The group is good and amiable. There are 43 students. I am absolutely loving our courses so far, especially our art course in which we've currently been looking at poetry.
As a whole: I do not like London very much. First off I am just not a city person (so if you absolutely love London, realize that about me and try not to get offended). I personally just see it as a more historical version of San Francisco with about 1/100 of the trees, no beach, no hills, and more difficult map. There are also practically no homeless people... oh yeah, and everything is backwards and people have nicer accents. But really, this just is not my deal. I am looking forward to our next stop, a much greener and quieter Oxford.
Today was a day worth writing about. Half of us traveled to the town of Little Gidding. It is the perfect stereotype of a small Enlgish countryside. There we went to a house with a little chapel and graveyard known as the Ferrar House in which T.S. Eliot wrote his last great work. The whole day we spent drinking tea, eating, and reading through this last work in each of the it's sections and discussing it. The garden was incredible with so many different types of the flowers (which I've been starving for since Woodleaf). It was overcast and misting, causing all the greenery to come alive and brighten.
The church on the property where we read two of the sections had a quote from Eliot on the wall (the very place where he wrote it):
"You are not here to verify,
Instruct yourself, or inform curiosity
Or carry report. You are here to kneel
Where prayer has been valid"
and I thought, hmm, poems on the wall of a church, and not all scripture. There were even more than that. How do I feel about that? And I have to say- I feel quite right and good with it. Especially with the meaning of the quote itself. It is so true not just pertaining to our attitude in the church but in life. It is this sense of humbleness I've been longing for and desiring for others.
We sat around the lunch table today and talked about what we want to potentially do with our lives. I asked the question. And I'm now thinking of how much we admire people with this type of plan, people who know what they want to do with their lives. People who makes goals in their careers and have every intention to achieve those specific goals. I will admire their passion, but I will not admire that.
What I want is people who know where God wants them now and are trying their best to get there and only there.
That is humble and that is what I want for myself.
That is what I want on this trip. I don't want to merely learn, see sights and do fun things during my free time. If I am not where God calls me, those things are empty, even the learning. Especially the learning. I want to be in the places God calls me to- whether that be learning in museums, talking to strangers in cafes and pubs, or being somewhere I really do not want to be with my classmates.
In hope,
striving for a humble and gentle spirit.
No comments:
Post a Comment