I am bloggin again

So I am sitting in my room – the lantern I bought at Global Village lit up in the corner, the opposite corner has my shisha pipe – and Patty Griffin is playing through the computer speakers – I am in Dallas – I live here now! It sometimes takes me of guard when I think about it – no more round abouts, no more call to prayer in the mall, no more shisha “bars,” no more house church, no more…..the list could go on!
I was thinking about this on the boring drive to Texas – Louisiana and Mississippi don’t have much to offer as far as excitement on Highway 20 – so mingled between the pines and swamps my mind drifted to the differences that I have experienced since I have been here - the fact that I registered my car in 20 mins, the fact that I rode on the highway for 16 hours and NO ONE flashed their lights at me to make me get over – and then the fact that in the 16 hours I never once left the country – the green, the trees, the humidity, the cool temps of 95 – and then as I approached the Texas border, a beautiful streak began in the sky and darted off to the ground – and then more followed and I was greeted by a first class Texas thunderstorm – streak lightning and everything! It was wonderful! It has rained a lot since I have been home- at least once a week – that takes some getting used to!
But, I have settled as much as I can - I will say “In the Emirates” for quite some time, and I will think of the Al Daheri and the Al Shami family and will lift them up to our Father – and I will hear someone say “habibi” and I will smile as the deep parts of my heart resound with aches for “home” and echoes of joy for those few days I was able to experience life there!
I am back in the throws- money problems, so I feel almost normal – I guess. It has been hard to explain what happened to me while I was gone – I mean, I run into friends here and I think that everything is the same as it was – but then I am not the same as I was – so it can’t be the same again. I read Don Miller’s new book today – rather I started it- Don’t worry Stacey yours will be coming soon J – and I read about his trip to Oregon and his desire to leave – and it was like someone was calling my name – I read what I have experienced as I was “shaped by my experiences. Our perception of joy, fear, pain and beauty are sharpened or dulled by the way we rub against time” and I was shaped by my time in the Emirates – I look forward to looking back in the years to come to see how those few months shaped my life, how those few precious people changed me and how my thoughts in the desert made me walk differently in the present – so, although I struggle with not being there – with being back here with more years to struggle over books and heady things – I look forward to how God is going to change me as I “rub against time” here in Dallas- these few months, these precious people and this walk in the city – and how it will change me - It will be fun to look back at these experiences and think about how they have shaped me!