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on new eyes. . .

on new eyes. . .

When you first move to a new place, it is easy to write.

You see everything with new eyes.

The food. The colors. The curve of the road. The beauty of the valley. The nuance in the day to day. These eyes are the gift of a new place – everything is in sharper focus. Nothing seems mundane.

And then over the course of years (almost 5 for us here), the new becomes home. The adventure in the jaunt up the hill becomes a daily walk. The maze of traffic becomes your normal drive.

We have had several new families move into Kijabe in the last few months, and their eyes are fresh – they see the beauty in the weather, hear the roar in the midnight wind, and the flavor in the chicken and the mangoes. I love seeing them post pictures of things that I see every day but haven’t noticed in months. (photos from Cassandra Daggett our new neighbor below. . .)

But with that comes the eyes that see the other things too. . . we were talking to friends last week about rats, and dust, and traffic, and waiting in line, and haggling and differences in timing here. It was all so new to them, but to us, just like the beauty and the wind, it has become a normal part of life. Something that drove us bonkers at first, but now is a trade-off for the other things that make this our home.

The stories that we told at the beginning seem mundane now, but this month, I want to return to the descriptions of the days – of every day life here in all is extraordinary ordinariness.

So, I am going to try to write everyday – to put into words and unwrap a little bit of the bits and pieces that make up our life here, and paint a picture of days that are no less profound, not just highs and lows, but who we are. . . .and perhaps, in the process, regain a bit of the new eyes that have dulled in the years we have been here.

2 thoughts on “on new eyes. . .

    • Author gravatar

      Love this idea! Without a doubt we all become a bit dulled to the ‘normal’ and mundane things around us. I often think of how our So. California relatives marvel at how green NC is! Lord, reawaken the wonder and gratitude for the uniqueness of the place and time you have given us!

    • Author gravatar

      Mundane? Phooey! Yes, we grow jaded, and God’s miracles and majesty over the comings and going of this world and our interactions with it may seem ordinary – but everything is wondrous if we, as you say, just take time to take inventory. The air we breathe, the provisions of life, the ability to learn and experience, the dust on the road, and the intricacy of flower blossoms. These are wondrous to me – but none compare to our God who nodded approval when his son died sinless rescuing us for life eternal. Looking forward to everyday.

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