I Love Christmas Carols

I love Christmas carols.

I love listening to them,

I love singing them.

I think we should sing them all year around and not just at Christmas.

One of my favourite things about Christmas is being able to

turn off all the lights,

sit in the glow of the Christmas tree

and listen to carols.

The other night I got to sing a few.

Jack, my three year old, was having trouble going to sleep.

A cockroach had fallen out of the air conditioner onto his bed earlier in the day and he was convinced that it was going to happen again.

I don’t blame him.

I can’t stand cockroaches.

Yuck.

His bedroom light was off and he was lying in his bed.

I started to sing Silent Night and O Holy Night and then O Little Town of Bethlehem.

As soon as I started singing

I was flooded.

You know; hope, anticipation, excitement, peace.

Like something amazing is about to happen.

Like I can start all over again, new.

And that is why I think we should sing Christmas carols all year around.

Because those feelings are for everyday and not just once a year.

Doing Re-entry

Re-entry

noun

1.The action or process of re-entering

- your passport country, culminating in:

The feeling of being a foreigner in your own country

Moving to a new country is hard:

You have to learn the language,

Get used to a new culture,

And figure out how to eat the food,
All the while, trying not to offend anyone by what you say, do or wear.

This can go on for years and years before you finally begin to feel at home.

Then you start to relax:

You can understand conversations without flipping through your dictionary,

You develop friendships that go deeper than surface conversations,

You begin to understand looks and gestures and adopt them as your own.

And then you move back to your own country.

It might seem like a rather simple thing to do, moving back to your own country.

After all that’s probably where you grew up:

Maybe your family is there,

And the best friend you’ve known since kindergarten.

You already know the language,

Love the food

And can’t wait to relax in a culture where you know all the rules.

But then you get back to your country and you find that it’s different.

At some point, while you were away, everything changed,

Including you.

Now, you walk into a room full of people you should feel comfortable around and all you want to do is disappear.

You keep listening to people’s conversations and wondering why you don’t understand what the heck they are talking about.

The food you loved so much suddenly isn’t so special anymore.

You feel like all the rules you knew so well and felt so comfortable with have changed And you don’t know how to react or what is expected of you.

Friendships that were so strong and intimate, now feel stilted.

There’s this huge chasm that’s opened up with no bridge.

I’m doing re-entry and it is hard.

It’s one of the most painful things in the world to live among people whom I feel so disconnected from.

We moved back to Australia two years ago. That’s quite a long time, not really so long in the re-entry time scale. We were away from Australia for about six years, so it might be another year before we start to feel at home again.

My normal has changed and I am way outside of my comfort zone. Maybe one day this different will be my new normal.

Maybe one day.

Book Review: The Edge of Tidal Pools by Michele Phoenix

On the remote French Ile de Batz, Casey Jensen is desperately trying to regain some sort of control over her life. Throughout the story we slowly discover why Casey is on the island and what it is that has triggered her emotional lock down. A highschool French teacher, Casey is surprised when one of her students reaches out to her, opens up to her and shares with her their deepest feelings. Ben spent the last five years in Tajikistan with his family and the ripple affects are tearing the young man apart. Now Casey is questioning everything in her life that made it seem so solid and secure.

This is a fascinating book, even more so if you are a Third Culture Kid or have a lot to do with MK’s. Michele Phoenix grew up as a TCK and has spent most of her adult life teaching TCK’s. She brings her unique perspective and insight to this beautiful book which acknowledges and honours the hurt and sometimes desperate struggle that TCK’s go through when trying to make sense of God, themselves, their parents decisions and the world in general.

Michele Phoenix has written a great book with real and deep characters. She does have some very strong opinions that come across loudly though not unpleasantly. Phoenix explores some very hard and often hidden emotions and effects of missionary life and choices made by parents, which have far reaching consequences in the lives of their children.

I would recommend this book to TCK’s, MK’s, PK’s, their parents and anyone interested in the inner workings of people who have gone through similar experiences.

Michele Phoenix has her own website with other information and resources for TCK's/MK's.   michelephoenix.com