). Luckily the spirit yelled at my sister who was engrossed in an argument some people were having somewhere else “wheres your son?” which caused her to look around and see him under the water and go and yank him out before he started inhaling water into his lungs. Both of them got a big fright. I felt bad.

I’ve started doing pilates. Its making me a lot more flexible than I used to be. Also zumba, because my flatmate has the dvds. It feels nice to think onto paper/a computer screen occasionally. Then I can clearly see where my heads at.

My mini ephiphany

I had a mini epiphany yesterday. Sometimes with all the information in your head, there are lots of random facts, but then sometimes two unrelated separate ideas might come together in a particular way to provide enlightenment which is astonishing.

I was thinking about the 40 day water fast one of my friends recently completed. She originally intended it to be only two weeks, but then amidst priesthood blessings and prayer, felt to continue what she was doing, and 40 days later when she finished, she got a whole lot of revelation about what she was to do in her life.

I didn’t find out about it until after she’d finished (good move not telling people – they tend to not understand and make fruitless unhelpful comments). Her skin now looks really radiant, which is the thing that I noticed first about her, also she lost weight although that wasn’t her goal, her goals was to be healthier.

Anyway I was trying out a new green smoothie variation I hadn’t tried before – tamarillo, peach, banana and spinach (seriously delicious), when it hit me. Jesus was 30yrs old when he began his ministry which he preceeded with a 40 day fast. And I am also 30, therefore I’m the same age that Jesus was. It seems like a small thing, but it hit me really strongly. Do it. Do it now.

Emergency Preparedness

I was at a workmates wedding last Saturday when I first heard about the Christchurch earthquake – one of my other workmates mentioned that the airport was closed, and I had no idea what they were talking about (that seems to happen to me quite a bit.)

My first thought was for the people I know in Christchurch who would have all been affected by such a major event. I was in their city a few months ago, doing the tourist thing, taking lots and lots of photos and I wondered how different it would all look now, since all the news footage they have been showing looks like it has been taken from exactly the same spot.

My next thoughts were about how well prepared I would be in case of such a disaster. I have bits and pieces of a 72hr kit, but they’re not located in one place, and I have no idea how I would get to them in an emergency. One lady I know recommended making a poncho with lots of pockets filled with supplies which you could grab in case anything happened – a good idea if you’re likely to be carrying children or other things out of the house in a hurry.

Over the last few years I’ve been trying to declutter the things in my life, it doesn’t help that I have a tendency to hoard, but I have gradually been clearing things away. When I was young we didn’t have much and I got installed with the idea that people are more important than things. I have a small room at the moment, which helps me remember that I should get rid of all the things I don’t use on a regular basis – much easier said than done, since I have a lot of stuff that has been in storage for the last few months. I probably don’t need most of it, but I have an emotional attachment to it.

If it was all destroyed in a fire or earthquake, I don’t know that I would miss it, since I probably wouldn’t remember what was there. Really I should just get rid of it all. I don’t know whats stopping me.