my funny valentine & culture as a catalyst
when mishap and misfortune strike, i think there is nothing so keen as culture that plays into one's reactions. i have been camped out in psalm 91 and would encourage you to check it out; it's been very healing. the past two weeks have been challenging at best- to name a few of the challenges, in no particular order:
-- in a car accident, which totalled my car (two days before val's day/aka hallmark's marketing coup gone global)
-- sustained whiplash from said accident
-- have been reclusive and nuzzling an ice pack at night
-- hopes dashed in a specific situation
and here's one of the things that struck me last week as i am forced to take life slower and be more still: my upbringing/my culture is not the same as everyone else's. big shocker to you my dear reader and friend because i'm sure you would agree with that statement, but here is where our paths diverge. i sometimes think the only person i know who can really understand me is my dad. why? because he is like me part dutch and part bolivian- he has all the orderliness and love of plans, details and projects, as well as a joy of travel and languages tied into our dutch lineage. but on the flip side he also possesses the bombastic passions and fire that come with being latino, where things are almost always in some vivid color, never in muted tones, where drama is life and life possesses its own drama, more real than any telenovella or opera.
i think it has always been a note of consternation that i will not be understood. and i would be inclined to sew a stitch deeper into that thought by saying that's why i cherish my relationship with God. because when the people around me think i am being melodramatic or can't make hair nor hide out of the happenings in my life, He just smiles on, so aware of the curves of my face and body, of the mischevious twinkle in my eye, all put there by Him. He delights in me. and what may be even more of a shocker is that He delights in you.
today an acquaintance reminded me as she spoke about "our distinctive purpose"- that there is nothing done by accident. that my ethnicity gives me a cultural insider perspective in some cultures that no pure westerner might be able to get. and so on this evening of watching the grey skies get greyer, seeing raindrops pelt the windows, i am aware that He sees all of this; He sees me. and the best part is He "gets" me.
-- in a car accident, which totalled my car (two days before val's day/aka hallmark's marketing coup gone global)
-- sustained whiplash from said accident
-- have been reclusive and nuzzling an ice pack at night
-- hopes dashed in a specific situation
and here's one of the things that struck me last week as i am forced to take life slower and be more still: my upbringing/my culture is not the same as everyone else's. big shocker to you my dear reader and friend because i'm sure you would agree with that statement, but here is where our paths diverge. i sometimes think the only person i know who can really understand me is my dad. why? because he is like me part dutch and part bolivian- he has all the orderliness and love of plans, details and projects, as well as a joy of travel and languages tied into our dutch lineage. but on the flip side he also possesses the bombastic passions and fire that come with being latino, where things are almost always in some vivid color, never in muted tones, where drama is life and life possesses its own drama, more real than any telenovella or opera.
i think it has always been a note of consternation that i will not be understood. and i would be inclined to sew a stitch deeper into that thought by saying that's why i cherish my relationship with God. because when the people around me think i am being melodramatic or can't make hair nor hide out of the happenings in my life, He just smiles on, so aware of the curves of my face and body, of the mischevious twinkle in my eye, all put there by Him. He delights in me. and what may be even more of a shocker is that He delights in you.
today an acquaintance reminded me as she spoke about "our distinctive purpose"- that there is nothing done by accident. that my ethnicity gives me a cultural insider perspective in some cultures that no pure westerner might be able to get. and so on this evening of watching the grey skies get greyer, seeing raindrops pelt the windows, i am aware that He sees all of this; He sees me. and the best part is He "gets" me.
posted by annelies at 7:48 PM
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