Yoroshiku onegaishimasu!

A few weeks ago, I had my last day in my old job, and after a wonderful week of vacation, I started long-term Japanese language training. It’s fun to learn a new language in that it is interesting and quite the sense of accomplishment when you learn anything at all. But it is also exhausting and mind numbing for people like me who are not gifted at it. I spend 5 hours every day in class one-on-one. After about 2 hours, I start getting tired, and the Portuguese begins mixing with the Japanese. At 2pm I head home (yeah!), and then study for several hours (meh). The priority for week #1 was to learn one of the alphabets (hiragana). There’s another alphabet and kanji (Chinese characters) still to go. Half the time I’m thinking that this is interesting, and I’m blessed to have this opportunity, and half the time I’m thinking ARGH WHAT AM I DOING? The cat, on the other hand, is quite pleased with this new schedule, as it has me sitting quietly at home much more than I would be if I were in an office. But if anybody wants to meet up for coffee some afternoon, I would welcome the excuse for a study break!

In the realm of “interesting tidbits”:

After sharing 2 commencement addresses in my last post, I found this one by JK Rowling that is really good too. She also spends a good part of her speech saying that failure is really hard, but it can also be a wonderful opportunity.

I also recommend this blog post regarding a recent ministry at a church I was a member of for 10 years. It discusses just one way to create a structure for people of different demographics (namely married and single) to get to know each other, thereby creating community. It’s so easy for us to just spend time with people in a similar stage of life as us, but we lose so much if we do that. Some of the greatest blessings in my life are my friends who are married with children. I know it is easier for them to get together with other couples with children – people they currently have more in common with, where a play-date for their kids is built in. But mixing married-with-children, married-without-children, older singles, and younger singles is what makes church family, enriching everybody’s lives. It takes effort to do that. I know I am helped by putting something on my calendar – something that isn’t a large room full of people I don’t know, but a much more manageable group. And before I get all of the “do YOU reach out to others?” questions... Yes, but I don’t do it as much as I should. Fairly often, I ask myself what effort I’ve made lately, and I start inviting people to coffee or over to my place to play games or bake cookies. The problem for an introvert like me is knowing people to invite over, which is where dinners, community Bible studies or the like are so helpful.

I'm afraid that's all I have this time. I guess I've been taking seriously the idea of "the lazy days of summer". Enjoy the final weeks of summer!