one world, collided

I sit here, in Columbus, Ohio. With a map of Amsterdam strung around my neck, yet no longer feeling like I'm stuck between two worlds collided. True, there are collisions within my world, yet my world is much confined to the boundaries of my extended-neighborhood these days. It's really great to be local. To be plant-ing (I think it will take much longer to feel plant-ed).

I attend a small [neighborhood] church, where we've spent particular days in the past couple of years having an open-mic style service, where people are free to come forward and share what God's done in their life, what they're grateful for, how they've been changed, a brief illustration of something they've been learning or seen for the first time.

It's one of my favorite spiritual experiences of the entire year. A time to listen, ponder, remember, see change, witness vulnerability, celebrate stories of suffering that brought people closer to each other, closer to God; increased awareness. It's days like this that I just want to live nutritiously, I want to live generously, I want to love people more and not fear.

This is the first day of a new year, I'm not setting resolutions specifically for 2012. I've learned I'm learning to enjoy alone time, have artist's dates and put myself around people who nurture. I try and keep a rhythm of spending time with people who challenge me and open my mind creatively, people who share a similar perspective and people who have ideas much different than my own (I tend to hang out with them a bit less... but enjoy their patience and ability to articulate something that I don't understand).

Preferably this is something I can grow in, during 2012 and thereafter....