Sometimes at random moments during my day; like when I'm sitting in a small dark room
cutting and peeling potatoes with Jackie our cook, or even now when I'm riding in a small car with
my five teammates around me zooming along to spend our day off at Lake Victoria, at times like these
I look around me and just….laugh.
I laugh at myself and at my life, at the beautiful scenery flashing past my car window.
I laugh at the never ending chant-like African music filtering through the radio, and at all the ridiculous
speed bumps that are placed in the most random parts of the road, the ones that make you go from
80mph to a dead stop in under 3 seconds just so you can cross over a tiny little hump.
The beautiful towering mountains to the right, and a calm peaceful sea to
the left of our car.
Riding along in a small boat pointing, laughing, and squealing over the family of hippos that pop up
and down out of the water around us like those moles in that Whack-a-mole game you used to play.
Motoring aways over to a swimming hole where we jump off the side of the boat into the murky water
and just swim around, never knowing at the time that a hippo was swimming only a couple of feet
behind us! Later going to a nice restaurant and getting excited over the prospect of pizza, fries, and
ice-cream, and bathrooms with real toilets stocked with real toilet paper!
Driving back towards home laughing over each other's stories of awkward moments from that day,
hanging out of my window trying to take pictures of the beautiful African sunset; knowing that they will
never truly capture and convey the beauty before my eyes.
I look at these things, these crazy but beautiful things and just…..laugh!
A long and deep belly jiggling, shoulder's shaking, head thrown all the way back, mouth wide open
kind of laugh.
I laugh because I have no words, no better way to express the feeling that comes at these
random moments in life.
I LOVE THIS LIFE THAT I'M LIVING.
A life of never knowing what's about to happen next, of having no expectations, of going with the flow,
of learning to roll with the punches. Where a trip into town becomes a hunt for silk slips for us to sleep
in because the heat at night is so oppressive (we found those slips too, and we wear them every night
and call ourselves the Sisterhood Of The Traveling Nighties). Where monthly trips to the doctor or
chemist is normal because we picked up some kind of virus, worm, or parasite in each new country.
A life of Squatty- Potties; some porcelain, sometimes a hole with bricks on either side of it to stand on,
or sometimes you pick a good spot and dig your own hole. Where you have no fingernails, because its
too much of a hassle to clean out the never ending dirt and grime that lives under them when left long.
A life of very few showers because its a long process of drawing the water from a well, heating it up
slowly over hot coals, and finally pouring it into a basin.
Figuring out how to actually wash yourself whether its…
- Picking the basin up and dumping the water over yourself.
- Sticking your head into the basin
- Flicking the water out of the basin onto yourself.
or whatever other system you can come up with is another story entirely.
A life where personal hygiene is something of a joke, where you shave once MAYBE twice a month.
Where you go through 2-3 bottles of hand sanitizer a week because soap is nonexistent, and where
flecks of dirt rise to the surface of whatever part of your body you run your hand across.
A life where eyebrows are left un plucked for months, where baby wipe baths happen daily, and
where having a mirror is like a treat or special gift (that is until you see yourself in one for the first time in months, then you usually find yourself saying these phrases:
– My eyebrows look like caterpillars!
– Why on earth did y'all let me walk around in public looking like this?)
To most this kind of life would be undesirable, mainly because of the roughness of it all.
Yeah maybe this life is a little bit rough, but the beauty in it outweighs all of the rough stuff.
The beauty of laughter, of exhaustion, of crazy thunderstorms.The beauty of dirty little children jumping
into your arms shouting your name, while rubbing their noses all of over your clothes.
There is beauty in the simple things: like getting a new tube of chap stick, colored pencils,
clean clothes on the line, body wash, a hair elastic, chewing gum, or having your toenails painted.
Beauty in a sunrise, in a new journal, in learning a new hand clap game, in good clean drinking water,
in a waterfall, in a good meal of chicken, chips, and a coke!
There's beauty in holding a crying baby, in going to church, in singing a worship song, in reading
your bible, in learning a dance, in giving a hug.
Beauty can come in the form of praying a prayer of healing, in visiting
hospital patients, in letting the spirit move while speaking at a prison, in leading
a bible study at a police station, in a conversation with your taxi driver,
in asking the name of a store owner and then thanking them for your purchase.
Beauty even comes in times of pain.
In tears shed, in heartbreak, in the loss of a loved one, in family problems,in confidence issues,
in past wounds, in learning how to forgive someone, in sickness, in frustration, in physical pain,
and even in death.
There
Is
Beauty
Everywhere Around Us,
In
Everything.
We simply have to choose to see and thank God for it.
I write these things not to inspire or convince you of life's beauty, but to show that I, myself am
finally seeing this beauty. I am finally understanding that life in good and bad is truly beautiful,
and that this beauty comes not from you and I, but from God.
As I write this I'm looking all around me,
and Laughing,
and Thanking God for my
Beautiful Life.
He has made everything Beautiful in its time.
Ecclesiastes 3:11a
