The other morning we said goodbye to our little home, mailed home the obscene amount of trinkets and gifts we had collected throughout our time in Thailand, and ate one last bowl of khow soi (which I highly recommend ordering the next time you go to a Thai restaurant)
There is something about sitting on a bus for 16 hours that really makes ya think….. I’ve got a lot of thoughts cooking in my brain that I don’t quite have the words for yet, but one thing that I do want to write about is authenticity.
I think that we have a choice between an authentic life or a life stuck on cruise control, lacking any zeal or true fulfillment.
In a podcast that I listened to recently the speaker was joking around about how people in today’s society would travel around the world just to find out where their coffee was produced. He said that 40 years ago people drank any coffee as long as it was warm and brown. I think the underlying reason why fair trade products are so trendy is because we are a generation longing for authenticity. We want to know where things come from and we want people to know that we care. When we finally muster enough courage to post a photo with #nofilter on it we have to let everyone know. Anyways……you should just listen to the podcast, it’s called Creating Context for Culture.
It’s been making me think about community and how we have the choice to really live or just show up without being present. I can invest in my teammates or I can just drag myself to team time without actually caring. I can press into hard times or I can cop out and sit in my room on my phone. I can choose vulnerability or I can live in isolation without telling anyone how I am actually feeling. I can be somewhere without actually being there…..what a concept.
Living in community on the world race is hard….but I’ve never experienced so much growth jam packed in such a short amount of time. Yes we get to laugh together and go on rad adventures, but we also get to challenge each other with hard truths. We get to call each other to offer more grace, create spaces to stretch our minds so that positivity is the standard, and every once in awhile kindly remind each other whose night it is to do the dishes.
Team Quinoa I wouldn’t have wanted to start the race with any other group of girls. I’ll miss biking to 7/11 and scream singing hot potato at the top of our lungs. Thanks for choosing authenticity and serving me so well. I honestly thought our team was a dud three months ago but somehow I’ve gained 5 new sisters…..and a new daddy.
Welp my time is Thailand is over and it’s been an absolute blast. Our last few days here were spent at Rayong Beach along with another team. We had the incredible opportunity to join in on their ministry and pass out Operations Christmas Child boxes! I also went snorkeling for the first time and it was A M A Z I N G.
Here we come Malawi !!! New year, new country, new team
