"Bread for the Journey"

Many people during orientation have given us ideas, tidbits, and advice about this endeavor. I am taking the opportunity to record them here, for continued contemplation and hope, as we need it in the days to come.

• Receive grace freely
• Use moderation in all things, including moderation
• Allow yourself to experiment-humbly, thoughtfully, and with regard to your interactive style.
• Practice centering prayer
• Remember, everyone who goes overseas fails at something.
• Learn local sensitivities-find a cultural gatekeeper to help you make interpretations
• Others will be ready to listen after, and only after they have been heard and understood.
• Connect with and delight with people.
• Want less
• Practice gratitude
• Schedule times of listening and learning, and cultivate a disposition of inquiry.
• Integrate yourself in heart, mind, body, and soul.
• Beware of little flowers (perhaps you had to be there)
• If you can do nothing else, take care of your body.
• Put your agenda on hold so there is space for the other person or the larger community to work on their agenda, their attachments, their transitions, their evolving treasured objects.
• Draw on the wisdom of local people.
• Know what you need.
• Listen loosely to words and tightly to meaning.
• Understand that listening is about respect, not agreement.
• Seek out stories of hope and perserverance.
• Be intentional about what it means to be a servant.
• Don’t just go through rituals, let them transform you.
• Be aware of subtle power.
• Write down stories and memories while they are given to you.
• Trust your instincts.
• Engage your heart.
• First, do no harm.
• Understand both the gift of listening and the gift of speaking.
• Remember the voices of blessing that sent you.
• Save away some money for a family get away.
• When you get there, write down all that you hear, see, smell, feel, and taste. Refer to it later.
• It’s OK to laugh in the midst of sorrow.
• Set aside some intentional time for your family to speak Spanish (one meal a day, one day a week, whatever).
• Make sure you get enough language study.
• Help your children stay connected to friends and relatives.
• Immerse yourself in school connections and the families of your children’s friends.
• Snuggle with your kids.
• When you are so overwhelmed it seems to hurt, sleep, be gentle with yourself and with those you love around you.
• Each day, write down three blessings. For each one, think about how you made them happen.
• Gratitude dissolves depression.


So, thank you Urbane, Michelle, Titus, Nancy, Linda, Amy, Kathy, Karl, fellow orientees, and all the others who contributed this wisdom. What advice do the blog readers out there have for us? (Leave a comment)