Everything is the same ….but different. This is my observation for the day here in Hamburg, Germany. After writing for a few hours this morning I went downstairs to find that it was snowing outside. I sat in the living room, bundled up, and stared out the picture window into their massive backyard.
Let me rephrase – their garden. Same but different. 😉 We have just as beautiful views and massive expanses of ‘backyard’ but here this is a rarity in the city…and the other difference besides calling it a garden? The gardener that walked across the yard and scared the patoozy out of me!
We went to a local Italian Bistro/Super Market and had lunch. The place was filled with every type of noodle, sauce, and Italian delicacy imaginable and plenty of wine. If we were in Texas it would be like walking into a Fiesta, all Mexican delicacy. See, same but different. 😉
After fumbling our way through another lunch, complete with us pointing and trying to communicate via their very little English and our sparse German we managed to end up with enough food to feed a family of 6 and the ladies at the cash register smirking.
Then we visited her local grocery store which is under construction. Other than the fact it had every possible variety of Haribo Gummy Bears (my favorite) it was your typical tiny small town grocery. I take that back…not typical for America. 😉 Do you see how small it is? Makes sense…their refrigerators are tiny so they can’t hold groceries the way we stock up on them in the States. I think I’m beginning to see the main common thread here about the ‘different’.
Before the end of the day we brought homemade cupcakes (yes via the grocery list I brought over from the States) to Emma’s school to celebrate her 6th birthday with her classmates. They made her a crown and she blew out the candles.
Just as it is with any preschool in the states the boys had ants in their pants and the girls looked at you with big puppy dog eyes, shy and quiet. Kindergarten is Kindergarten everywhere except here the kids are a hodgepodge of the world – Russian, Italian, German, American, Indian, English…it is their English based International school. Same but different.
Some of you are probably wondering why I’m here in Germany. I’ve had a few assume I might have an event or speaking engagement, though I wish this were the case, I am not here for that kind of work. I am here to simply be with my friend. Might seem crazy to some or even a little indulgent but to me (and I’m sure to my friend) it is more of a mutual support boost. At first it was just for her but now that I’ve been going through what I’ve been going through I am subject to go with ‘God-incidence’ and His timing. By being here I am able to decompress and I am finding time to write, only write, which I’ve been finding it hard to do at home.
I am what feels like a world away which has so far made all the difference – yet being here with my friend is like being home. Now that this day is coming to an end (as you are beginning yours in the States) I understand what God was doing for me as I paid attention to our surroundings, trying to put myself in my friend’s shoes and take it all in as if I was going to live here for five years as she is set to do.
There is so much that is different. It isn’t the comfort of what either of us are ‘used to’ in the States and it means having to learn a few things to get around, to order food, and to appreciate a new norm. I get this because in many ways I’m entering into a new world that is the same…but different. Though this ‘new world’ is an acceptance of all of my pieces coming together forming what has ‘created me to be who I am today’ it is me accepting and learning the final piece, allowing it to be a part of me, getting used to how it feels and letting it settle in allowing me to move on to my new norm.
Is God working in you in such a way that is uncomfortable? Is he forcing you into a ‘new norm’…maybe it is different but there will be aspects that are always the same which bring comfort.
Blessings
Shannon