Looking back at 2024

For a few years now I've been using this last week of the year to write a blog post that reflects on the year past. In particular, I've been using questions to help me focus my thoughts and keep me honest. I've done the same today.

One of the many beautiful things we saw on our long
road trip in 2024.

The questions and categories I've used are these (in case you'd like to copy and use them yourself):

1. What makes this year unforgettable?

2. What did I enjoy doing this year?

3. What/who is one thing/person I'm grateful for?

4. What did I read/watch/listen to that made the most impact this year?

5. What did I worry about most and how did it turn out?

6. What is my biggest regret?

7. What's something that has changed about me?

8. What surprised me most this year?

9. What Bible truths impacted me this year?

10. What meta-themes have I thought about this year? (in no particular order)

Highlights

Lowlights

Concluding thoughts.

1. What makes this year unforgettable?

Ah, so many things. I've just written our monthly prayer/newsletter and spent some space looking back at the many amazing things that happened in 2024. Here's a short list:

• Our youngest two sons moved out, leaving us without any children under our roof for the first time in almost 25 years.
• We took two months long service leave (an Australia institution that rewards long service with extended paid leave).
• We spent two months driving around south-east Australia in a motorhome, including a month in Tasmania
• Major changes for all our kids. Our youngest son started university. After a lengthy period of unemployment our middle son got his first job, a licence, and a car. Our eldest son (within a single month) moved 1,400 km north, took up a carpentry apprenticeship, and got engaged. Now we're contemplating a new daughter-in-law joining the family in the next fortnight.
• After 12 months away we moved back to Japan and into a new apartment, completing a downsize that's been ongoing for a few years. 
• Living for the first time in Japan with no children.
• I had a bad run with a tooth abscess that was misdiagnosed during our sojourn south (and repeatedly in the following months) which ended with dental surgery, and now have one less tooth than I started the year with, as well as my first fake body part in the form of a one-tooth denture. 

2. What did I enjoy doing this year?

• Our motorhome trip was definitely the biggest joy. We've never done such a massive journey (time-wise, this was only 500km shorter than our 16-day trip to Uluru in 2012, but obviously much longer at 58 days).
• There were many things tucked into that motorhome journey that were wonderful, like visiting the MCG for a day (large sports stadium in Melbourne where we did a tour, then enjoyed two museums) and the Bradman museum. Going to "end of the road" type places in Tasmania: e.g. most southerly point and to the north-eastern tip.
• I've enjoyed being just a couple again, setting up our new apartment together in July and August was satisfying.
• I did a one-night two-day retreat with close friends in February.
• Going on an unusual date to watch wheelchair rugby between our two countries.
• Helping run a wrestling tournament at CAJ also fits on this list!

...and yes, there's lots of sport there!

3. What/who is one thing/person I'm grateful for?

• As usual: my husband, but also that God allowed us to come back to Japan rather than a much more dramatic change of direction. 
• And my closest friends: how would I do life without them?

4. What did I read/watch/listen to that made the most impact this year?

• A Call to Spiritual Reformation: Priorities from Paul and His Prayers, D.A. Carson
• Awe: Why it Matters for Everything We Think, Say, and Do by David Paul Tripp
• Bullies and Saints, John Dickson
• The Meaning of Marriage, Timothy Keller with Kathy Keller
• Continued to enjoy Undeceptions podcast.
• I also enjoyed Storytellers: Questions, Answers and the Craft of Journalism by Leigh Sales.

5. What did I worry about most and how did it turn out?

• Despite writing this (in my first blog post this year): "I think that giving up worrying is a worthy goal, not just for 2024, but for the rest of my life. I'm certain that I will fail again and again, but with God's help I surely can improve on what I've done up till now!" I worried about whether 2024 would be a major turn in the road for us. That is, whether we'd return to Japan and how our kids would cope without us nearby. Well it's turned out much better than I expected.

6. What is my biggest regret?

• I can't think of one, except for the first lowlight below: that our long trip was marred by my illness, which of course wasn't my fault, but I wish it hadn't happened.

7. What's something that has changed about me?

• I think I'm trusting God more. It's been a long, hard road of learning that is by no means over, but I think I've made progress.

8. What surprised me most this year?

• A new (almost) daughter-in-law. I've had a quarter of a century of being a mum to boys, adding a girl to the family has been a pleasant surprise. And though we are far apart and have only met three times, I have been excited to get to know her a bit and start to forge a relationship with her that is unlike anything I've experienced before.

9. What Bible truths impacted me this year?

• It's hard to remember anything especially. But here are some Bible verses that I included on my blog through the year:
• Luke 12:23–26 (the folly of worry)
• Numbers 13 & 14 (story of 12 Israelite spies)
• Isaiah 55:8–9 (my thoughts are not yours declares the Lord)
• Psalm 91:2 (the Lord is my refuge and my fortress)
• Deuteronomy 31:8 (the Lord goes before you, he will not leave or forsake you)
• 2 Corinthians 4:18 (fix our eyes not on what is seen, but what is unseen–that is eternal)
• Psalm 145:4 (you are called to make the invisible glory of God visible)
• Various prayers of Paul (for example, see Ephesians 3, Colossians 1)

10. What meta-themes have I thought about this year? (in no particular order)

• Trusting God
• Letting go makes room for growth and new opportunities
• Downsizing
• Is "feeling useful" a good thing?
• What kind of mother-in-law do I want to be?
• Stepping back from my adult kids means I enable them to grow.
• Retirement planning!
• Belonging
• Who am I apart from my children?
• Aging
• Accepting again that I am who God made me to be: weaknesses included

Highlights

• Obviously our long service leave trip in a motorhome.
• Seeing our sons grow in character and skill, living independently, and making adult-level decisions.
• Retreat with close friends.
• Moving into our new apartment in Tokyo.
• Attending live sporting events: cricket, wheelchair rugby, wrestling.
• Many times with friends on both sides of the ocean.
• Finishing a long-term cross-stitch project.
• Successfully blogging my way through our two-month road trip.

Lowlights

• Our motorhome journey was marred by my battle with a misdiagnosed tooth abscess. Easter weekend was particularly low in that regard.
• As usual, goodbyes and an international move were hard, and saying goodbye to all our kids this time was extra difficult, but the flipside of that is (the second) highlight I've already mentioned.

Concluding thoughts

I'm really glad that 2024 is over. The past two years have been a lot of hard work and exhausting. I still feel the shadow of the exhaustion from it all. But I'm also glad for all the things we were able to achieve during the last two years, by God's grace! My next blog post is about looking forward to 2025...so I won't go there now.

I'm going to finish this year of blogging with a favourite Bible passage of mine, one I like to pray when I don't know what else to pray for someone. For sure God has done more than we could imagine in 2024!

I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge – that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. (Ephesians 3:16–21 NIV)

Joy with my new garden

I've been wanting to write about my little garden for a while now. What's been stopping me? I've concluded that it's because it is not perfect, several aren't doing that wel! But that's a terrible excuse. Not all the plants are at their best, but it is winter time here, getting down to zero at nighttime, not the best time for plants! And because most of them are new to me and the conditions in this new apartment are also new to me, so I've been making lots of little adjustments: to plant placement (light and temperature variation), how much I water them.

These last five months has been a rebuilding time for my little potted garden. I got back some of the plants that I gave to others to take care of for the year we were away. Not all the plants made it through the transition to different locations and caretakers, so there was a fair bit of natural attrition. But as I got back some "old friends", I also got some new plants from the ladies who were looking after my plants, which was a surprise. On top of that I bought some new plants too. So now I have 21 pots with plants in them. Some are enjoying the bay window in our living room, two are in the dining/multipurpose area, and the rest are out on our tiny balcony, sharing space with laundry some days.

Parlor Palm

I felt very happy when my new garden was largely assembled. Why? Apparently there are many benefits to having indoor plants in your life (see this Time article, which, amongst other things cites an experiment where people who spent five to ten minutes in a room with a few houseplants felt happier than those in a plant-free room!) They are generally good for your mental health, though obviously not if plants are dying on you, which is why I always advise people to start with easy plants like geraniums, which are super hard to kill in moderate climates (mine survived being snowed on in Tokyo but didn't survive a year in a higher altitude when temperatures are much lower than here)! 

I particularly enjoy plants that I can nurture and see grow, rather than those you can buy fully grown and just water. There is also a lot of satisfaction in making changes so that a plant starts to thrive again. The Parlor Palm we have started out as a tiny little thing I bought for 100 yen (about a dollar)! It's now quite tall.

My sick maidenhair. I moved it outside
because I was concerned the fungus 
might jump ship to other plants, so I 
guess it's in isolation!

The maidenhair fern also started quite small and the second one (pictured) is a baby of the larger one. They've both been through some rough times. I think I'll have to wait till the weather warms us to see how they go. The latest drama with the little one seems to be a fungus of some sort.

Miniature rose

My miniature rose was a gift from David five years ago and it also has survived a few different crises. When we got it back this year it was just sticks and very dry, thankfully regular watering has revived some of the "sticks" and I'm hoping for good things come spring.

On either side of the rose you can see my efforts at a little bit of vegetable growing, but haven't had much success yet: my lettuces are still sprouts and I'm really not sure about the plants I thought were spring onions.

Baby hydrangeas. I don't know why they still 
have leaves...but I hope they flower in June!

The plants with the best story, though, are the two hydrangeas. Last year when we were moving out of our house in Tokyo I posted a photo of the two large hydrangeas in our backyard just as they were in full bloom, noting that I'd miss them. My mum suggested I take a cutting and someone else suggested that I ask a friend to look after the cuttings. I thought it was quite a long shot, but also realised I had nothing to lose. I Googled the topic, did the deed, then gave the fragile little cuttings to a Japanese friend (who also takes care of her parents' farm) and she gave them back to me in September this year looking magnificent. I'm so glad for the suggestion from my mum and friend, and for my Japanese friend who nurtured them! The parent plants are no longer in existence because the whole house and garden was demolished the week we moved in to our new place. But I've still got these little reminders of the place where we lived for 13 years!

The chrysanthemum is flowering quite nicely, with
many more buds forming, the Gerbera will probably
not flower again till it gets warm, and the Japanese Grape Leaf
Anemone looks a bit ill, but again, hopefully it will limp
along until we get to spring.

One of the surprises: another kind of geranium,
but I don't think it is well, it's also in iso.

The beautiful geranium flowered just in time for Christmas.

On the edge here is my lavendar: first time
trying to grow this plant. It's also not
looking great, but I'm hopeful.

My Aluminum Plant. I've shifted it
around a few times trying to find 
the right light and temperature combos,
it seems to be thriving in this spot 
where it gets light for a short period most
mornings.

I'm so glad to be settled in a place where I can have a garden again. I enjoy watering it and tinkering with it. It's a very small hobby that takes little time and not much money, but brings joy and colour into our lives.

A bit of couple fun

Every time we go to Australia for home assignment we have a debrief with a psychologist/counsellor. A few years ago they told us we were obviously good at working together, but probably needed to rediscover fun. Missionaries having fun?!? Yes, we need to!

And it was true that we'd fallen out of the habit of having fun as a couple. When the boys were younger we rarely went on dates. We first moved to Japan when we'd been married just three years, and we had a very busy toddler. In Japan we had no family and it was just too much stress to find a babysitter, so we learned to stay home and enjoy what we could do there, like watching a TV episode from a DVD or play Scrabble. We’ve turned into home-bods, even more than we previously were. As our guys got older David and I have slowly gotten out a little more, but still often found going out too tiring when we were already tired from work and parenting. Much of our fun was as a family: supporting our guys at their sporting events as well as camping and holidaying together.

The last 18 months, and especially the last nine (since our younger two moved out), things have been changing. David and I went to several cricket matches in Australia (our shared love). Obviously (if you've been reading my blog this year) we went away for two months! Living on a budget, though, we rarely ate out in Australia—though it’s easier to do so now that we don’t have to cater to enormous sporty teenage boy appetites.

This is the first time we've ever been to a live
match of any sport between our two countries.
Japan and Australia just don't have many team sports
in common. One day we might find a Rugby Sevens
match to go to!

Last night we did something that felt like "playing hooky". We went to an international sports event: Australia played Japan in wheelchair rugby, a sport we’ve come to appreciate via the Paralympics. We actually had tickets to go to a session of this sport for the Tokyo Paralympics in 2021…but Covid…'

It was a lot of fun. I just wish I could have cheered louder…there didn’t seem to be many true Aussie fans around (they handed out Australian flags to Japanese people at the door, in a valiant attempt to support the guests).

Time out for a quick team meeting with the players on the court.

It's called the Shibuya Cup and the teams are playing four matches. Last night was the first. They gave us a booklet that showed the teams, and explained the game and the rules.
If you'd like to take a look at some of the action, it's here on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@JWRF/streams

Japanese publications are so cute!

 

We also were given these free cartons of coffee milk as we entered!

This little trip yesterday was fairly spontaneous, I only heard about this free event last Monday because I follow the Australian Paralympic Facebook page. I wonder what our next adventure will look like? David's got Christmas holidays coming up...and we have no family to hang out with this year, for only the second time in our lives. We'll see what turns up and what fun we can find.

 

Waiting with grace?

I started this blog post a couple of weeks, just after I sent out our latest prayer letter. Writing (mostly) monthly prayer letters is something I've been doing for over 23 years now. It's a useful time to reflect on the month past and look toward the month ahead. It would be a normal month when we look back at the calendar and say: "Wow, that only happened this month!" Of course at the end of the calendar year it's traditional to look back also, so I included this brief paragraph at the start of our letter:

For many, including us, this has been a hard year. There are many things that have happened differently to what we’d hoped or planned for. How are you coping? We’ve found comfort in doing the daily things that God’s given us to do and leaning hard on him in prayer about the things that we wish were different. As we come to the end of this year we know that God’s been with us the whole way, holding us and helping us. Let’s acknowledge the hard things, but also be quick to thank God for all he’s done and the hope he continues to give us.

This has been a year of disappointments and angst. Also waiting. That theme has continued to pop up for me in various places. How do we wait and do it with grace? Recently, a friend asked: How do we Christians do it with our hearts right with God, resting in his Sovereignty?

Waiting isn't new to me. I guess we all know about waiting, but somehow missionary life brings a different angle, maybe even a greater challenge to waiting. Just getting to Japan meant disappointment and waiting (we were turned down two, nearly three times for a lack of financial support in 2000). Every time we go on home assignment we wait to find accomodation and wheels, last time we left Japan without an address to go to in Australia. The last two times we've been on home assignment, we've waited for house sitters for this place in Tokyo too. With limited financial resources, we're thrown on the generosity of others more than perhaps we would have been if we had remained in Australia in higher paying jobs.

In some ways it's easier to describe what waiting badly looks like. A lot of times it's due to attitude. Waiting badly can look like complaining, it can look like frantic activity to fill the blank left or to distract ourselves. It can also look like scheming to "fix" the problem and manipulate the situation so that it "works". It can look like worry and even physical sickness that's induced by worry. It can look like insomnia or tears. And yes, I know this because I've got personal experience in waiting badly!

But of course you can't look at someone and easily determine if they are waiting well or badly! However, by talking to them, you might get a glimpse.

Good waiting, in my experience, is much more peaceful. There's a quiet trust in God that this too is in his plan. Waiting well doesn't mean inactivity, but rather seeking what is the right thing to do now. That's been a big challenge for us this year as we've waited, especially, to see how God would guide us for the next steps for our nearly-adult kids.

One key to waiting well is to find pleasure in the now. Find ways to enjoy your current situation. Don't forgo celebration, instead seek out reasons to celebrate, reasons to give thanks. Another key is to find ways to serve others, within our limits, of course. When you're waiting it's easy to turn inwards, to be selfish and self absorbed. But when we turn our thoughts upwards to God and outwards to others we gain a better perspective on our situation.

Some lights we often walk past at night. This
is a little unusual in Japan.

We're about to go away for our traditional pre-Christmas holiday. I've been waiting for this break for too long. I'm thankful God's given me the strength to make it through to now and that I'm not a messy heap on the floor. But I'm also glad he's given me things to do while I waited that kept my eyes off myself (most of the time).

I don't know what you're waiting for, but I do know the Lord who can help. Don't miss him in the midst of the wait.

If you're interested, here are three other blog posts I've written on waiting:

I told our waiting-to-come-to-Japan story is here (a summary, really).

The value of waiting for your prayers to be answered: http://mmuser.blogspot.com/2015/05/the-other-end-of-answered-prayer.html

Waiting expectantly, but like a jellyfish: https://mmuser.blogspot.com/2021/04/waiting-expectantly.html

Fun meeting: an oxymoron?

On Monday I was in Osaka with my Japan Harvest magazine team. We spent the whole day together—looking at what we've been doing, planning for the future, and getting to know one another and what we each do better.

I always enjoy these days and I'm gradually getting less nervous about running them. We had our first meeting in 2012. I'm amazed at how far we've come since then! 

On Monday we had seven people attending in person and three joined us via Skype for part of the time. All the key team members were able to join us. One of the team, our proofreader, I met face-to-face for the first time.

Outside Osaka station at rush hour.

One of the reasons we had it in Osaka is that several of our team live in that area. Our proofreader actually lives on Shikoku, the island off the coast of Honshu near Osaka/Kobe. So he had to travel, but Osaka was a lot closer than Tokyo for him.

I still find this whole magazine thing amazing, even though I've been doing it now for nine years. I really wasn't a likely candidate for this job. I have no training in writing or editing or design, I'd never managed a team (beyond my own family), and no one has ever particularly noted that I have any kind of leadership abilities. Of course when I began I had no team to manage. My only qualifications were that I could write a bit and had a passion for communication. I have grown a lot.

That I now manage a team of around a dozen people is astounding to me. Plus I work with over twenty writers each issue of the magazine. I have learnt on the job about editing, magazines, and working with writers and editors. What a journey it has been!

The team learning about how the magazine is designed.

So I do not take what we have for granted. We have a strong, relatively stable team, who is passionate about what they do. They are working in areas that they are gifted in and enjoy contributing their time to serve the missionaries in Japan. No one (except our admin staff who manage the subscriber list and deal with the printer and mailing out the magazine) is paid. Everyone is donating their time and energy to this magazine. And they do such a good job!

As of this month our team is comprised of five nationalities. They live in four countries including Japan and several different prefectures within Japan. As no one is paid we do not meet as a whole team more often than once a year. I quite like it that way, not being fond of meetings, although sometimes it would be great to be able to communicate to people face-to-face more often.

On Monday we spent a significant amount of time walking through the process of the magazine, with people explaining what they do and answering questions from team members. It is the first time we've done that and it seemed to be really valuable time spent, especially the time we spent talking about the design. I think it's going to help us function better as a team and value what others do. Keeping a team together who almost never get together can be a struggle, particularly when trust is broken or miscommunications happen, but I hope that what we did on Monday will strengthen us.

Ken and Karen, our proofreading/design team. They're great and always push
me to up my game!

Getting to and from Osaka wasn't a small thing. It is about 500km from Tokyo. There are three main ways to get there from here: overnight bus, Shinkansen, and plane. I chose the latter. But that still included six trains on the way there and seven on the way home! I didn't rush: going on Sunday and coming back on Tuesday, but I was really tired afterwards. In fact I'm still tired, but more still coming down off the high that the day gave me (in fact I hit a motivational slump today).

Itami Airport in Osaka.

Well, this has been a bit of a mishmash of a blog post. I'm writing in the evening, which I hardly ever do. I set the goal of writing a blog post each week this year and this week is fast running out! Tomorrow we're up before six with school sport starting up again. After working much of last weekend, I'm planning on taking much of this one off, which essentially means trying to stay away from the computer. I'm planning to enjoy being outside at the cross-country venue tomorrow morning and to chill with a book in the afternoons.

I just want to finish this on a note of gratitude. Thanks be to my heavenly Father who has given me this rewarding work and gifted me to do it.

"For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them" (Eph 2:20 ESV).

Seize the day

One of the things we do a lot when we're in Australia is "seize the day". Here are some recent examples:

I've been buying a lot of mangoes and green grapes. That might or might not seem strange to you. Green seedless grapes of the sort I grew up eating aren't common in Japan (although I've increasingly seen equivalents there in the last year). So while I'm here, I'm going to enjoy them. I almost never have mango in Japan, because they are expensive and always look dodgy (especially for the price). The other day I had a brief encounter with a grocery store employee who expressed surprise at all my mangoes, I didn't bother to explain to her that I was seizing the day!

Last Wednesday we went to a live international cricket match. Both David and I are fans, but I have never been to a live international match and he's never been to a short-form game. Last home assignment we tried to get to one, but the match was washed out and so all we saw was a bit of a boring interstate match. 

Last Wednesday was a great experience, only tempered by the shocking news about our financial support that we'd received hours earlier. We were surprised at how loud the crowd was (but we were sitting in the midst of very loud Indian supporters, possibly the most animated group in the stadium). It did rain for a bit, which meant some delay mid-match, but we ended up seeing 17 overs-a-side (instead of 20). Then there was a thrilling finish where Australia won and we had a great view from our three-rows-from the-front seats. Great entertainment. The boys were surprised at how much fun it was. Another seize-the-day moment.

This isn't quite in the same category, but close. I seize the day by reading as many books as I can from our local library. I love having such a wonderful library close by (we drive past our local branch at least four times a day on school days). The library pictured is not our local branch, but the central branch that I visited today because I was in the area and needed a cool, quiet place to wait for a couple of hours.

Tonight we're having roast chicken. I'd have to say it's also a seize-the-day event. In Australia we take every opportunity to enjoy the meat so easily available here, especially sausages (sooo much better than Japanese sausages) and meat pies. But other food too, although trying to keep a lid on the Australian lollies that we love to indulge in!

And of course fruit mince pies: ones that are freely available in the shops, not painstakingly made at home.

We do the same in Japan: we enjoy the things that you can enjoy there, and not in Australia. I can bet that our boys will be wanting some Japanese convenience store food soon after we arrive back!

My garden shelf

Despite growing up with a green-thumbed mum, I didn't inherit her talent for or love of gardening. I did, however, inherit a love for green spaces and beautiful plants. So basically looking at the results of other people's gardening efforts!

However I have had a little success with a few pot plants on a sunny shelf halfway up our stairs. It's right next to the place where we clean our teeth, so it's easy to pay them a bit of attention and remember to water them. I also have a couple of hardy geraniums just outside our dining room glass door. I'm not so good at remembering to water them but they are amazingly hardy and prolific flowers to boot: my perfect plants. 

They are a small, but wonderful pleasure in my day! I'm trying my hand at a succulent and also so moss I scrapped off our little balcony.

 This little guy is cute too. I've  planted my succulent in him. Only trouble is he has nothing to collect excess water so I have him currently sitting in a shell.

Creativity and Christianity

I came across a couple of articles about creativity ages ago and have just dragged them back out of my bulging "draft blog post" folder.

I love the work I do, I've got the freedom to use my gifts to be creative as well as to build others up. So these short articles are very encouraging to me.

The first article I found has an enormous title: Why Christians should paint, dance, quilt, act, compose music, write writes, decorate cookies, and participate in the arts. It lists eight reasons why Christians should be creative. I bet you can think of more, though I wouldn't have thought of these eight if I'd made the list, for example, "beauty reminds us of the Beautiful One" and "when we use our gifts it reminds us (and others) of the Giver of every good and perfect gift". 

Here are some of the creative things I like to do, and why:

• I love to bake as it gives to others, but I also find it very satisfying to work through a series of steps and get a defined result. I actually find it relaxing if I'm not rushed. 
• I love enjoying nature (with and without a camera) because it reminds me of the Creator and lifts my eyes and heart up beyond my current problems. When I share my photos (and blog posts too, I guess) it give pleasure to others and takes them to a place of admiring the work of the Creator too.
• I love to write because it's a gift I have and I can use it to encourage or challenge or inform others. A bit like baking, I like to have ideas and work to get them written down in a way that others can appreciate and enjoy. Editing writing is similar, whether it is my work or someone else's, taking the "raw ingredients" and forming them into something that will benefit others is very satisfying.
• I loved doing cross stitch, it was a relaxing pastime. But also something that I found easy and could create things that I could give to others to give them pleasure. I've taken a break from it in the last year or so, but unfortunately haven't found a viable replacement yet.

This second article (Three things I know about creativity) is by a writer and editor (sounds like someone I know...). She writes about three things that creativity needs:

• to live life: so we have fuel for stuff to create as well as to create space for creative thoughts to form and arrange themselves
• solitude: peace for our souls to be able to commune with God
• community: for refinement, feedback that improves whatever it is that we've created.

I've only just scratched the surface here, I know there's lots more to this topic than I'm seeing or could cover in one tiny blog post. For example this fascinating article from Relevant magazine asking "Is there a place for creative Christians?" with answers by a variety of creative Christians.

It's something I'd like to keep thinking about. As a writer and an editor and an individual who enjoys a variety of creative endeavours.

What do creative things do you enjoy? Why?

My greenhouse

I have a little shelf half-way up our internal stairs. It is the only place inside the house where I can put plants in sun without them getting kicked over by people moving around. This is right next to where we clean our teeth and hang up the laundry (before shifting it outside on a good day). I don't have a green thumb, so we mostly have plants that are very hardy, but they're still pretty. It certainly improves the view!

I love standing here while doing those other mundane tasks and enjoying my little garden. 

To thrive as an expat

As a new mum many mums read books about how to help their baby's thrive. There aren't so many books around about how to thrive as an expat, however. For me, anyway, it was mostly figuring it as I muddled along.

A little while ago I found an interesting post by someone who's lived as an expat mostly in Africa. She's got some challenging, but good advice for expats.

They don't complain. This is hard. I certainly complain, a little, but try to focus on the positive.

They learn a little language. Yep, hard too, especially Japanese that is one of the hardest languages in the world. But I have learnt a little.

They aren't easily intimidated by the unknown. Curiosity is good, a desire to learn new things. I'm not so great at trying new food and having kids has made us limit the unknowns quite a bit. Not to mention that we're here long-term, so trying new things isn't high on our agenda. Because of the next point.

They work hard and do their jobs well. They aren't tourists. I think we do this.

They stop working and enjoy the country. Camping has been good for this for us. Vacationing in-country is important.

They adapt and adopt local customs. Spending more than two years of full-time Japanese language study drove this into our minds. It is a value of our mission too.

They are authentic and maintain their own customs. Yep, we're still discernibly Australian.

They develop friendships with the local community. This is hard without good language and is something I wish I had more of. Thankfully there are many Japanese people in the school community and the OMF community that we've gotten to know.

They develop friendships with the expat community. This hasn't been a problem, as our ministry is so connected to the local international school.

They have an adventurous spirit, even if they have to force it. Yep, camping stretches us, and our boys. It's the boys who particularly limit us at present, I think. Two of them particularly aren't adventurous souls.



I don't have any points to add to these, except to say that in a world of online socialising, it is easy to have one foot in your "home" country and the other foot in the country you're living in. That isn't healthy. Many of the above point address that issue: learning the language, have friends who live locally, and enjoy the country (but not too much). Be Present.

Before we came to Japan we did receive one piece of advice that has been important. 

Find things that you can only do where you are and enjoy them.

We've applied that in Japan and Australia, to things as simple as a doughnuts and as complex as a motorhome trip to the centre of Australia. It's helped us to have a Be Present attitude and encouraged us to seek out what's enjoyable and unique about wherever we are.

Celebrations

It's been a little busy over the last few days. We've had a 13th birthday, a cross-country meet, and an anniversary. 

This boy was my first child to opt for a non-traditional cake for his birthday. He had a hard time deciding, but eventually chose my ultra rich chocolate cheesecake.

His "big" present was really more of a family gift. It's a board game that he can't play on his own. The boys knew we'd bought it, they convinced me back in August when we visited a board game shop downtown. They collectively decided that waiting till Christmas was too difficult, so opted to ask if we could give it to them for their brother's birthday. A little weird, but the truth is that most presents around here end up being "ours" rather than "mine". Lego's a classic in this category.

On Saturday we went to watch the older two run cross-country races, as is our usual habit in September. I'm having difficulty trying to get good photos of the boys. This time I only managed to get a back shot!

 Here's another go at the end of the race. Large swathes of beautiful green grass like this aren't common in Japan. This was a special treat. Many runners enjoyed lying down on it after their race.

On Sunday we celebrated our 18th wedding anniversary. Often it gets lost in the midst of a busy schedule and birthday celebrations (we have two birthdays as well as our anniversary in a space of ten days at the end of September). This time, however, it fell on a Sunday and we decided to make the effort to do something fun on our own. Mid-afternoon the boys went to the house of friends and played games/watched movies. 

We weren't sure where we were going, but hopped on the train and figured it out from there. It was unusual for us to do something with so little planning, but that added a fun element to it, one of the things we can't easily do with our boys is a trip like this without much planning. It ends up being way too stressful for all of us.

So we ended up in Roppongi, a well known area of Tokyo. There are many embassies there and the night-life is apparently popular. We were looking at trying a Swiss restaurant, but got there too early, so we wandered around till we found something both open and appealing. We ended up at an Egyptian restaurant. Trying something novel was fun.

The restaurant included a large TV screen, which was playing Sumo. We couldn't forget which country we were in.

What sort of food do Egyptians eat? We ate Nefertiti Salad, Falafel cakes, Egyptian Enchiladas, Perch, Mint Tea, and Cherry Juice. Accompanied by flat bread. Very tasty and not too much. I'd love to go back and try some other dishes, including the roast pigeon!

We decided to make it a progressive dinner and went for a stroll after our main course to find some dessert. We found a French Chocolate shop and enjoyed these ice creams, though the caramel ice-cream wasn't as sweet as I would have liked. Do French like their ice-cream on the bitter side?

18 years. Wow! What a privilege of forging a friendship and partnership over so many years. And we're looking forward to many more to come, Lord willing.