A Work In Progress: Settling In & Making “Home”

And so the weeks go by and we find ourselves in December and half-way through Advent! The past month has been fairly quiet, with a lot of space enabling me to ‘settle in’ to my new apartment, getting used to having my own ‘space’ again, and slowly bringing out and putting up the various decorations which turn a ‘living space’ into a home. As with any new place, it will still be a month or two before I get it all ‘just right’, with pictures and photos on the walls, etc, but ‘Stück bei Stück’ it’s becoming more of a ‘home, which is lovely and which I really am enjoying, while at the same time still does ‘mess with my head’ a bit, what with the ‘permanency’ of rental agreements, bought furniture (even if secondhand and cheap!), and even something as simple as the thought which goes into it all...I’m currently wanting to enlarge some photos from my various travels, to put up on the wall and even that, somehow, feels like a really ‘permanent’ act...

And it’s not that I don’t want to be ‘Permanent’ here, and it’s not as if the 7 years living with the Slinns wasn’t a pretty ‘Permanent’ situation! But at the same time, it WAS a temporary situation there, in that I only had my own, personal room to house anything I owned, and there’s only so much you can do with one room...consciously or not, most of my ‘decorations’ for the past several years have been done with a ‘survival’ mentality behind them...bluetac and snapshots glued to walls rather than framed photos, etc...

Anyways! That has been much of my past month, reconciling enjoyment of creating a ‘Home Space’ for myself with a periodic mindset of “but do I NEED all this?”, “why should I 'get' to have so much lovely space?”, “Is all this not an unnecessary luxury???”, “Surely I should just live in my ‘cement box’, and get on with everything else?!?”. But, I really AM enjoying having space and comfort, and I am also finding myself very grateful for them as I continue to adjust to new language and people!

Current state of Living Room!

Christmas Coziness & my Advent Calendar

Christmas Tree for this year!! (Creative Alternative...)

Aside from household things, as a community we also held our “Schall.platte Chor” (choir) winter concert, in one of the playhouses in town, which, although the choir itself may not be the most perfected/professional group of singers one will ever see, the concert itself went really well, and with a lot of really nice ‘touches’ thought up by Basti, who leads it. Spotlights, a guest cello and electric guitarist, falling rose petals...it turned out to be more of an ‘Event’ than I had expected (if I admit it, I was expecting more of a ‘school concert’ type of event!), and we had really good feedback and even a write-up in the Neubrandenburg paper!.

Can you see me?? (3rd from the Rt, in back row :) )

Then, this past weekend we had a visit from the wonderful Ian Nicholson, with 2 new friends from the Swiss “Manorhaus” community in Steffisburg, near Thun. That too was a fairly simple time, catching up as a community with some of the other things happening within the 24-7 wider community, hearing about who the Manorhaus community are and things they are involved in, them getting to know who we are and what we get up to, etc, and just generally encouraging and ‘sounding out’ each other on the various thoughts and ideas we all have!

Gathering with friends from the Swiss "Manorhaus" Community

Now, we have a few more fairly quiet weeks before the Polylux “Weihnacht” service on Christmas Eve, with which we partner with another local church to put together a Christmas Eve service/celebration. After that we’ll have our own “Polylux Christmas”, and then Christmas Day will be spent with all our various families! For myself, I’ve chosen to spend a quiet Christmas Day on my own, before travelling to England on Boxing Day to spend a week with my Aunt and cousins in Essex, before then heading to Guildford for a week at the beginning of the New Year! I’m really looking forwards to spending Christmas Eve with the Polylux guys here (in Germany, Christmas Eve is the main, big celebration of Christmas, the 25th & 26th are then simply ‘extra days’ to allow people to spend with friends and family), and I’m actually also quite looking forwards to spending Christmas Day on my own! (but I am also REALLY looking forwards to then getting to England for a good ‘catch up’ with people there!)

Then, with the New Year, will come a bit of a “6 month review” for myself and hopefully a bit more of a ‘forward looking’ time. I feel that in some ways, I’m only just finishing ‘Arriving’, most of my “To Do Lists” are almost complete as far as the logistics of moving to a new country, community and home, and I’m beginning to find more space (and energy!) with which I can then look at, again, what are the best ways I can help support and ‘sow’ into the immediate community of the Polylux team, and also into the wider community which we are all here to serve and support!

So, I don’t think the learning curve will stop for a while yet, but, while always on the look out for ‘ambushes’ of homesickness and cultural adaption stuff, I also feel as if I’m reaching the first real breathing space of my time here, and I’m incredibly glad to report that although I do have, near daily, moments of surreality in why I’m here and what I’m doing, there is also a deeper, ongoing sense of ‘rightness’ to the fact that I’m here, which helps balance me in everything I’m doing. :)

As always, thank you for reading this far and for your support and friendship, and I pray that each one has a wonderful Christmas, winter season, and New Year!