Ok, so not only did we find a flat – lovely! – but because of some dear friends who are helping us into the whole situation, we are moving in TODAY! How great is that???

It’s a perfectly tiny one bedroom with a washer and drier! (which is unheard of over here) with a “fully fitted kitchen” which means it has a sink, oven, stove top, and coffee/tea maker (of course!). I’m already planning out how to rearrange the living space to maximize the (almost) floor to ceiling, gorgeous bay windows (14 ft. ceilings, too!). In our bedroom, we have lots of natural light and french doors that open out to a private garden – private meaning shared by the 8 or so tenants in our building. We have a beautiful old house (lots of curb appeal) that has been turned into different flats.

Technically, this is not a new post… I’m just sharing a blog I love and what I’m learning through it – what I want to remember from it:

“But it’s not those occupational demands or our circumstances that make our days crazy or calm. I’m beginning to realize that peace and simplicity is a choice, not something that is handed to you—or not.

It’s in the attitudes I choose, the inspiration I uncover or ignore, the priorities and thoughts and conversations I pick to fill those moments and those hours that make the majority of my days, and—essentially—who I am.”

Identity and knowing Who’s you are – Who you belong to – makes all the difference. I learned this simple truth as a 19 year old study-abroad student in the South of France:

You can be miserable anywhere – under the best of circumstances. You can happy anywhere – in the worst of circumstances.

Contentment is a choice.

I’ll leave you with this from Pinterest (my new fave):

Knowing who you are – and Who’s you are – makes all the difference in the world.

Hey! We’re in the throes of moving and so the blog will be a bit on hiatus until…

Check back mid-August!

It’s been a little heavy on here lately – rightfully so with the move and all, but still. This is just a fun bit from the concert we went to last night at the Tabernacle.

We heard the John Butler Trio – a fanciful, funky, hippie jam band with roots in banjo and appalachian picking. To say that these guys are immensely talented would be an understatement and they put on a great show.

All that to say, I dont know if he loves Jesus, but he has the love part nailed. He gets it. He has this song, titled Ocean, he introduces with this:

“This is a song that says everything I believe about the world and Australia and you and me and the future and love.”

Ocean is an instrumental.

It was a conversation without words and it was beautiful. And if you listen to it – it’s a happy, complex song – you’d pick up on his worldview. And as I’m thinking about this, hearing it live last night, I think, how amazing would it be, if we – if I – approached life in the same way: conveying our worldview without words but in a way that all nations hear it and receive it.

That could change everything.

{PS. John Butler also said things like we were a love generator and that the energy in this place is electrifying… He also may or may not have used air quotes around the words “their reality” in reference to the matrix we’re escaping as we create our own reality… He discussed world politics, religion, honored the soldiers of all flags, and pretty much covered everything in a few short hours. He closed with an attack on big oil saying they need to get their needles out of the arm of beloved Australia and get their fix elsewhere, as they seek to draw out the life blood of mother earth for profit. Just sayin’. But last night rocked.}