So this week has been a bit bonkers. fairly major house upsets ..... but through all of this God has just done the most amazing things (as is His want).

I have been here in London a year almost exactly. I am still not sure why - but I have fallen on my feet again. When the poo hit the fan this week community here just sprung into life in the most amazing way..... its not that it wasn't there before, i just didn't realise they were there for me. I haven't done anything to earn it, or been here long enough to deserve such genuine offers of help. Being friends with people over time is great, and i do really love and appreciate all my long standing friendships. But there is something quite amazing when people you hardly know, but are connected to through a bunch of friendly people (aka known as church/community), go out of their way to help and be supportive. really great.

in all the upset, somehow i feel more settled.

But it was also a challenge to the independant streak in me - i could have tried to do all the coping and crying by myself. Instead it was about learning how to let others support me and love me without trying to give it back or feeling like i owe them something.

As someone said this week, community is not about 'you scratch my back' etc..... but about serving each other out of worship to Christ. and this week i was pleasently taken aback by its beauty and simplicity.

It wasn't planned. It already was.

did you know....

a pigeon at full flight goes at 30 mph.

who knew....

positively dangerous at eye height.

so its been a while but life has just been ticking over really.

reading lots of history.
Random factoid: richard 2nd, enthroned in 1370 something, was the first guy, in recorded english history, to request a handkerchief to wipe his nose with.
bonkers... we have had a lot of monarchs, so after a while its just a bit confusing. Elizabeth was pretty cool, but james and charles sucked really.

there you have it - english history, by anna. hehe

also i disocvered an shop that sells tropical fish etc on great portland st... i don't ness agree with lots of little nemo's swimming around. but from a totally shelfish (get it!!) point of view, it was a really peaceful place to be. just wandering around, looking at the weird and wonderful world that God created, just because... in the hope that one day we would see it (preferably in nature not in glass).

and fish are just chilled out. I need to go diving.

went to see the Blue Man Group last night - for free. winner!! They were so so good. the best thing i have seen in ages. one good thing about doing something totally new and cutting edge - old rules don't apply. traditions don't hold you back.

other than that life is a bit of a head mess.... when a relationship becomes a desperate list of requests, it makes me really sad. Where has the passion gone?Its not even that the passion has gone, but been smothered by rubbish, by worry, by not understanding, by feeling sqeezed.
6 years in - does it remain like this all the time??

I know it doesn't - as so many friends attest to (nice one ozza), and i am not going to give up. But where do the things growing in my heart lie with the small but somehow suffocating things of life.

At the same time though i am learning lots, reading heaps and meeting lots of great new people. I may not understand what is going on - but i'm not going to stop and be suffocated. But try, even when i don't know how, to trust in that Hope and know Goodness in the land of the living - cause it is here.
Even though I have only had the vaguest scent of heaven - its too good to give up just because i don't fully get it.

so there

tea anyone?