English Only – Page 24

Welcome to 31 Days!

Welcome to 31 Days in the Life of a TCK!

In the midst of state board examinations, organizing weddings and birthdays I have boldly accepted the challenge of writing every day in the month of October.

Yup, we’ll see how it goes…:)

However, I am not alone in this endeavor: I am linking up with Kate Motaung, who you might know as host of Five Minute Friday.

The posts won’t be that long so you can read along easily. You can find the direct links to individual posts below.

And of course, there will still be normal Five Minute Friday posts on Fridays. 🙂

I am also linking up with TheNester, the platform for all the people taking part in the challenge as well. There are about 1000 of them writing on all kinds of topics – why don’t you go check out a few of them!

The topic I have chosen for this challenge is 31 Days in the Life of a TCK.

TCK stands for Third Culture Kids – people who grew up in multiple cultures, incorporating different elements in their lives, feeling they could belong everywhere and nowhere. You will hear stories about the different stages in my life (Germany-Uganda-Germany-South Africa-Germany-USA-Germany-…) and what I have learned along the way. You will get a glimpse into what it means to live between worlds and what TCKs might enjoy or struggle with. Even better, I hope to get some other voices of dear friends on board, too. Different countries, but with similar experiences and great insight.

You can find more information on TCKs here. Otherwise just ask!

I hope you enjoy going on this journey with me!

I am not just writing for myself, but would love to hear from you. So share your questions, thoughts, experiences…

[Five Minute Friday] Because

I remember certain conversations (or rather arguments?) with my sister or my mother when I was younger.
Normally we would fight about who would play who when we played “House”, who was supposed to clean the stairs, who would have to watch our little brother…

In the German language there’s this wonderful word that can solve every argument. DOCH (as English speakers, try to pronounce it, it will sound like a machine gun).
To any why question or why not not question, or even to a “you will threat” you can simply say Doch. It stands for everything you might be for or against. And for a child’s strongest will.

In English I sometimes miss this word, but BECAUSE is a pretty good contestant.
And interestingly, I still find myself in arguments (or was it rather conversations?).
This time, however, I am at the other end, and my partner is the Lord.
We talk about life, why things are hard sometimes.
Why I can’t be somewhere else now.
Why he still hasn’t done this and that.
Why I haven’t grown in such and such way.

And his answer often includes BECAUSE.

Luckily, he gives more than just this word.
Whenever the Israelites argued with the Lord, he sure gave them a whole list on why’s.
The Bible is full of BECAUSE.

Don’t hate yourself BECAUSE I love you.
Don’t give up BECAUSE I am with you.
Don’t be afraid BECAUSE I will carry you through the fire.
Give freely to others BECAUSE I have given everything for you.
You’re not worthless BECAUSE I have redeemed you.

His BECAUSE silences any kind of why or what we could ever come up with.
I am glad that the Lord and I can talk, yes even argue at times. But I am even more grateful that he wins every time.

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Linking up with Kate Motaung for five minutes of writing, no editing, and sharing with a wonderful community!

What a Computer Screen Can and Cannot Do for your Nostalgia over at CAB

Today I am featured with part one of a mini-series on nostalgia at Marilyn Gardner’s blog “Communicating Across Boundaries”. Stay tuned for part two next week. Thanks for the opportunity to share!

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We live in a world that has grown closer together, as one definition of globalization puts it.

People around me say they don’t have to go anywhere because the world is right at their doorstep. They can choose their dinner menu from at least ten different cultures, and music found by one click online sets the right tone. What’s the big deal with travelling? Others are travel maniacs. Get on a plane and within ten hours (or less, depending on where you live) you’re in a completely different world. People go on vacation to exotic places, spend two weeks in a hotel/beach landscape, and say they know a place.

Read more over at Communicating Across Boundaries…

[Five Minute Friday] Ready

There I was, at the airport, about to take the biggest step of my life.
I would get on that plane to Johannesburg, South Africa, to spend the best year of my life.
Finding God, finding people, finding myself.
But was I ready for that? After months of planning and paperwork it all still seemed unreal. Maybe even frightening. What was I thinking?

I guess we all know these moments.
The first steps into the adult world after school.
One last major exam that makes up our university degree.
The walk down the aisle into married life alongside a person you’re still in the process of getting to know.
The first day on the first job.
The first child.
The sudden diagnosis that turns your life around.
The realization that life on this earth has an expiration date.
Are we ready for all that? Will we ever be?

It doesn’t take much to make our lives spin. Often it’s the little things that push us off the cliff and make us lose ourselves.
It reminds me of little birds that are pushed out of the nest at some point.
Sounds cruel, but it forces them to spread their wings and actually fly.
Taking the plunge makes them realize that the air carries them and there’s a whole new world out there to be discovered.

Life and its changes is like that bird mother pushing us out of the nest.
Again and again, with big and small things.
Shaking up our comfortable nests. Making us take the plunge.
But only then can we realize that there’s something there.
When we spread our wings we realize there’s something underneath carrying us.
The One who was always there and always will be.
His comfort enables us to spread our wings and fly.
Into the next step of life, into a world out there to be discovered and conquered.

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After a short break I am back to the Five Minute Friday community with Kate Motaung! One word. Five Minutes of Writing. No editing. Linking up with fellow writers. Come and join us!

[Five Minute Friday] Reach

For Your steadfast love is great above the heavens; Your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.
(Psalm 108:4)

In my walk with Christ –called life– there are times when I find it quite hard to believe.
To take his words for truth, to let them come alive in me because life around me just speaks something completely different.
His words don’t reach me because I don’t take them in.
I don’t allow them to penetrate the very core of my soul, the point where I need his words the most.

Yet, here they are.
His words of truth.
His love is great and his faithfulness is not limited in its reach.
Familiar words, yet full of power everytime you meditate on them.
He reaches out to his, the heavens and the earth are a testimony for that.
And there’s no place I could go, no mess I could get myself in where his love and faithfulness don’t reach. I am covered in it, whether I know/want it or not.

I guess I need this reminder today. I need it often.
When I reach out to him, he’s always ready to welcome me with open arms.
When I reach out to him, I allow him to reach me.
To let his words go deep until they’re engraved on my heart.
When I reach out to him, I am overwhelmed by his love and faithfulness, taking it all in, learning a bit more about him.
And hopefully, his reach reminds me to reach out to others as well today who need to know they’ve already been reached for.
Will I reach out today? Will I allow myself to be reached today?

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Five Minute Friday with Kate Motaung. One word. Write for five minutes flat. No editing. Link up with a great community of writers!

[Five Minute Friday] Change

We can try as hard as we want – we can’t stop it. Change.
No matter how many plastic surgeries you’ll have, your body will eventually bear the features of age.
No matter how much money you spend on a house, you’ll die in it one day.
No matter how much you care for your children, they will leave home one day.
No matter how many friends you have or how often you meet for coffee, they will move away one day or you might move on.

Change is everywhere. Some of it we can delay, most of it is out of our control.

As a TCK change almost seems to be part of your genes.
There’s a voice inside of you saying, “you cannot go a year without change. Two years in one place is already too long. Just wait for it, your friends will move anyway. You can’t stay here.”

As I move into this new phase of my life , I find a certain reluctance to change inside of me.
I don’t want to change anymore.
The thing I loved about being a TCK – the moving – feels strange and exhausting to me out of a sudden. At least for the moment.
There is this yearning inside of me to just be.
To just stay where I am.
At least for now.

I guess we need both.
We need to change, it will happen if we want it or not.
To change is to live.
So rather embrace it than just be shaped by it.
Appreciate the way things we get to experience now.

In all of this we need a firm place to root ourselves.
A place that doesn’t change.
A person we can go back to when change breaks us apart.
The One who says about himself “I am the same – yesterday, today, and forever.”

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Linking up with Kate Motaung today over at Five Minute Friday!

[Five Minute Friday] Tell

It’s not really that hard. It’s very simple actually.
Open your mouth and speak.
Tell someone.
And yet, it often can be the hardeset thing in the world.

We speak a bazillion words every day, but how many of them are really worth telling? Do we tell the things that help those around us or will they vanish into thin air as soon as the words came out of our mouth?

We should tell things that last.
We should tell things that matter.
But this can be a real challenge sometimes.

Tell someone you’re sorry. Take the first step to reconcile a relationship.
Tell someone you love them.
Tell someone they’re beautiful on day when they really needed to hear it.
Tell someone they’re a blessing in your life and the best friends you could imagine.
Tell someone about the little things you enjoy about them because this can make a big difference to them.

Tell the truth.
As hard as it may be, as painful as it can be.
Raise your voice and tell those around you.
In the midst of oversharing nonsense on social media – share truth.
Tell about Christians suffering in Iraq and Syria.
Fellow human beings mistreated and killed for their beliefs.
Tell about people working in horrible conditions for our luxury.
Tell about girls trafficked right under our eyes.

Telling can be hard. It can cost us something.
But it can be powerful at the same time.
Our words can bring beauty into ashes, hope into despair, a breath of new life into dead bones.

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It’s Friday and I am linking up with Kate Motaung. One word. Five Minutes of Writing. Telling stories, hearts, lives.

[Five Minute Friday] Fill

This is my prayer in the desert
When all that’s within me feels dry
This is my prayer in my hunger and need
My God is the God who provides
This is my prayer in the harvest
When favor and providence flow
I know I’m filled to be emptied again
The seed I’ve recieved I will sow (Desert Song. Brooke Ligertwood)

This song often speaks to me. It encompasses all the seasons of life, all the moods of my soul. It never stops at one place, but always seeks for more, looks out for the Lord.

Life seems to be a process of being filled and being emptied again.
Having times when people just pour into you.
You feel as if God’s just opening the heavens to shower you with blessings.
Your heart and mouth are flowing over with the joy you experience.

And then there are times when it’s your turn to give.
When you pour into others, pass on from what you’ve been given before.
Invest your time, money, thoughts, and emotions into someone else.
There are situations and challenges that just drain your energy.

The big challenge we have is to find a balance between these times.
We cannot be happy all the time, not everything will go smoothly.
But we’re neither supposed to struggle all the time.
There will be joy in the morning after the sorrow of the night.

On our own strength we won’t be able to maintain this balance.
We have this privilege to go to the One whose strength and joy and encouragement are far greater than any we could ever come up with.
He can fill us with more than we can ever imagine.
And he loves doing it!
He enjoys it when we come empty-handed and ask to be filled with his abundance.
And he rejoices when we leave joyfully and fill someone else with this gift.

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For the first time, Kate Motaung is hosting Five Minute Friday – Welcome! Everything else stays the same: one prompt. Five minutes of writing. No editing. Sharing.

[Five Minute Friday] Begin

Yesterday was the day.
The day things came to an end.
I had my stateboard exam in English, a five hour exam and then it was done.
I studied five years for this. Now I am one step (and only one more exam) closer to graduation.
It was strange.

Yesterday, my roommate moved out.
We had shared an apartment for three years, enjoyed late night movie and laughter sessions,
lived a bit of life together.
When I got back home last night she was gone.
Her room was completely empty and I could hear my own voice echoing from the plain white walls.
It was strange.

While I feel sad about things coming to an end, I cannot deny a second emotion springing up in my heart: excitement.
Pure joy.
Apprehension of what comes next.

Graduation means stepping out into the world.
Getting a job. Moving on. Let’s see what life throws at me then.
An empty room means a new roommate. Breaking up of old habits, redecorating.
New people, new fun, new ideas.

In German we have a saying, “there’s magic in every new beginning” (Jedem Anfang wohnt ein Zauber inne).
And I am about to find out a little more if that’s true.

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One last time the fabulous Lisa-Jo Baker is hosting Five Minute Friday- thank you!

[Five Minute Friday] Bloom

Sometimes I wonder.
If flowers thought as much as we do, what would they think about?
Would they think, Am I pretty enough? Is my dress good enough to show myself to the world?
O no, a petal is missing – this is horrible! Where can I hide?
I think I don’t have anything to give, I might just stay a bud forever.
And why in the world am I planted HERE? I’d much rather be somewhere else!

Even though I am not a nature person, it is good to let creation remind us of a few core human, worldy, and spiritual principles. We need those when we are caught in thoughts like those above.

Flowers don’t care how they look, they are just there.
No matter what color their ‘dress’ or if a petal is missing – they just bloom.
They let nature take its course.
A bud eventually turns into a full blooming flower, that’s how it is.

We are called to bloom, just like them.
With everyone we have, especially with our flaws.
Our destiny is not to remain buds forever.
Eventually, this life that’s been planted inside of us has to spring up and show itself to the world.

Flowers can’t decide where they’ll bloom.
But instead of complaining about location they simply make the most out of it.
One of the most amazing things for me is to take a walk and then discover a single flower in the most remote places. A flower in the middle of nowhere stands out.
It’s been planted there for a reason to bring joy to a wanderer’s heart.

We sometimes can’t decide where we are planted for a season in our lives.
But we can decide to make it the best of times by blooming and bringing beauty to unexpected places. You never know what wanderer will come by and be encouraged by the joy you bring.

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One prompt. Writing for five minutes flat. Linking up with wonderful writers. That’s Five Minute Friday with Lisa-Jo Baker!