Carla Gypsygirl's Blurty

Wish you were here

Lately, I've found myself longing for warmer weather. It's been SO cold! My house is like a fridge, so I'm usually wearing about five layers of clothing. It's been too cold to even eat breakfast outside, which is one of my favourite things to do.

However, I have felt a return of the Summer spirit, which is a glorious thing. The sun's been out a lot lately, and I'm also cured! I was so sick last week- it was really scary, I couldn't breathe! It was good to be sick, though, because it made me realise a lot of things. First of all, I realised that I take all of my friends for granted. Also, I realised that I do enjoy going out more than I thought (I am a homebody at heart, you see), because boy is it boring staying home for a week! I got to read the Bible and pray a lot last week, which was EXCELLENT...I think it's so amazing that God listens to us, and that He cares so much about what we say to Him. I'm almost finished reading a book in the Bible called 2 Corinthians. It's so good- I've been quite inspired by how much the apostle Paul loves the people he teaches. Paul also describes God as "the Father of compassion", which I thought was really cool. That makes Jesus compassion itself!

Anyway, back to the Summer spirit. The past four months have been really, really difficult and unhappy for me. I had to leave my local church because of that whole thing with my sort-of boyfriend. I drifted around between three different churches during that time, and I felt really horrible. I met lots of cool and nice and interesting people, but it was really hard not knowing where I belonged, and not knowing where I should be. I realised how much I treasured stability. Finally, God gave me the courage and guidance to call someone from the church that I left who I thought I had a conflict with. At the end of the conversation, I felt so humbled...I realised that I had completely misunderstood the girl I had spoken to. I had always thought that she disliked me, when really, through her actions, she was trying to protect me. I was amazed and so grateful for her self-sacrificial behaviour, because she revealed a lot of very personal things about herself. She is a very brave girl, and I admire her. After the conversation, I begged God to forgive me for being so mistaken. And I am so grateful that God's forgiveness is bigger than His anger- so much so that He died to forgive us! So I am going to go back to my church this Sunday, and I am so happy about it! I am overjoyed about it- it means so much to me to be able to go back. I'm so excited about seeing all of my friends. That's why I feel like Summer is returning...I started going to that church during the Summer, so it will be like revisiting those times. Only this time, I'm going to make an effort to stay committed to that church. I am glad that I did leave the situation for the amount of time that I did, though. I learnt so much- I learnt about how much of a blessing it can be to see the same friends every week at church, and how wonderful it is to have intimate friendships. I learnt a lot about God from different sermons. I also met so many fascinating and kind people. I also realised that, whether you go to a trendy and enthusiastic inner-city church or you're with about twenty people in a dingy university room, if you are there to worship Jesus and encourage His people, the church will always be good. It was really great to cool off after all of the bad stuff happened, and let the people involved take their own directions. God is very, very good.

Work has also calmed down heaps- hurrah! I find myself feeling even lazy. I've been able to have a bit of a think about what I'm going to do next. I realised that I actually really do love designing and illustrating. We'll see what happens, though. I've also been playing my guitar and singing HEAPS! I'm really scared about the gig coming up! Before I started organising things, I kept telling people how the gig was going to be the coolest and bestest thing EVER in the whole wide world. But now I feel really scared that I'm not going to be able to do it. So I've been practicing hard. I know that I can do anything through Him who gives me strength. And the boys are all excited about performing, which is wonderful and encouraging. I've also written a few more songs- what a total blessing!

My friend Maree sent me a postcard from Paris the other day, and at the end of it she wrote "Wish you were here". I've never received a postcard from anyone who's written that to me. It's nice and lovely and a bit of a spin-out to know that someone wants me to be halfway across the world with them!

And, just so you know: my greatest extravagances of the moment are afternoon strolls in the golden sunlight (complete with a ride on the neighbourhood swings), looking at design books in libraries (very unusual for me- I usually stay away from those things), wearing skirts, photocopying things, hot showers, wavy hair (after sleeping in plaits- it makes me feel delightfully old-fashioned), tea, bickies and sending handwritten letters.